Why You Should Replay Cronos: The New Dawn At Least Once

Bloober Team's latest release, Cronos: The New Dawn, delivers a laudable modern third-person survival horror experience. The studio's ambitions to create a game that could find itself in the same conversation as some of its biggest influences, which include Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, are on clear display in Cronos: The New Dawn. And while it arguably doesn't fully reach the lofty highs of those classics, it is a very well-crafted entry that does an admirable job of channeling them, and will likely satisfy fans looking for a similar time.

Cronos: The New Dawn offers an intriguing tale involving time-travel and an apocalyptic plague, and its layered plot alternates between a past 1980s Poland and an almost unbearably bleak future world. In addition to all that, like the above-mentioned titles and many others within the genre, it offers some extra features in the form of New Game Plus and Hard Mode, the latter of which is only unlocked after finishing the main campaign. These are inclusions that can work to elevate an already enjoyable game upon subsequent playthroughs, and that holds true in Cronos' case as well.

Bloober is also confirmed to be working on the Silent Hill 1 Remake.

Cronos: The New Dawn Deserves a Replay, Especially on New Game Plus With Hard Mode

Cronos The New Dawn Cute Cats in Nonstop Horror

Cronos: The New Dawn is an Excellent Modern Survival Horror Ride Well Worth the Price of Admission

Impressions and reviews of Cronos: The New Dawn have landed mostly on the positive side, with it currently attaining a Very Positive rating on Steam and garnering a 79 critic average on OpenCritic. Aside from a few minor nitpicks and small missteps, by most accounts, Cronos: The New Dawn is a worthwhile experience and easily deserving of survival horror fans' attention. But beyond that, it gives players some good reasons to give a second or even third go.

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Cronos: The New Dawn's New Game Plus and Hard Mode and Give it Great Replay Value

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Cronos: The New Dawn does not have adjustable difficulty levels, with the default Normal setting being the only option at first. The base experience is finely-tuned, however, and it keeps the tension largely on point throughout its runtime with informed design and stellar atmosphere. That length clocks in at approximately 13–15 hours, which is a nice sweet spot, and Cronos can be completed in a handful of sessions for those so inclined to be content with playing it once.

But there are some compelling reasons to jump back into it after rolling credits, as Cronos: The New Dawn features two possible endings of quite different flavors. While these can technically be obtained in a single playthrough by defeating the final boss, then reloading to do so again and choosing the other outcome, in true survival horror tradition, there is a third ending that only becomes available after reaching the end on New Game Plus. And without going too far into spoilers, this "hidden" ending could well be considered the most narratively satisfying, providing a better sense of closure than the other two.

Along with NG+, there is Hard Mode, which, as advertised, ramps up the threat that enemies pose. These can be done separately or together, and the latter option results in a playthrough that feels much different than the initial one by presenting a new kind of challenge. It's a great way to level the playing field a bit, depending on the extent that one has invested in weapons and other upgrades in order to be more prepared and powerful from the get-go.

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A second playthrough also offers the opportunity to collect any missing lore documents that can help fill in a number of narrative gaps that the main story sometimes only alludes to. And like the best of its contemporaries in this area, Cronos: The New Dawn has a welcome and convenient touch in that its collectibles carry over into NG+, cutting down on some of the effort needed to 100% it for those of the completionist mindset. All these factors give fans good incentive to go through Cronos: The New Dawn again, making it indeed like its notable influences in that sense.

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