New Cronos: The New Dawn Gameplay Trailer Reveals a Monstrously Merging World

"Don't let them merge"

An interesting tag line and focal point for the recently-released gameplay trailer for the hotly anticipated Cronos: The New Dawn from developer Bloober Team (Silent Hill 2 Remake). Come to think of it, it reminds us of another clever tag line that ultimately shaped the entire gameplay experience of now one of the most celebrated survival horror franchises of all time. How did that one go again? Oh, that's right...

"Cut off their limbs"

Have a look at said tag line in action below:

In addition to looking a lot like if John Carpenter's The Thing had a mutated baby with Dead Space, Cronos: The New Dawn is also looking like a bit of a mind fuck in terms of its narrative direction which involves an alternate future/history in ruins and a uniquely chosen specialist known as a Traveler capable of 'diving' through time (ala 12 Monkeys -- another influence the team cites). How much influence you'll have over the past and in shaping the future, however, remains to be seen. We've seen with other ambitious time travel joints such as Quantum Break or the unfulfilled (to its ultimate potential) Singularity from Raven Software, but we're yet to see a game of this caliber truly live up to what it can be.

That said, this is also very much survival horror and if we know anything about that genre (and we actually do), there's a better chance this story is fairly linear with little wiggle room from an agency perspective, and that we're more unraveling a deeper and darker story than the actual future its beats brought about. Either way, we're plenty excited. Which also brings us back to that point of "don't let them merge" which the trailer highlights is that any dispatched enemies in the game might Voltron into an even stronger and new enemy type by way of the menacing tendrils peppered throughout. In Dead Space any non-decapitated bodies in the game left untouched could be reanimated as necromorphs thanks to the Infector enemy, and Cronos: The New Dawn looks to be taking this to new heights. 

Interestingly, while a lot of media and influencer narrative around the game draws heavily on Dead Space, that the only way to be sure of getting rid of baddies in this game is to burn them was another great gameplay element to another favourite survival horror of ours, Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within.

In addition to the above gameplay trailer, you can also watch a developer diary from Bloober embedded below and beyond that a handful of screens from the team's official press kit via our screenshot carousel. We're watching this one with great interest so stay tuned as we seek opportunities to learn and share more.

Cronos: The New Dawn is dropping some time in 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox.