After playing Bloober Team’s brilliant remake of Silent Hill 2, I’ve come to trust their knack for crafting horror games. It certainly helps their case that their next project, Cronos: The New Dawn, is shaping up to be a visual feast, strongly reminiscent of the chilling atmosphere found in Dead Space.
The game’s co-directors, Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zięba, have made no secret of their influences, which span a variety of classic horror and sci-fi sources. During a recent showcase of the game, they highlighted how Cronos draws from iconic works like John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, the German series “Dark”, and Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys”. On the gaming side, it takes cues from Dead Space and Dark Souls. Fans of Dead Space will find some familiar elements, such as grotesque human mutations, an over-the-shoulder viewpoint, and a unique limb-severing mechanic. However, Piejko assures that Bloober Team has reimagined the dismemberment system, offering a fresh twist on what Visceral Games originally did.
In a newly released developer diary, which follows the cinematic teaser they dropped last October, Piejko and Zięba delve deeper into the gameplay. They introduce us to the protagonist known as the Traveller—imagine a deep-sea diver exploring the vast reaches of time—who embarks on a mission to rescue survivors from the remnants of human civilization. This eerie, alternate-reality world of Cronos was decimated by a cataclysm referred to as the Change, said to have wiped out our world back in the 1980s.
Before tackling Cronos: The New Dawn, both Piejko and Zięba honed their craft on sci-fi and psychological horror titles like Observer and The Medium. This latest endeavor marks Bloober’s venture into a wholly original universe, all while they continue their collaboration with Konami on future projects.
