Bloober Team Reveals Cronos: The New Dawn, A Horror Sci-Fi Game

Bloober Team, the Polish studio known for horror games such as Layers of Fear, The Medium, Observer, and Blair Witch, has introduced a new game called Cronos: The New Dawn. The project was first announced on October 17, 2024, during the Xbox Partner Preview showcase.

This announcement came just nine days after the release of Silent Hill 2 Remake, which Bloober also developed. Cronos: The New Dawn is planned to launch in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. However, the exact release date has not been confirmed.

According to Bloober Team, the game is a third-person survival horror experience with sci-fi themes and a time-travel storyline. It is developed using Unreal Engine and will be single-player only. The ESRB rated the game M for Mature due to intense violence, blood and gore, drug references, and strong language.

The Game’s Story Combines Post-Apocalyptic Horror and Time Travel

The setting of Cronos: The New Dawn is a distant future where Earth has been destroyed by an incident known as The Change – essentially, an event that turned the planet into a wasteland. The player controls a character known as the Traveler. This character works for an organization called the Collective. The Traveler’s mission is to search for rifts that allow time travel and then go back to 1980s Poland. The main goal is to find individuals who died during The Change, harvest their essences, and bring them back to the future.

The future world in the game is dangerous and filled with creatures called The Orphans. These monsters were once human but now exist in twisted, mutated forms. Each one looks different and has its own special abilities. However, all of them are made from human tissue, which adds a body horror element to the game.

Bloober Team described the Traveler as one of several “divers in time.” These individuals are sent to explore what remains of human civilization in search of time rifts, which are key to the mission, as they allow the Traveler to go back and retrieve people from the past.

The developers mentioned that combat in Cronos: The New Dawn includes melee attacks, partial dismemberment, and weapons similar to flamethrowers. They also referred to “walls of flesh” and hinted at the possible presence of aliens, although that part was said jokingly in a Q&A. They also made a point about the fact that the game features ladders.

Inspirations Include Dead Space, Dark, and The Thing

Bloober Team has stated that Cronos: The New Dawn takes inspiration from several well-known stories and games. These include Dead Space, for its horror and sci-fi setting, and the German TV series Dark, for its complex time-travel concept.

They also mentioned 12 Monkeys as another influence related to its dystopian themes. In terms of gameplay difficulty and style, the developers said that the game has elements similar to Dark Souls. The creatures in the game The Orphans were compared to the monsters in John Carpenter’s The Thing.

The game also uses a retro-futuristic art style. The time-travel storyline takes the player between the bleak future and Poland in the 1980s. So, expect elements of past and future, plus a setting that mixes science fiction technology with horror elements.

The gameplay trailer released so far is short, but it shows some of the world and confirms that the game includes combat, exploration, and horror elements. A developer diary has also been released, giving more details about the game’s world and story structure.

Cronos May Impact the Future of Silent Hill Games

While Cronos: The New Dawn is a new original IP, its development may affect other projects in which the Bloober Team is involved. After the release of Silent Hill 2 Remake in October 2024, insider reports have been reported that remakes of Silent Hill 1 and Silent Hill 3 are being considered. These reports came near the end of 2024, and although they have not been confirmed by Bloober or Konami, they have been widely discussed.

Bloober Team previously signed a deal with Konami to create more games based on Konami’s intellectual property. Since Bloober has now completed the Silent Hill 2 Remake and is releasing Cronos: The New Dawn in 2025, it is possible that another Silent Hill remake is in development. The faster production and announcement of Cronos has led some to believe Bloober may already be working on the next Silent Hill project.

In addition to these titles, Bloober Team has announced another game that it will publish under a new label called Broken Mirror Games. This label will be used to publish projects developed by other studios.

I Hate This Place Adds to Bloober’s Horror Lineup

The first game to be published by Broken Mirror Games is called I Hate This Place. It is being developed by Rock Square Thunder and is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2025. The game is based on a comic book series by Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin. It is described as an isometric open-world survival horror game.

In I Hate This Place, players take on the role of Elena, a character who ends up fighting for survival after waking up a dark force in the wilderness. The game includes crafting, gunfights, and melee combat that rewards creative thinking instead of brute strength. It also features a day-night cycle that changes how the game is played. One of the major warnings given to players is to “avoid the Horned Man at all costs.”

The game is known for its strong visual style, which uses bright, vivid colors and artwork that mimics retro 1980s comic books. Each part of the map is made to tell a unique story through its visual design, blurring the line between what is real and what is part of a nightmare.

Bloober’s role in this project is limited to publishing, but the game fits well with the kind of horror stories the studio has supported in its own games.