Cronos: The New Dawn finally has gameplay—and it’s as unsettling as you’d expect from Bloober Team. This is their first fully original survival horror IP in years, and it’s doing something wild: introducing The Merge, a mechanic that makes every enemy encounter a ticking time bomb.
In Cronos: The New Dawn, you’re a Traveller, sent from a post-apocalyptic future into 1980s Poland, in a district called New Dawn, based on real-world Nowa Huta. Your job? Extract people before the world ends. But you’re not alone. The streets are crawling with Orphans, grotesque, twisted monsters straight out of a nightmare.
Cronos: The New Dawn gameplay trailer
And here’s the twist—they don’t stay dead.
Burn them before it’s too late
Cronos: The New Dawn’s trailer’s chilling tagline, “Don’t Let Them Merge,” isn’t just for show. Downed enemies can merge with others if you don’t burn their bodies, creating tougher, faster, more terrifying forms. According to co-director Wojciech Piejko, fire is your best defence: “Burn the fallen before they merge… it adds a whole new layer of strategy to combat.”
Co-director Jacek Zięba describes it as “a distorted mix of sci-fi, time travel, retro-futuristic dread, and body horror—all set against the gritty backdrop of 80s Poland.”
It’s not just about killing monsters. It’s about how you kill them, and when.
A brutal world twisted by time
The gameplay shows more than just combat. You’ll explore a collapsing city warped by anomalies, face haunting enemies, and uncover a narrative full of secrets. The weapons look ferocious, the enemies even worse, and the characters you meet? They all have something to hide.
The soundtrack drives it all home, created by award-winning composer Arkadiusz Reikowski with Polish-Ukrainian folk band Zazula, blending synth horror and eerie vocals into something unforgettable.
Cronos: The New Dawn hits Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC in 2025. You can wishlist it now on Steam, the Microsoft Store, or PlayStation.
For more updates like this, check out the gaming news section!
