Cronos: The New Dawn is 'different pizza' to other survival horror games say developers

Cronos: The New Dawn developers have said their new IP is a "different pizza" after it has been inevitably compared to other survival horror games.

Set in both the grim ruins of a post-apocalyptic world and 1980s Poland, players take on the role of the Traveler, a mysterious person hidden behind a suit who is sent to the ruins of civilisation where humanity has been wiped out by a mysterious disease that merged humans into grotesque monsters.

Players enter an abandoned city, look for time rifts and have to survive encounters and solve puzzles.

When a rift is found, players jump back in time and extract people who didn't initially survive. The mission has been set by a mysterious collective.

It has already drawn a lot of comparisons to Dead Space because a suited protagonist is fighting off similarly grotesque monsters that have a similar fear factor in a fairly linear world.

But Cronos: The New Dawn co-directors Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zieba from Bloober Team have made it clear comparisons are unfair without more being known and the game is a "different pizza".

Players have to battle grotesque monsters called Orphans / Screenshot from Bloober Team

Piejko said: "In Bloober, we have two core teams so when we were finishing The Medium, they [the other team] was starting Silent Hill 2. With Cronos, we knew about it but we've taken different paths; although both games are survival horror, they are different pizzas with different toppings.

"We went more action orientated, so I'd say we're more closer to Resident Evil games than Silent Hill. We were curious how people would react with a new IP and suited protagonist and we felt great after the gameplay reveal.

"People are hyped about the merge and this is our most important mechanic that distinguishes our game from other survival horrors.

"Give us a chance, I know people are comparing Cronos to Dead Space but this is a different game, a different pizza."

Zieba added: "If you like pizza, try it, it will taste different but still very good."

I mean, who doesn't love pizza, right?

Monsters have the ability to merge even after players think they've killed them / Screenshot from Bloober Team

As mentioned by Piejko, the merge mechanic is what Bloober Team is hoping will make Cronos: The New Dawn stand out in this genre.

It's where enemies that have seemingly been killed merge with others to become even more powerful if they are not burned with fire and this makes them much stronger and gives them unique and multiple abilities.

Merging happens from the very beginning of the game and enemies can merge more than once.

"We were thinking about what we can do and then the idea of the merge came," Piejko said.

"In survival horror, you do a lot of backtracking, so we thought what if the body that you leave behind may bite you back if something bad happens?

"During the playtests, we noticed some players were more afraid of the merging enemies than being killed. To deal with it, players have to use fire and this changes the tension of the encounters.

"There are different strategies and ways players need to approach encounters because downed enemies can merge.

"What hasn't been shown yet is a dialogue system, where players can choose answers, and even who to extract where players can go rogue. Maybe someone has better stats for you, or is just a better person. There are different endings to experience too. Who you extract matters."

Time travel plays a key part in Cronos: The New Dawn where players have to enter rifts to save people / Screenshot from Bloober Team

Bloober Team was responsible for Silent Hill 2 Remake which Zieba says "was a very big moment in getting out of the shadow for us".

Following its success and the current state of the gaming industry, Piejko added it's a "privilege" to be working on Cronos: The New Dawn.

"With the current state of the industry, it's a big privilege to create a new IP, it isn't happening as much so we feel really lucky to be able to deliver Cronos," he said.

Zieba explained: "It's always risky but there's less money now with publishers and partners, they want to take less risks. The conversations are different from a couple of years ago but at some point, I hope it starts to change again in that we need to create new stuff.

"We all love remakes and remasters because we can play old games with new technology but it's starting to eat itself slowly. It could go a couple of years, maybe more, but I think the movie industry has this problem a couple of years ago where nothing new was developed.

"We are starting to be at the point of needing new ideas and games to have fun with."

Cronos: The New Dawn is out in 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. It'll be interesting to see how that pizza tastes once it's cooked.

Elsewhere, EA Sports F1 25 developers have revealed key handling changes based on player feedback and Split Fiction's Elsie Bennett and Kaja Chan have that magic ingredient every duo needs.

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