Cronos: The New Dawn
Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025
Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025
76561197967416569
Not Recommended0 hrs played
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the exact issue I mentioned in my below review. Watch how the trolls now fall silent....
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
Original review below:
Stuttering: There is no obvious traversal stutter (stutters that happen every time you pass the same section) but there are some shader comp stutters, even though the game does a pre-comp step on first load. The bit at the start approaching the gate has this stutter as the next areas loads, it's quite significant and drops the fps to the 40s from an indicated 87-100fps, the spikes often reached ~60ms and last a couple of seconds during the walk through the loading boundary.
With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is bad, even on a 4090, sub 30fps! It is sub 60fps with DLSS4 Performance (which is great quality using Preset K these days so no issues there with IQ) in various areas but typically can be 50-60fps, and is 90-114fps when Frame Gen is enabled. There is some minor UE-RT ghosting, too.
DualSense controller support works flawlessly, the advanced haptics are very immersive in this game, stick movement and camera feel natural, too. The controller speaker is also utilised when doing certain actions which is cool.
The audio in the game is fantastic, highly recommend headphones or HiFi grade speakers for a truly immersive experience.
The visuals are very nice, but there is black level lift, meaning OLED gamers won't get inky blacks in this game which is a shame, this is a clear art direction by the devs which is a shame as a QD-OLED gamer. Enabling HDR and using optimised HDR values does help improve black level lift, but this only benefits OLED players obviously.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the CPU performance. Even a 12700KF is being underutilised with package wide low core activity whilst my 4090 is holding 99% utilisation, so this does indicate a CPU optimisation issue in the game, especially considering other UE5 releases lately do not have this issue. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are native.
Do not normalise poor optimisation.
My specs::
Mobo - Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X
CPU - Intel i7 12700KF @ Stock
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18
GPU - Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity @ 975mV, +1100MHz VRAM, 2730MHz core
SSD - 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe (primary)
SSD - 8TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe
Display - Alienware AW3225QF 32" QD-OLED @ 3840x2160, 240Hz, 10-bit
OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2
** EDIT 2025.09.04:
Replies to comments at time of edit below:
@AuroraBorealisNo
"0,6 hours on record":
>> I've played for an hour, that is more than enough time to measure the technical performance and grasp the gameplay as all the main mechanics are introduced in this time as well as the game world and combat system.
@Rare Ghost
"They never fixed Silent Hill 2 stuttering so....":
>> They actually did, SH2 remake had major CPU optimisation issues causing endless stutters and fps drops at launch, was mostly sorted, though ages later.
@Rare Ghost
"Man, you have hardly a half hour in game. They also released a patch that fixed a lot of issues, have you tried it since then?":
>> I have played an hour, the figure shown above is not accurate. No patch was showing during my play, so I assume I got it downloaded and installed after the patch was released so was part of my install anyway.
@mixabuben
"For the black level lift.. it is fixable 100%.. there is Lillium Shaders or RenoDX HDR MODs":
>> These are ReShade mods are they not? I do not use ReShade as a matter of preference. Enabling HDR does improve things mostly so it's manageable, but in SDR mode it is noticeably lifted and not as immersive as it should be, even on OLED as SDR in non HDR games are generally awesome anyway unless a dev makes a distinct art direction choice to lift the black level floor.
@1 speaker no problem
"What part of the game did the Dualsense speaker work with? I found an audio log and it didn't come from the controller speaker. I thought it would have."
>> Speaker sounds for various things in-game, there is an option in the game sound settings for controller speaker, you also should be wired to the PC not Bluetooth for all features of DualSense to work. If you are using DS4Windows, then this may affect some features too as the game has native support for DualSense.
@omgitsbees
""With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is terrible on a 4090, sub 30fps!" lol idiot":
>> 🤷♂️
@Fiesbert
"Try limiting your mouse polling rate to 500hz. Unreal Engine can get stuttery by a high mouse polling rate":
>> I am not using a mouse, I am using a controller, but even still, no other UE5 game has this issue when played with a high polling rate mouse.
@PiratePlumber
>>> There are no spoilers in my review really, it's a technical review anyway though. OLED monitors are massively cheaper now than when they came out few years ago, you can get decent ones for nearly the same price as a high decent spec IPS monitor. Many people also game on their OLED TVs.
@destro
"so just technical issues then? how about the actual game?"
>> Gameplay and control mechanics etc are all perfectly fine, especially with a DualSense controller as the sticks feel great in this, big fan of Dead Space etc and this feels just as polished in these areas. Everything is fluid, camera control is excellent but there is no FOV slider in settings so you are stuck with the camera perspective provided unless an Engine.ini tweaks work in this to adjust FOV (not tried yet) like in other UE titles.
@lemi
"sad to hear about the black level lift :( appreciate the insight"
>> It's not as bad as some other games, remember Cyberpunk and Silent Hill 2 Remake when it first launched? They got sorted in the end. This is still fine, but after playing recent games that have pure black in dark areas, this was immediately noticeable.
@Octane
"this dude is genuinely complaining he's not getting more than 30fps at 4k max settings, on a 4090, and a 3 generation old mid-range cpu. come on bro. be serious."
>> Perhaps you are not too clued up on CPUs or how CPU utilisation/optimisation is supposed to look in games using the same engine. The CPU is being underutilised and is not the bottleneck or limitation here. If it was, then the GPU utilisation would be far below 99% - Either you are trolling or just simply have no clue I'm afraid to say, or you just simply read the bits that stuck out to your eyes only and then went straight to the comments.
@Paramedic
"This comment is so stupid, why are you even playing videogames when the technical side of art seems the only intrest. pushing the software of a double AA title and complaining that its not the best it could be?!? This is like looking at good food and only talking about how grasfed and local the cow on your burger is. this is the most anti social snobby chronic"
>> It's a technical review because there are technical issues that WILL impact many people. You can't enjoy a game fully if technical issues like stuttering are common.
@NovaSPQR
"playin a game for 1 hour and giving it a thumbs down is straight a Karen move ngl"
>> 1 hr or 10 makes no difference, my technical review is based on technical issues, these remain the same regardless of play time.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny actually.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561197967416569
Not Recommended0 hrs played
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the exact issue I mentioned in my below review. Watch how the trolls now fall silent....
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
Original review below:
Stuttering: There is no obvious traversal stutter (stutters that happen every time you pass the same section) but there are some shader comp stutters, even though the game does a pre-comp step on first load. The bit at the start approaching the gate has this stutter as the next areas loads, it's quite significant and drops the fps to the 40s from an indicated 87-100fps, the spikes often reached ~60ms and last a couple of seconds during the walk through the loading boundary.
With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is bad, even on a 4090, sub 30fps! It is sub 60fps with DLSS4 Performance (which is great quality using Preset K these days so no issues there with IQ) in various areas but typically can be 50-60fps, and is 90-114fps when Frame Gen is enabled. There is some minor UE-RT ghosting, too.
DualSense controller support works flawlessly, the advanced haptics are very immersive in this game, stick movement and camera feel natural, too. The controller speaker is also utilised when doing certain actions which is cool.
The audio in the game is fantastic, highly recommend headphones or HiFi grade speakers for a truly immersive experience.
The visuals are very nice, but there is black level lift, meaning OLED gamers won't get inky blacks in this game which is a shame, this is a clear art direction by the devs which is a shame as a QD-OLED gamer. Enabling HDR and using optimised HDR values does help improve black level lift, but this only benefits OLED players obviously.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the CPU performance. Even a 12700KF is being underutilised with package wide low core activity whilst my 4090 is holding 99% utilisation, so this does indicate a CPU optimisation issue in the game, especially considering other UE5 releases lately do not have this issue. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are native.
Do not normalise poor optimisation.
My specs::
Mobo - Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X
CPU - Intel i7 12700KF @ Stock
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18
GPU - Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity @ 975mV, +1100MHz VRAM, 2730MHz core
SSD - 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe (primary)
SSD - 8TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe
Display - Alienware AW3225QF 32" QD-OLED @ 3840x2160, 240Hz, 10-bit
OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2
** EDIT 2025.09.04:
Replies to comments at time of edit below:
@AuroraBorealisNo
"0,6 hours on record":
>> I've played for an hour, that is more than enough time to measure the technical performance and grasp the gameplay as all the main mechanics are introduced in this time as well as the game world and combat system.
@Rare Ghost
"They never fixed Silent Hill 2 stuttering so....":
>> They actually did, SH2 remake had major CPU optimisation issues causing endless stutters and fps drops at launch, was mostly sorted, though ages later.
@Rare Ghost
"Man, you have hardly a half hour in game. They also released a patch that fixed a lot of issues, have you tried it since then?":
>> I have played an hour, the figure shown above is not accurate. No patch was showing during my play, so I assume I got it downloaded and installed after the patch was released so was part of my install anyway.
@mixabuben
"For the black level lift.. it is fixable 100%.. there is Lillium Shaders or RenoDX HDR MODs":
>> These are ReShade mods are they not? I do not use ReShade as a matter of preference. Enabling HDR does improve things mostly so it's manageable, but in SDR mode it is noticeably lifted and not as immersive as it should be, even on OLED as SDR in non HDR games are generally awesome anyway unless a dev makes a distinct art direction choice to lift the black level floor.
@1 speaker no problem
"What part of the game did the Dualsense speaker work with? I found an audio log and it didn't come from the controller speaker. I thought it would have."
>> Speaker sounds for various things in-game, there is an option in the game sound settings for controller speaker, you also should be wired to the PC not Bluetooth for all features of DualSense to work. If you are using DS4Windows, then this may affect some features too as the game has native support for DualSense.
@omgitsbees
""With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is terrible on a 4090, sub 30fps!" lol idiot":
>> 🤷♂️
@Fiesbert
"Try limiting your mouse polling rate to 500hz. Unreal Engine can get stuttery by a high mouse polling rate":
>> I am not using a mouse, I am using a controller, but even still, no other UE5 game has this issue when played with a high polling rate mouse.
@PiratePlumber
>>> There are no spoilers in my review really, it's a technical review anyway though. OLED monitors are massively cheaper now than when they came out few years ago, you can get decent ones for nearly the same price as a high decent spec IPS monitor. Many people also game on their OLED TVs.
@destro
"so just technical issues then? how about the actual game?"
>> Gameplay and control mechanics etc are all perfectly fine, especially with a DualSense controller as the sticks feel great in this, big fan of Dead Space etc and this feels just as polished in these areas. Everything is fluid, camera control is excellent but there is no FOV slider in settings so you are stuck with the camera perspective provided unless an Engine.ini tweaks work in this to adjust FOV (not tried yet) like in other UE titles.
@lemi
"sad to hear about the black level lift :( appreciate the insight"
>> It's not as bad as some other games, remember Cyberpunk and Silent Hill 2 Remake when it first launched? They got sorted in the end. This is still fine, but after playing recent games that have pure black in dark areas, this was immediately noticeable.
@Octane
"this dude is genuinely complaining he's not getting more than 30fps at 4k max settings, on a 4090, and a 3 generation old mid-range cpu. come on bro. be serious."
>> Perhaps you are not too clued up on CPUs or how CPU utilisation/optimisation is supposed to look in games using the same engine. The CPU is being underutilised and is not the bottleneck or limitation here. If it was, then the GPU utilisation would be far below 99% - Either you are trolling or just simply have no clue I'm afraid to say, or you just simply read the bits that stuck out to your eyes only and then went straight to the comments.
@Paramedic
"This comment is so stupid, why are you even playing videogames when the technical side of art seems the only intrest. pushing the software of a double AA title and complaining that its not the best it could be?!? This is like looking at good food and only talking about how grasfed and local the cow on your burger is. this is the most anti social snobby chronic"
>> It's a technical review because there are technical issues that WILL impact many people. You can't enjoy a game fully if technical issues like stuttering are common.
@NovaSPQR
"playin a game for 1 hour and giving it a thumbs down is straight a Karen move ngl"
>> 1 hr or 10 makes no difference, my technical review is based on technical issues, these remain the same regardless of play time.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny actually.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561198198441722
Recommended29 hrs played (29 hrs at review)
Bloober team cooked hard with this one
I haven't played a horror game this grand and this innovative since Alan wake 2. I had zero expectation from this. I thought it's gonna be a mix a deadspace and resident evil and I would be totally fine with that but it wasn't. Cronos is not something that just copies from the best, It evolves them. I don't care what people may think about this game but for me it's one of the best games of this year and one the best horror games ever created.
Gameplay: Lots of weapons, some of them are secret but not that hard to find, you can upgrade them. Weapons feel great and powerful, switching between them is very fast and one of the core aspects of gameplay cause it's way faster than reloading. you get a standard pistol, shotgun, rifle and some more that I won't spoil it for you. you have a basic melee punch and a stomp for when you run out of ammo but don't rely on them too much, they're not very powerful. game is hard, no easy mode, low resources, low health, your character is heavy and it's hard to runaway but there are alot of upgrades for your character and tools and weapons that help you manage the difficulty. there is NG+ and hard mode after you beat the game. I wish we had a dodge to make some fights easier but maybe that was an intentional decision by devs.
it has everything you want from a great survivor horror game. level design is awesome, beautiful and terrifying, some of the bests I've seen in this genre. Classic item management, secret doors for items, guns and upgrades, intense fights, so many great scary moments, great monster designs, fantastic boss fights especially the last 2. This game had one of the most creative and coolest final boss I've ever seen in a shooter game not just a horror.
Graphics are great, it's unreal 5 so visuals are nice obviously. Great lighting, terrific character designs, so many interesting places and levels that make you have nightmares for days. but there are performance issues so beware. I think it needs a few patches cause in some areas especially the end game sections and final bosses, we have alot of fps drops, also there are massive fps drops when you stomp a dead body and there are alot of stutters. Absolutely play it on SSD and I recommend to have atleast a RTX 20 series or it's equivalent to have a great experience but I'm sure there will be patches to make it more smooth (as I'm writing this a 4.7 GB day1 pacth got released and I'll edit this section when things change and get better)
sound design is perfect, game messes with your sanity just with sound alone. You have to experience it for yourself to understand what I'm saying.
I prefer to not talk about story to avoid spoilers. I loved it, it was sad and shocking, make sure to read notes cause they add alot of context to the events and characters but it's fine if you don't care. the story is exactly what a game story should be, it has cool and cinematic moments but its main purpose should be always to give more meaning to the gameplay and it's world which Cronos does that job perfectly.
TLDR:
Best horror game of this generation, so many creative level designs and fights. fantastic atmosphere, bloober team keeps cooking and no one can stop them, can't wait for silent hill 1 remake.
SUCH IS OUR CALLING
16 votes funny
76561198037252788
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Some of the worst use of upscaling I've seen. Environment is incredibly blurry and pixelated. Weapons are not very punchy and combat doesn't feel good.
Even the starting gun in dead space is great throughout the entire game. Meanwhile, the starting handgun in this game just feels terrible. The world isn't unique or captivating enough to excite me, it just feels like a mash up of control dead space and silent hill but without the really great elements of each. This was one of the games I was looking forward to most this year and it's sad to have to refund it, but it is not worth the money in its current state.
Edit:
Some of the responses to this review are hilarious. Average horror game is 7-12 hours. Steam return window is 2 hours. If a game hasn't grabbed me within the first 30 minutes it has never grabbed me after. This isn't a game like Path of Exile or a MMO where "true game begins at end game." This is a linear, story based horror game. I have played numerous times every Resident Evil game, every Dead Space game, Silent Hill 2 Remake was a blast. I love horror, I especially love space horror.
What this game does not have is engaging combat. And the world was not unique enough to keep me wanting to immerse myself in the world. The sound design alone in some games is enough to hook me. This was a swing and a miss.
I was playing on a 4070ti, no potato.
Having just finished MGS3 and seeing the beauty of that game, it was so hard to see the garbage textures in this game. The blood effects alone are PS3 era. There are numerous games that the starting handgun is top notch and has a great feel to it. This is not one of them. Coming off of Silent Hill 2 Remake, I had more faith in Bloober. This to me is another Callisto Protocol. Huge disappointment. If you feel otherwise, great. Spend your money on it. I requested a refund because it's not worth mine.
Also, devs -- i pre-ordered and got the deluxe version. I upgraded the pistol as much as I could and it felt like trash. I've also read numerous reviews where other people are also frustrated expending all of their ammo on a single enemy. Maybe take that as a real consideration instead of just brushing it off. Silent Hill you can run past enemies. Not so doable in tight corridors like Cronos. For the love of god, learn how to make a bullet impact have a real effect and not feel like a pea shooter.
15 votes funny
76561198842695269
Not Recommended7 hrs played
Lowest settings & DLSS set to Quality and Frame gen on. 20fps max. Unbelivable. I have a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB , AMD Ryzen 5700X 8-Core Processor, 32 GB RAM
12 votes funny
76561198011006006
Not Recommended0 hrs played
No FOV slider and the default FOV is extremely narrow, unfortunately I can not play this game.
I'm sure the absence of FOV settings is an artistic choice, but there is quite a significant amount of players who get sick and will not able to play this game, which is a shame cause it looks really interesting.
12 votes funny
76561198070536154
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Played for about an hour, refunded. I was hyped for this game for months, but it just did not click with me in the end.
Storytelling did not grab me at all and the game was not really atmospheric either. The main character comes across as off putting, and the difficulty felt poorly balanced with no way to adjust it. No dodge, no block, just shoot and run around with a character that feels way too slow compared to the enemies. The starter weapon is way too weak even for a starter weapon, enemies eat several shots, and after only 3 hits you are already down. Not exactly fun, at least for me.
Graphics look nice at first, but the levels quickly turn bland and forgettable. Enemy design is boring, they look like generic placeholders, and the mechanics are just as lazy. Find 2 fuses, grab one, enemies spawn. Very creative.
Overall a disappointment. Instead of feeling scared or thrilled I just ended up bored and annoyed. Maybe worth picking up for 20 in the next summer sale, but definitely not for 60 or 70.
6 votes funny
76561198021487173
Not Recommended5 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
Pretty fun game, But entirely held back by UE5 performance.
After traveling a certain distance, instead of a loading screen, your FPS will tank by 60-80% as the engine streams in all the new assets.
Can't recommend at anything over $20-$30 given the performance issues.
If you're running a 50 series card and high end CPU, you'll be able to brute force through UE5 and maintain a stable framerate.
5 votes funny
76561198072826118
Not Recommended0 hrs played
Nope, do not recommend this game. Why?...
-Jank which I believe is design decision made my devs
-no fov option in the game....can't even swap shoulders
-Spongey enemies which are not fun especially if you are limited to ammo/inventory spaces
-ammo is so scarce that it's not fun to fight any enemies - maybe get rid of spongey enemies
-audio was well done but it barely plays not sure if this is a design decision or my game is bugged
-running a 4080 and barely running 90 fps but if I were to turn on ray-tracing then oh boy the fps tanks
-linear corridor game - dead space did it better
+visually it looks impressive
+sound when it does play is okay
I don't know, I just don't have time for "getting gud" anymore when it comes to video games. I believe its usually implemented for padding purposes so that the game appears it's a lot longer then it really is. When I realized the combat is not fun and that you will be doing this for the duration of the game (I hear the game is 16 hours) all the enthusiasm died for me. Too bad, I really wanted to like the game too.
5 votes funny
76561198064390102
Recommended9 hrs played (5 hrs at review)
It's not better than Dead Space but it is a good survival horror game. The first 2 hours may give you the wrong impression on the game but the story and gameplay does open up a lot more after the slow starting. I personally still think their best work is Silent Hill 2 Remake but this is very close in quality. Good effort on Bloober Team's part it ain't a masterpiece but it's still damn great! Just a little warning though this games difficulty is on the harder side for this genre at least I think so anyway.
5 votes funny
76561198812123364
Not Recommended7 hrs played (7 hrs at review)
The game suffers from poor design. Many sections feel untested and frustrating to play through. Controls are clunky and the overall gameplay is simply not enjoyable. I cannot recommend this game.
Update: Played a few more hours — still no improvement.
5 votes funny
76561198029016328
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Run of the mill. Very boring story, atmosphere is a little bit hollow, graphics aren't really at a 2025 level for a 70 Euro game.
Gun play is very simple and not super engaging.
Has some okay ideas and sticks to the formula of this kind of action survival horror well but never really tries anything unique or new.
7/10 can'T recommend at this price point.
4 votes funny
76561198320017892
Not Recommended0 hrs played
Game has terrible performance issues as soon as i started it. even with the graphics presets being set to medium and dlss set to performance with the frame cap set to 60, i still encounter performance issues. Main issue is that the game consistently stutters nonstop no matter the settings. needs major work still and should not have released in such a state, simply unplayable. meanwhile the steam reviews are mostly positive which does not correlate to the games performance. (Gpu : Asus Rog Strix 4070ti / Cpu : Intel i9-12900k / RAM : 32 Gb DDR5)
4 votes funny
76561197982192062
Recommended17 hrs played (17 hrs at review)
+ Beautiful graphics, even without using RT
+ Good gameplay, reminiscent of Dead Space but with enough changes to make it feel unique
+ High difficulty compared to other well-known survival horrors
+ Burning the bodies of defeated monsters and thoroughly exploring every corner is essential to survival
+ Intriguing story
+ Oppressive atmosphere keeps you on your toes
+ Good duration (took me 17h to finish the game), with multiple endings and NG+
- Character movement is a bit stiff
- Ray tracing is too demanding and doesn't significantly change the graphics
- Limited ammo for weapons and high difficulty may put some players off
I played from start to finish in 1440p with DLSS Quality and 60 fps+ most of the time without using Frame Gen (RTX 4070, 2x16GB and R5 7600). There were moments where it was 50-60 fps, but it didn't bother me. With RT, the visuals don't change enough to justify leaving it on, but the fps takes a huge hit, requiring Frame Gen to be turned on to maintain 60 fps.
It's worth mentioning that the game was experiencing some pretty serious technical issues on PC until yesterday, when a patch was released and fixed almost everything. Only the HDR still needs some work.
Great game. I really enjoyed it. I'd give 8.5/10.0.
4 votes funny
76561199095821353
Recommended12 hrs played (11 hrs at review)
Oh wow bloober team greatly sets the tone with this one and nailed the impact of the gunplay with its scarcity in ammo and various enemies, although I find myself walking and backtracking for a few moment the story itself and its eerie narrative really helped hooked me in this not to mention a killer sound design and soundtrack sets the mood. Can't wait for what bloober prepares next... promising hope for these devs that's for sure.
Love that they made the cats really prevalent and actually helpful. W devs
4 votes funny
76561199244277333
Not Recommended7 hrs played (5 hrs at review)
No difficulty setting = automatic negative review.
4 votes funny
76561199168165067
Recommended5 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Loving this game so far haven't had any issues yet. Its like dead space meets silent hill with a vibe of returnal. I love the cats I hope to find them all. My pc is astral 5090, 9800x3d and 64gb @6000mhz game is stored on a firecuda 530
3 votes funny
76561198300795988
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
The game play is terrible, ... i understand limited ammo resources as part of survival horror. But this is some of the worst i have ever seen, its too much. The difficultly curve goes from nothing or easy,,, to extremely over whelming. And combine it with the extremely repetitive burn mechanic. Where you have to run back to spot to pick up 1 at a time. It feels like a choir. Have beaten, dead space, silent hill 2 and every modern resident evil game. So i am familiar with how these games play and limit ammo and such. This is ridiculous. Same thing that plagued the Callisto protocol, its trying to be dead space, while not being dead space. So they have created this new burn and merge mechanic, that is just annoying and repetitive, clunky ass character , running back in forth in tight rooms. It feels unnatural.
3 votes funny
76561198063865247
Not Recommended0 hrs played
FPS drops and stiff combat. Enemies don't react to melees or gun shots. No dodge button.
I played 40 minutes and knew I wasn't gonna stick through this game- 40 mins in there's a body on the ground that looks alive. you stomp it, blood splatters out but doesn't move the body or injure it in anyway-
There's a mechanic where you have to burn bodies so they don't manifest into something else. Stomping dead bodies does not explode them like in dead space.
Hell, doing anything to enemies feels like you're not doing anything. SH2 Remake had better combat IMO.
The story and atmosphere were good, but dude. The combat ripped all of my enjoyment out of pursuing the story. How is shit not gonna react to melees, stomp is useless, and guns don't put any physical animation into the enemy.
It's 2025 man, and when the SH2 remake has better enemy combat physics then I won't hide my disappointment.
3 votes funny
76561198077258383
Not Recommended14 hrs played (6 hrs at review)
Gonna try to say all my problems with this game.
1. Can't change difficulty-this is a big one to me.
2. Not given enough ammo for the amount of enemies you face.
- Takes 3 chemicals to craft 5 handgun bullets
-You also use chemicals to craft the healing items in the game
-chemicals are rarer than you would think.
3. The burn mechanic in the game is tedious.
-Takes scrap to craft fuel cells and same as the chemicals not enough scrap around to consistently have fuel cells. So a lot of the time I was backtracking to the save area to grab 1 fuel cell using it and having to go back again to get another.
Honestly that's really my main problem I feel like I have 2 bullets to kill 10 enemies.
You only really have these problems when you get to the second main area of the game they throw 2-3 enemies at you then don't give you any ammo to replenish walk into the next area and surprise you have 6-7 enemies to fight.
I play these kinds of games causally not looking to get frustrated don't really want a challenge I can play Dark Souls and Elden Ring for that.
But if you do want a brutal and frustrating experience then maybe this is for you.
3 votes funny
76561198044122902
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Bloober team strikes yet again with their "gameplay"-filled "games"
3 votes funny
76561198016916205
Not Recommended0 hrs played
This game is running just as poorly as Silent Hill 2. On top of that, the early trailers featured a male voice, but now it’s been replaced with a female one, while the character still looks male for some reason. If you care about this kind of bait-and-switch, don’t buy it. If you don’t, then wait for a sale, because it’s definitely not worth the current asking price.
As for extras: the pre-order skin is terrible, the deluxe edition content is equally disappointing, and there’s no reason to worry about missing out, you’re not losing anything worthwhile.
I am refunding this.
2 votes funny
76561197981471489
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
A whole new breed of survival horror emerges with Cronos: The New Dawn. LOL
From a Galaxy far-far away. Your dreams are becoming true. You’re about to touch them… just with a bit of money spent. Ah, those marketing divisions, if they learned anything about the gaming industry it’s how to sell the expectations. And it’s disgusting.
Cronos could have been taking the best parts of Dead Space and Callisto Protocol and advancing them further. But it didn’t.
No matter what people are saying about Callisto, it has very good things: animations and fluidity in their execution and blending, no stutter when moving and transitioning in between different states, no “stick in the ass” feeling like Dead Space has, but still a very good feeling of heavy armor, and also very good approach opening a road to a very good melee combat system with evade moves that make sense - you don't roll in an armor, you sidestep and you keep the control of your space.
Drawbacks of Callisto are (1) its textures which are a bit generic (and it’s my biggest reproach to the game) - Dead Space has a better atmosphere because in that game textures are organic, you can feel them, they’re alien, scary; (2) its UI which tries to mimic the one from Dead Space, but it’s not doing well enough; and (3) AI restrictions (due to animations processing and queuing) - only one enemy can attack you, others are waiting (I was against this initially, but I learned to like this approach).
In Cronos when you touch something your character is not using his hands, there’s no animation for grabbing. It’s AA, but you don’t need to be AAA to make good animations nowadays with UE5, so those kinds of excuses are just bullshit talks. Cronos UI doesn’t take example from Dead Space, devs probably looked at all the similar games and took the one from Alien Isolation as something easy to implement. But while that UI fits well into the world of Alien, in Cronos it’s disconnected, it makes no sense, there’s no coherence.
Cronos is supposed to be a horror, but it’s not scary at all: scripted sequences when you know exactly which of your actions will trigger enemy spawns, simplistic AI which can’t follow the player through passages in walls (though from their looks and animations it’s clear they could) and either stands still or runs in circles like crazy headless chicken when pathfinding fails. It’s hilarious, but not scary. It negates the difficulty making the game very easy (and it’s also happening with elevations, not just passages).
The best part is the traversal. Because it’s made in the easiest way for devs to implement. If you think you’ve got freedom of movement, it’s false. You won’t do a free jump, it’s a predefined sequence and a non-fluid one (opposite to Callisto). For example, you won’t be able to jump down the floor even if it looks like you can - you need to find a predefined interaction point to do it. And the same mechanic is everywhere. Temporal anomalies (a bit of Stalker here or Quantum Break) - you need to find a premade interaction point to create a passage. And then finally like in Dead Space - you’ve got gravity boots. But you won’t be able to move freely with them - it’s one point to another, premade travel from A to B. So traversal is a fully scripted movement. And here we are - stutters -- processing... AI bloober team investigating.... Bah ... Probably because Bloober Team did not manage the async loading of resources the right way.
So what’s left for the player? A combat system which is not good: push your trigger to use your weapon, but before that you need to collect resources to upgrade your damage to a comfortable level, because the progression is all about numbers.
Now why I stopped playing and refunded the game: when I got outside into the city I saw a big road with a small fence in between, so small you could step over it… but in this game you can’t. The same way as you can destroy a wooden crate with your stomp, but you can’t destroy a small wooden chair blocking a door. No logic. Sorry, but it’s not possible.
So now make yourself a favor if you did not play those games yet, go and grab them instead of Cronos :
Dead Space 1 . 2 . 3
Alien Isolation
Returnal (eager to see the upcoming Saros)
Lost Planet 3
SOMA
Callisto Protocol
* NOTE : I was puzzled by the music of the steam main video trailer. It's Polish-Ukrainian band Zazula ? right. But I was betting hard on Siouxie & the Banshees ... bah ... strange days.
2 votes funny
76561198040234885
Not Recommended0 hrs played
The game won’t launch at all. I bought the Deluxe Edition and tried everything, but it just doesn’t work. It instantly crashes after I hit the "Play" button on Steam. The only option I left is to refund it.
2 votes funny
76561198260983611
Recommended7 hrs played (5 hrs at review)
cronosing in the new dawn. straight up "bloobering it". and by it. haha. well. lets justr say. my team.
2 votes funny
76561198063630539
Recommended2 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
"Die die die"
*out of bullets*
RIP
2 votes funny
Cronos: The New Dawn
Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025
76561197967416569
Not Recommended0 hrs played
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the exact issue I mentioned in my below review. Watch how the trolls now fall silent....
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
Original review below:
Stuttering: There is no obvious traversal stutter (stutters that happen every time you pass the same section) but there are some shader comp stutters, even though the game does a pre-comp step on first load. The bit at the start approaching the gate has this stutter as the next areas loads, it's quite significant and drops the fps to the 40s from an indicated 87-100fps, the spikes often reached ~60ms and last a couple of seconds during the walk through the loading boundary.
With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is bad, even on a 4090, sub 30fps! It is sub 60fps with DLSS4 Performance (which is great quality using Preset K these days so no issues there with IQ) in various areas but typically can be 50-60fps, and is 90-114fps when Frame Gen is enabled. There is some minor UE-RT ghosting, too.
DualSense controller support works flawlessly, the advanced haptics are very immersive in this game, stick movement and camera feel natural, too. The controller speaker is also utilised when doing certain actions which is cool.
The audio in the game is fantastic, highly recommend headphones or HiFi grade speakers for a truly immersive experience.
The visuals are very nice, but there is black level lift, meaning OLED gamers won't get inky blacks in this game which is a shame, this is a clear art direction by the devs which is a shame as a QD-OLED gamer. Enabling HDR and using optimised HDR values does help improve black level lift, but this only benefits OLED players obviously.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the CPU performance. Even a 12700KF is being underutilised with package wide low core activity whilst my 4090 is holding 99% utilisation, so this does indicate a CPU optimisation issue in the game, especially considering other UE5 releases lately do not have this issue. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are native.
Do not normalise poor optimisation.
My specs::
Mobo - Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X
CPU - Intel i7 12700KF @ Stock
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18
GPU - Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity @ 975mV, +1100MHz VRAM, 2730MHz core
SSD - 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe (primary)
SSD - 8TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe
Display - Alienware AW3225QF 32" QD-OLED @ 3840x2160, 240Hz, 10-bit
OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2
** EDIT 2025.09.04:
Replies to comments at time of edit below:
@AuroraBorealisNo
"0,6 hours on record":
>> I've played for an hour, that is more than enough time to measure the technical performance and grasp the gameplay as all the main mechanics are introduced in this time as well as the game world and combat system.
@Rare Ghost
"They never fixed Silent Hill 2 stuttering so....":
>> They actually did, SH2 remake had major CPU optimisation issues causing endless stutters and fps drops at launch, was mostly sorted, though ages later.
@Rare Ghost
"Man, you have hardly a half hour in game. They also released a patch that fixed a lot of issues, have you tried it since then?":
>> I have played an hour, the figure shown above is not accurate. No patch was showing during my play, so I assume I got it downloaded and installed after the patch was released so was part of my install anyway.
@mixabuben
"For the black level lift.. it is fixable 100%.. there is Lillium Shaders or RenoDX HDR MODs":
>> These are ReShade mods are they not? I do not use ReShade as a matter of preference. Enabling HDR does improve things mostly so it's manageable, but in SDR mode it is noticeably lifted and not as immersive as it should be, even on OLED as SDR in non HDR games are generally awesome anyway unless a dev makes a distinct art direction choice to lift the black level floor.
@1 speaker no problem
"What part of the game did the Dualsense speaker work with? I found an audio log and it didn't come from the controller speaker. I thought it would have."
>> Speaker sounds for various things in-game, there is an option in the game sound settings for controller speaker, you also should be wired to the PC not Bluetooth for all features of DualSense to work. If you are using DS4Windows, then this may affect some features too as the game has native support for DualSense.
@omgitsbees
""With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is terrible on a 4090, sub 30fps!" lol idiot":
>> 🤷♂️
@Fiesbert
"Try limiting your mouse polling rate to 500hz. Unreal Engine can get stuttery by a high mouse polling rate":
>> I am not using a mouse, I am using a controller, but even still, no other UE5 game has this issue when played with a high polling rate mouse.
@PiratePlumber
>>> There are no spoilers in my review really, it's a technical review anyway though. OLED monitors are massively cheaper now than when they came out few years ago, you can get decent ones for nearly the same price as a high decent spec IPS monitor. Many people also game on their OLED TVs.
@destro
"so just technical issues then? how about the actual game?"
>> Gameplay and control mechanics etc are all perfectly fine, especially with a DualSense controller as the sticks feel great in this, big fan of Dead Space etc and this feels just as polished in these areas. Everything is fluid, camera control is excellent but there is no FOV slider in settings so you are stuck with the camera perspective provided unless an Engine.ini tweaks work in this to adjust FOV (not tried yet) like in other UE titles.
@lemi
"sad to hear about the black level lift :( appreciate the insight"
>> It's not as bad as some other games, remember Cyberpunk and Silent Hill 2 Remake when it first launched? They got sorted in the end. This is still fine, but after playing recent games that have pure black in dark areas, this was immediately noticeable.
@Octane
"this dude is genuinely complaining he's not getting more than 30fps at 4k max settings, on a 4090, and a 3 generation old mid-range cpu. come on bro. be serious."
>> Perhaps you are not too clued up on CPUs or how CPU utilisation/optimisation is supposed to look in games using the same engine. The CPU is being underutilised and is not the bottleneck or limitation here. If it was, then the GPU utilisation would be far below 99% - Either you are trolling or just simply have no clue I'm afraid to say, or you just simply read the bits that stuck out to your eyes only and then went straight to the comments.
@Paramedic
"This comment is so stupid, why are you even playing videogames when the technical side of art seems the only intrest. pushing the software of a double AA title and complaining that its not the best it could be?!? This is like looking at good food and only talking about how grasfed and local the cow on your burger is. this is the most anti social snobby chronic"
>> It's a technical review because there are technical issues that WILL impact many people. You can't enjoy a game fully if technical issues like stuttering are common.
@NovaSPQR
"playin a game for 1 hour and giving it a thumbs down is straight a Karen move ngl"
>> 1 hr or 10 makes no difference, my technical review is based on technical issues, these remain the same regardless of play time.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny actually.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561197967416569
Not Recommended0 hrs played
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the exact issue I mentioned in my below review. Watch how the trolls now fall silent....
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
Original review below:
Stuttering: There is no obvious traversal stutter (stutters that happen every time you pass the same section) but there are some shader comp stutters, even though the game does a pre-comp step on first load. The bit at the start approaching the gate has this stutter as the next areas loads, it's quite significant and drops the fps to the 40s from an indicated 87-100fps, the spikes often reached ~60ms and last a couple of seconds during the walk through the loading boundary.
With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is bad, even on a 4090, sub 30fps! It is sub 60fps with DLSS4 Performance (which is great quality using Preset K these days so no issues there with IQ) in various areas but typically can be 50-60fps, and is 90-114fps when Frame Gen is enabled. There is some minor UE-RT ghosting, too.
DualSense controller support works flawlessly, the advanced haptics are very immersive in this game, stick movement and camera feel natural, too. The controller speaker is also utilised when doing certain actions which is cool.
The audio in the game is fantastic, highly recommend headphones or HiFi grade speakers for a truly immersive experience.
The visuals are very nice, but there is black level lift, meaning OLED gamers won't get inky blacks in this game which is a shame, this is a clear art direction by the devs which is a shame as a QD-OLED gamer. Enabling HDR and using optimised HDR values does help improve black level lift, but this only benefits OLED players obviously.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the CPU performance. Even a 12700KF is being underutilised with package wide low core activity whilst my 4090 is holding 99% utilisation, so this does indicate a CPU optimisation issue in the game, especially considering other UE5 releases lately do not have this issue. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are native.
Do not normalise poor optimisation.
My specs::
Mobo - Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X
CPU - Intel i7 12700KF @ Stock
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18
GPU - Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity @ 975mV, +1100MHz VRAM, 2730MHz core
SSD - 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe (primary)
SSD - 8TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe
Display - Alienware AW3225QF 32" QD-OLED @ 3840x2160, 240Hz, 10-bit
OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2
** EDIT 2025.09.04:
Replies to comments at time of edit below:
@AuroraBorealisNo
"0,6 hours on record":
>> I've played for an hour, that is more than enough time to measure the technical performance and grasp the gameplay as all the main mechanics are introduced in this time as well as the game world and combat system.
@Rare Ghost
"They never fixed Silent Hill 2 stuttering so....":
>> They actually did, SH2 remake had major CPU optimisation issues causing endless stutters and fps drops at launch, was mostly sorted, though ages later.
@Rare Ghost
"Man, you have hardly a half hour in game. They also released a patch that fixed a lot of issues, have you tried it since then?":
>> I have played an hour, the figure shown above is not accurate. No patch was showing during my play, so I assume I got it downloaded and installed after the patch was released so was part of my install anyway.
@mixabuben
"For the black level lift.. it is fixable 100%.. there is Lillium Shaders or RenoDX HDR MODs":
>> These are ReShade mods are they not? I do not use ReShade as a matter of preference. Enabling HDR does improve things mostly so it's manageable, but in SDR mode it is noticeably lifted and not as immersive as it should be, even on OLED as SDR in non HDR games are generally awesome anyway unless a dev makes a distinct art direction choice to lift the black level floor.
@1 speaker no problem
"What part of the game did the Dualsense speaker work with? I found an audio log and it didn't come from the controller speaker. I thought it would have."
>> Speaker sounds for various things in-game, there is an option in the game sound settings for controller speaker, you also should be wired to the PC not Bluetooth for all features of DualSense to work. If you are using DS4Windows, then this may affect some features too as the game has native support for DualSense.
@omgitsbees
""With a 4K output res and using Epic settings, performance without upscaling is terrible on a 4090, sub 30fps!" lol idiot":
>> 🤷♂️
@Fiesbert
"Try limiting your mouse polling rate to 500hz. Unreal Engine can get stuttery by a high mouse polling rate":
>> I am not using a mouse, I am using a controller, but even still, no other UE5 game has this issue when played with a high polling rate mouse.
@PiratePlumber
>>> There are no spoilers in my review really, it's a technical review anyway though. OLED monitors are massively cheaper now than when they came out few years ago, you can get decent ones for nearly the same price as a high decent spec IPS monitor. Many people also game on their OLED TVs.
@destro
"so just technical issues then? how about the actual game?"
>> Gameplay and control mechanics etc are all perfectly fine, especially with a DualSense controller as the sticks feel great in this, big fan of Dead Space etc and this feels just as polished in these areas. Everything is fluid, camera control is excellent but there is no FOV slider in settings so you are stuck with the camera perspective provided unless an Engine.ini tweaks work in this to adjust FOV (not tried yet) like in other UE titles.
@lemi
"sad to hear about the black level lift :( appreciate the insight"
>> It's not as bad as some other games, remember Cyberpunk and Silent Hill 2 Remake when it first launched? They got sorted in the end. This is still fine, but after playing recent games that have pure black in dark areas, this was immediately noticeable.
@Octane
"this dude is genuinely complaining he's not getting more than 30fps at 4k max settings, on a 4090, and a 3 generation old mid-range cpu. come on bro. be serious."
>> Perhaps you are not too clued up on CPUs or how CPU utilisation/optimisation is supposed to look in games using the same engine. The CPU is being underutilised and is not the bottleneck or limitation here. If it was, then the GPU utilisation would be far below 99% - Either you are trolling or just simply have no clue I'm afraid to say, or you just simply read the bits that stuck out to your eyes only and then went straight to the comments.
@Paramedic
"This comment is so stupid, why are you even playing videogames when the technical side of art seems the only intrest. pushing the software of a double AA title and complaining that its not the best it could be?!? This is like looking at good food and only talking about how grasfed and local the cow on your burger is. this is the most anti social snobby chronic"
>> It's a technical review because there are technical issues that WILL impact many people. You can't enjoy a game fully if technical issues like stuttering are common.
@NovaSPQR
"playin a game for 1 hour and giving it a thumbs down is straight a Karen move ngl"
>> 1 hr or 10 makes no difference, my technical review is based on technical issues, these remain the same regardless of play time.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny actually.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561198198441722
Recommended29 hrs played (29 hrs at review)
Bloober team cooked hard with this one
I haven't played a horror game this grand and this innovative since Alan wake 2. I had zero expectation from this. I thought it's gonna be a mix a deadspace and resident evil and I would be totally fine with that but it wasn't. Cronos is not something that just copies from the best, It evolves them. I don't care what people may think about this game but for me it's one of the best games of this year and one the best horror games ever created.
Gameplay: Lots of weapons, some of them are secret but not that hard to find, you can upgrade them. Weapons feel great and powerful, switching between them is very fast and one of the core aspects of gameplay cause it's way faster than reloading. you get a standard pistol, shotgun, rifle and some more that I won't spoil it for you. you have a basic melee punch and a stomp for when you run out of ammo but don't rely on them too much, they're not very powerful. game is hard, no easy mode, low resources, low health, your character is heavy and it's hard to runaway but there are alot of upgrades for your character and tools and weapons that help you manage the difficulty. there is NG+ and hard mode after you beat the game. I wish we had a dodge to make some fights easier but maybe that was an intentional decision by devs.
it has everything you want from a great survivor horror game. level design is awesome, beautiful and terrifying, some of the bests I've seen in this genre. Classic item management, secret doors for items, guns and upgrades, intense fights, so many great scary moments, great monster designs, fantastic boss fights especially the last 2. This game had one of the most creative and coolest final boss I've ever seen in a shooter game not just a horror.
Graphics are great, it's unreal 5 so visuals are nice obviously. Great lighting, terrific character designs, so many interesting places and levels that make you have nightmares for days. but there are performance issues so beware. I think it needs a few patches cause in some areas especially the end game sections and final bosses, we have alot of fps drops, also there are massive fps drops when you stomp a dead body and there are alot of stutters. Absolutely play it on SSD and I recommend to have atleast a RTX 20 series or it's equivalent to have a great experience but I'm sure there will be patches to make it more smooth (as I'm writing this a 4.7 GB day1 pacth got released and I'll edit this section when things change and get better)
sound design is perfect, game messes with your sanity just with sound alone. You have to experience it for yourself to understand what I'm saying.
I prefer to not talk about story to avoid spoilers. I loved it, it was sad and shocking, make sure to read notes cause they add alot of context to the events and characters but it's fine if you don't care. the story is exactly what a game story should be, it has cool and cinematic moments but its main purpose should be always to give more meaning to the gameplay and it's world which Cronos does that job perfectly.
TLDR:
Best horror game of this generation, so many creative level designs and fights. fantastic atmosphere, bloober team keeps cooking and no one can stop them, can't wait for silent hill 1 remake.
SUCH IS OUR CALLING
16 votes funny
76561198037252788
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Some of the worst use of upscaling I've seen. Environment is incredibly blurry and pixelated. Weapons are not very punchy and combat doesn't feel good.
Even the starting gun in dead space is great throughout the entire game. Meanwhile, the starting handgun in this game just feels terrible. The world isn't unique or captivating enough to excite me, it just feels like a mash up of control dead space and silent hill but without the really great elements of each. This was one of the games I was looking forward to most this year and it's sad to have to refund it, but it is not worth the money in its current state.
Edit:
Some of the responses to this review are hilarious. Average horror game is 7-12 hours. Steam return window is 2 hours. If a game hasn't grabbed me within the first 30 minutes it has never grabbed me after. This isn't a game like Path of Exile or a MMO where "true game begins at end game." This is a linear, story based horror game. I have played numerous times every Resident Evil game, every Dead Space game, Silent Hill 2 Remake was a blast. I love horror, I especially love space horror.
What this game does not have is engaging combat. And the world was not unique enough to keep me wanting to immerse myself in the world. The sound design alone in some games is enough to hook me. This was a swing and a miss.
I was playing on a 4070ti, no potato.
Having just finished MGS3 and seeing the beauty of that game, it was so hard to see the garbage textures in this game. The blood effects alone are PS3 era. There are numerous games that the starting handgun is top notch and has a great feel to it. This is not one of them. Coming off of Silent Hill 2 Remake, I had more faith in Bloober. This to me is another Callisto Protocol. Huge disappointment. If you feel otherwise, great. Spend your money on it. I requested a refund because it's not worth mine.
Also, devs -- i pre-ordered and got the deluxe version. I upgraded the pistol as much as I could and it felt like trash. I've also read numerous reviews where other people are also frustrated expending all of their ammo on a single enemy. Maybe take that as a real consideration instead of just brushing it off. Silent Hill you can run past enemies. Not so doable in tight corridors like Cronos. For the love of god, learn how to make a bullet impact have a real effect and not feel like a pea shooter.
15 votes funny
76561198842695269
Not Recommended7 hrs played
Lowest settings & DLSS set to Quality and Frame gen on. 20fps max. Unbelivable. I have a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB , AMD Ryzen 5700X 8-Core Processor, 32 GB RAM
12 votes funny
76561198011006006
Not Recommended0 hrs played
No FOV slider and the default FOV is extremely narrow, unfortunately I can not play this game.
I'm sure the absence of FOV settings is an artistic choice, but there is quite a significant amount of players who get sick and will not able to play this game, which is a shame cause it looks really interesting.
12 votes funny
76561198070536154
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Played for about an hour, refunded. I was hyped for this game for months, but it just did not click with me in the end.
Storytelling did not grab me at all and the game was not really atmospheric either. The main character comes across as off putting, and the difficulty felt poorly balanced with no way to adjust it. No dodge, no block, just shoot and run around with a character that feels way too slow compared to the enemies. The starter weapon is way too weak even for a starter weapon, enemies eat several shots, and after only 3 hits you are already down. Not exactly fun, at least for me.
Graphics look nice at first, but the levels quickly turn bland and forgettable. Enemy design is boring, they look like generic placeholders, and the mechanics are just as lazy. Find 2 fuses, grab one, enemies spawn. Very creative.
Overall a disappointment. Instead of feeling scared or thrilled I just ended up bored and annoyed. Maybe worth picking up for 20 in the next summer sale, but definitely not for 60 or 70.
6 votes funny
76561198021487173
Not Recommended5 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
Pretty fun game, But entirely held back by UE5 performance.
After traveling a certain distance, instead of a loading screen, your FPS will tank by 60-80% as the engine streams in all the new assets.
Can't recommend at anything over $20-$30 given the performance issues.
If you're running a 50 series card and high end CPU, you'll be able to brute force through UE5 and maintain a stable framerate.
5 votes funny
76561198072826118
Not Recommended0 hrs played
Nope, do not recommend this game. Why?...
-Jank which I believe is design decision made my devs
-no fov option in the game....can't even swap shoulders
-Spongey enemies which are not fun especially if you are limited to ammo/inventory spaces
-ammo is so scarce that it's not fun to fight any enemies - maybe get rid of spongey enemies
-audio was well done but it barely plays not sure if this is a design decision or my game is bugged
-running a 4080 and barely running 90 fps but if I were to turn on ray-tracing then oh boy the fps tanks
-linear corridor game - dead space did it better
+visually it looks impressive
+sound when it does play is okay
I don't know, I just don't have time for "getting gud" anymore when it comes to video games. I believe its usually implemented for padding purposes so that the game appears it's a lot longer then it really is. When I realized the combat is not fun and that you will be doing this for the duration of the game (I hear the game is 16 hours) all the enthusiasm died for me. Too bad, I really wanted to like the game too.
5 votes funny
76561198064390102
Recommended9 hrs played (5 hrs at review)
It's not better than Dead Space but it is a good survival horror game. The first 2 hours may give you the wrong impression on the game but the story and gameplay does open up a lot more after the slow starting. I personally still think their best work is Silent Hill 2 Remake but this is very close in quality. Good effort on Bloober Team's part it ain't a masterpiece but it's still damn great! Just a little warning though this games difficulty is on the harder side for this genre at least I think so anyway.
5 votes funny
76561198812123364
Not Recommended7 hrs played (7 hrs at review)
The game suffers from poor design. Many sections feel untested and frustrating to play through. Controls are clunky and the overall gameplay is simply not enjoyable. I cannot recommend this game.
Update: Played a few more hours — still no improvement.
5 votes funny
76561198029016328
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Run of the mill. Very boring story, atmosphere is a little bit hollow, graphics aren't really at a 2025 level for a 70 Euro game.
Gun play is very simple and not super engaging.
Has some okay ideas and sticks to the formula of this kind of action survival horror well but never really tries anything unique or new.
7/10 can'T recommend at this price point.
4 votes funny
76561198320017892
Not Recommended0 hrs played
Game has terrible performance issues as soon as i started it. even with the graphics presets being set to medium and dlss set to performance with the frame cap set to 60, i still encounter performance issues. Main issue is that the game consistently stutters nonstop no matter the settings. needs major work still and should not have released in such a state, simply unplayable. meanwhile the steam reviews are mostly positive which does not correlate to the games performance. (Gpu : Asus Rog Strix 4070ti / Cpu : Intel i9-12900k / RAM : 32 Gb DDR5)
4 votes funny
76561197982192062
Recommended17 hrs played (17 hrs at review)
+ Beautiful graphics, even without using RT
+ Good gameplay, reminiscent of Dead Space but with enough changes to make it feel unique
+ High difficulty compared to other well-known survival horrors
+ Burning the bodies of defeated monsters and thoroughly exploring every corner is essential to survival
+ Intriguing story
+ Oppressive atmosphere keeps you on your toes
+ Good duration (took me 17h to finish the game), with multiple endings and NG+
- Character movement is a bit stiff
- Ray tracing is too demanding and doesn't significantly change the graphics
- Limited ammo for weapons and high difficulty may put some players off
I played from start to finish in 1440p with DLSS Quality and 60 fps+ most of the time without using Frame Gen (RTX 4070, 2x16GB and R5 7600). There were moments where it was 50-60 fps, but it didn't bother me. With RT, the visuals don't change enough to justify leaving it on, but the fps takes a huge hit, requiring Frame Gen to be turned on to maintain 60 fps.
It's worth mentioning that the game was experiencing some pretty serious technical issues on PC until yesterday, when a patch was released and fixed almost everything. Only the HDR still needs some work.
Great game. I really enjoyed it. I'd give 8.5/10.0.
4 votes funny
76561199095821353
Recommended12 hrs played (11 hrs at review)
Oh wow bloober team greatly sets the tone with this one and nailed the impact of the gunplay with its scarcity in ammo and various enemies, although I find myself walking and backtracking for a few moment the story itself and its eerie narrative really helped hooked me in this not to mention a killer sound design and soundtrack sets the mood. Can't wait for what bloober prepares next... promising hope for these devs that's for sure.
Love that they made the cats really prevalent and actually helpful. W devs
4 votes funny
76561199244277333
Not Recommended7 hrs played (5 hrs at review)
No difficulty setting = automatic negative review.
4 votes funny
76561199168165067
Recommended5 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Loving this game so far haven't had any issues yet. Its like dead space meets silent hill with a vibe of returnal. I love the cats I hope to find them all. My pc is astral 5090, 9800x3d and 64gb @6000mhz game is stored on a firecuda 530
3 votes funny
76561198300795988
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
The game play is terrible, ... i understand limited ammo resources as part of survival horror. But this is some of the worst i have ever seen, its too much. The difficultly curve goes from nothing or easy,,, to extremely over whelming. And combine it with the extremely repetitive burn mechanic. Where you have to run back to spot to pick up 1 at a time. It feels like a choir. Have beaten, dead space, silent hill 2 and every modern resident evil game. So i am familiar with how these games play and limit ammo and such. This is ridiculous. Same thing that plagued the Callisto protocol, its trying to be dead space, while not being dead space. So they have created this new burn and merge mechanic, that is just annoying and repetitive, clunky ass character , running back in forth in tight rooms. It feels unnatural.
3 votes funny
76561198063865247
Not Recommended0 hrs played
FPS drops and stiff combat. Enemies don't react to melees or gun shots. No dodge button.
I played 40 minutes and knew I wasn't gonna stick through this game- 40 mins in there's a body on the ground that looks alive. you stomp it, blood splatters out but doesn't move the body or injure it in anyway-
There's a mechanic where you have to burn bodies so they don't manifest into something else. Stomping dead bodies does not explode them like in dead space.
Hell, doing anything to enemies feels like you're not doing anything. SH2 Remake had better combat IMO.
The story and atmosphere were good, but dude. The combat ripped all of my enjoyment out of pursuing the story. How is shit not gonna react to melees, stomp is useless, and guns don't put any physical animation into the enemy.
It's 2025 man, and when the SH2 remake has better enemy combat physics then I won't hide my disappointment.
3 votes funny
76561198077258383
Not Recommended14 hrs played (6 hrs at review)
Gonna try to say all my problems with this game.
1. Can't change difficulty-this is a big one to me.
2. Not given enough ammo for the amount of enemies you face.
- Takes 3 chemicals to craft 5 handgun bullets
-You also use chemicals to craft the healing items in the game
-chemicals are rarer than you would think.
3. The burn mechanic in the game is tedious.
-Takes scrap to craft fuel cells and same as the chemicals not enough scrap around to consistently have fuel cells. So a lot of the time I was backtracking to the save area to grab 1 fuel cell using it and having to go back again to get another.
Honestly that's really my main problem I feel like I have 2 bullets to kill 10 enemies.
You only really have these problems when you get to the second main area of the game they throw 2-3 enemies at you then don't give you any ammo to replenish walk into the next area and surprise you have 6-7 enemies to fight.
I play these kinds of games causally not looking to get frustrated don't really want a challenge I can play Dark Souls and Elden Ring for that.
But if you do want a brutal and frustrating experience then maybe this is for you.
3 votes funny
76561198044122902
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Bloober team strikes yet again with their "gameplay"-filled "games"
3 votes funny
76561198016916205
Not Recommended0 hrs played
This game is running just as poorly as Silent Hill 2. On top of that, the early trailers featured a male voice, but now it’s been replaced with a female one, while the character still looks male for some reason. If you care about this kind of bait-and-switch, don’t buy it. If you don’t, then wait for a sale, because it’s definitely not worth the current asking price.
As for extras: the pre-order skin is terrible, the deluxe edition content is equally disappointing, and there’s no reason to worry about missing out, you’re not losing anything worthwhile.
I am refunding this.
2 votes funny
76561197981471489
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
A whole new breed of survival horror emerges with Cronos: The New Dawn. LOL
From a Galaxy far-far away. Your dreams are becoming true. You’re about to touch them… just with a bit of money spent. Ah, those marketing divisions, if they learned anything about the gaming industry it’s how to sell the expectations. And it’s disgusting.
Cronos could have been taking the best parts of Dead Space and Callisto Protocol and advancing them further. But it didn’t.
No matter what people are saying about Callisto, it has very good things: animations and fluidity in their execution and blending, no stutter when moving and transitioning in between different states, no “stick in the ass” feeling like Dead Space has, but still a very good feeling of heavy armor, and also very good approach opening a road to a very good melee combat system with evade moves that make sense - you don't roll in an armor, you sidestep and you keep the control of your space.
Drawbacks of Callisto are (1) its textures which are a bit generic (and it’s my biggest reproach to the game) - Dead Space has a better atmosphere because in that game textures are organic, you can feel them, they’re alien, scary; (2) its UI which tries to mimic the one from Dead Space, but it’s not doing well enough; and (3) AI restrictions (due to animations processing and queuing) - only one enemy can attack you, others are waiting (I was against this initially, but I learned to like this approach).
In Cronos when you touch something your character is not using his hands, there’s no animation for grabbing. It’s AA, but you don’t need to be AAA to make good animations nowadays with UE5, so those kinds of excuses are just bullshit talks. Cronos UI doesn’t take example from Dead Space, devs probably looked at all the similar games and took the one from Alien Isolation as something easy to implement. But while that UI fits well into the world of Alien, in Cronos it’s disconnected, it makes no sense, there’s no coherence.
Cronos is supposed to be a horror, but it’s not scary at all: scripted sequences when you know exactly which of your actions will trigger enemy spawns, simplistic AI which can’t follow the player through passages in walls (though from their looks and animations it’s clear they could) and either stands still or runs in circles like crazy headless chicken when pathfinding fails. It’s hilarious, but not scary. It negates the difficulty making the game very easy (and it’s also happening with elevations, not just passages).
The best part is the traversal. Because it’s made in the easiest way for devs to implement. If you think you’ve got freedom of movement, it’s false. You won’t do a free jump, it’s a predefined sequence and a non-fluid one (opposite to Callisto). For example, you won’t be able to jump down the floor even if it looks like you can - you need to find a predefined interaction point to do it. And the same mechanic is everywhere. Temporal anomalies (a bit of Stalker here or Quantum Break) - you need to find a premade interaction point to create a passage. And then finally like in Dead Space - you’ve got gravity boots. But you won’t be able to move freely with them - it’s one point to another, premade travel from A to B. So traversal is a fully scripted movement. And here we are - stutters -- processing... AI bloober team investigating.... Bah ... Probably because Bloober Team did not manage the async loading of resources the right way.
So what’s left for the player? A combat system which is not good: push your trigger to use your weapon, but before that you need to collect resources to upgrade your damage to a comfortable level, because the progression is all about numbers.
Now why I stopped playing and refunded the game: when I got outside into the city I saw a big road with a small fence in between, so small you could step over it… but in this game you can’t. The same way as you can destroy a wooden crate with your stomp, but you can’t destroy a small wooden chair blocking a door. No logic. Sorry, but it’s not possible.
So now make yourself a favor if you did not play those games yet, go and grab them instead of Cronos :
Dead Space 1 . 2 . 3
Alien Isolation
Returnal (eager to see the upcoming Saros)
Lost Planet 3
SOMA
Callisto Protocol
* NOTE : I was puzzled by the music of the steam main video trailer. It's Polish-Ukrainian band Zazula ? right. But I was betting hard on Siouxie & the Banshees ... bah ... strange days.
2 votes funny
76561198040234885
Not Recommended0 hrs played
The game won’t launch at all. I bought the Deluxe Edition and tried everything, but it just doesn’t work. It instantly crashes after I hit the "Play" button on Steam. The only option I left is to refund it.
2 votes funny
76561198260983611
Recommended7 hrs played (5 hrs at review)
cronosing in the new dawn. straight up "bloobering it". and by it. haha. well. lets justr say. my team.
2 votes funny
76561198063630539
Recommended2 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
"Die die die"
*out of bullets*
RIP
2 votes funny
