Cronos: The New Dawn

Travelling between two eras

You play a Traveler working for the mysterious Collective. In a ravaged future, she looks for time rifts that take her back to 1980s Poland, during “The Change”, the disaster that transformed humanity. Her mission is to find people who died in the apocalypse and extract their Essence with the Harvester. Shacknews describes a tough choice between two targets that changes large parts of the game.

Burn the bodies before they merge

Combat is built around one idea: dead enemies do not stay dead. Living creatures absorb corpses to grow stronger, so you must burn the bodies to stop it. Ammo and healing are scarce. Push Square finds the merge mechanic intense but the gunplay somewhat derivative, without Dead Space-style dismemberment. DualShockers calls the combat “cumbersome in the best way”, keeping the player vulnerable.

Essences and progression

Each Essence carried in the suit grants a gameplay bonus, for example more damage against burning enemies, according to Shacknews. They also affect the story: the publisher says they increase the whispers and vision problems. Extraction choices make a second run tempting, according to Shacknews.

Platforms, performance and languages

The game is available on PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store), PS5, Xbox Series X|S (Xbox Play Anywhere) and Nintendo Switch 2. On PS5 Pro, Push Square mentions a 30 fps quality mode and a 60 fps performance mode, with stutters when entering new areas and limited DualSense support. On Steam and the PlayStation Store, voice acting is English only; the interface and subtitles are available in French.

What the press says

The five selected reviews cover the PS5 version. Push Square (8/10, on PS5 Pro) praises gorgeous visuals, an outstanding score and a gripping central mystery, but finds combat derivative and notes frame rate drops. DualShockers (9/10) calls it the best new horror IP it has played in over a decade; it regrets the lack of difficulty options, overly harsh checkpoints and a merge mechanic less impressive than hoped. Shacknews (9/10) likes the intense combat, the balance between scarcity and exploration rewards and the sound; it points to hit-or-miss voice acting and visual glitches, especially in cutscenes. More reserved, IGN (7/10) likes the mystery, the setting and a few gruelling boss fights, but finds the combat run-of-the-mill, the story padded and the jump scares predictable; it reports bugs on PS5. GamesRadar+ (3.5/5, reviewed mainly on PS5) praises the visuals and monster merging, but criticises an overly restrictive inventory and enemies that need more resources than the game provides.

Editions and prices

Checked on November 12, 2026: the standard digital edition costs €59.99 on Steam, the Xbox Store, the PlayStation Store and the Nintendo eShop. It is on sale for €29.99 on GOG (instead of €59.99), until November 16, 2026 at 8:59 am (Paris time), according to the GOG page rechecked on November 12. The Deluxe Edition costs €69.99 on the PlayStation Store and €73.99 on the Xbox Store. The boxed PS5 version costs €37.75 at E.Leclerc (sold by E.Leclerc, free Click&Collect pickup).

Who is it for?

Survival horror fans who enjoy Dead Space or The Evil Within, resource management and constant tension. Players who want adjustable difficulty or dislike sparse checkpoints should read DualShockers’ reservations.

Press average

The rating block above shows the press average. It is calculated from original reviews of the PS5 version, published on September 3, 2025 and checked on November 12, 2026: Push Square 8/10, DualShockers 9/10, Shacknews 9/10, IGN 7/10 and GamesRadar+ 3.5/5. Each score is converted to a 20-point scale and averaged with equal weight. This summary is not a hands-on review.