Cronos: The New Dawn
Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 3, 2025
Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 6, 2025
76561197967416569
Not Recommended3 hrs played (3 hrs at review)
** Final review update after several hours of playtime.
At its core this is a great game marred by technical issues which include both shader compilation stuttering if enabling hardware RT mode, and traversal stuttering that affects both software and hardware RT modes. You cannot turn RT off in any UE5 game as Lumen is its RT implementation. You do gain framerates by turning off hardware RT, but you lose image quality in areas where the classic UE5 Lumen boiling effect is obvious.
The stuttering is more obvious the higher the framerate you have. I am locking the game in HW RT mode and Epic settings at 100fps (with DLSS Frame Gen), and often see framerate drops into the 40s or 50s which causes frametime break-up for split-moments impacting the gaming experience.
I got the game for £35 and for that price I am prepared to put up with some technical issues, but as we all too often now have to tolerate UE5 games launching with the exact same issues almost every single time, it has come to the point I cannot recommend the game until this habit stops.
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 if you play on a non HDR monitor. The best experience is with an OLED display, and you must adjust two key settings in HDR settings in the game menu, HDR peak brightness is wrongly valued in the game, so if you have a 1000 nits display, then you need to set this value to 1200 nits. Also, the HDR mids value should be set to 3 or 4, and then drop the UI brightness to something lower like 150 or 200. Leave everything else default. This will dramatically improve the black level to be very close to excellent and make OLED gaming in this superb.
I have a video up on YT showing gameplay in HDR, it will take up to a week to process which is typical, but once it's done, it will showcase what HDR looks like:
https://youtu.be/UWQGWw_JENs
The best Supersampling mode is also DLSS as it uses Preset K, even Performance is excellent quality, so crisp and clean free from any instability even in motion. FSR 3.1 is the worst regardless of being set to Quality, lots of instability, with XeSS coming close behind DLSS. Internal TSR is poor performance, so avoid it at all costs. DLSS Frame Gen is nicely implemented here, so use if you desire, it has no motion issues.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the technical issues. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are set to native 4K. not the same engines but this example is to highlight that there is a distinct lack of proper optimisation here.
So yeah, the cinematic quality of the graphics, the audio direction, the ambience and vibe of the game world and combat mechanics etc are all fantastic otherwise, but we should not normalise poor optimisation which requires weeks/months of patches to fix as we gamers do not want to continue being beta testers for new game launches.
I have updated this review a few times now and have decided I will not be changing my recommendation. Bloober team has a good game on its hands but has as of yet not acknowledged the technical issues that have been immediately obvious, which means it knew about them before launch and launched the game anyway.
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
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the same sort of issues I mentioned in my review:
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
** UPDATE on comments as of 2025.09.04:
@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.
@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.
@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.
@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.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561197967416569
Not Recommended3 hrs played (3 hrs at review)
** Final review update after several hours of playtime.
At its core this is a great game marred by technical issues which include both shader compilation stuttering if enabling hardware RT mode, and traversal stuttering that affects both software and hardware RT modes. You cannot turn RT off in any UE5 game as Lumen is its RT implementation. You do gain framerates by turning off hardware RT, but you lose image quality in areas where the classic UE5 Lumen boiling effect is obvious.
The stuttering is more obvious the higher the framerate you have. I am locking the game in HW RT mode and Epic settings at 100fps (with DLSS Frame Gen), and often see framerate drops into the 40s or 50s which causes frametime break-up for split-moments impacting the gaming experience.
I got the game for £35 and for that price I am prepared to put up with some technical issues, but as we all too often now have to tolerate UE5 games launching with the exact same issues almost every single time, it has come to the point I cannot recommend the game until this habit stops.
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 if you play on a non HDR monitor. The best experience is with an OLED display, and you must adjust two key settings in HDR settings in the game menu, HDR peak brightness is wrongly valued in the game, so if you have a 1000 nits display, then you need to set this value to 1200 nits. Also, the HDR mids value should be set to 3 or 4, and then drop the UI brightness to something lower like 150 or 200. Leave everything else default. This will dramatically improve the black level to be very close to excellent and make OLED gaming in this superb.
I have a video up on YT showing gameplay in HDR, it will take up to a week to process which is typical, but once it's done, it will showcase what HDR looks like:
https://youtu.be/UWQGWw_JENs
The best Supersampling mode is also DLSS as it uses Preset K, even Performance is excellent quality, so crisp and clean free from any instability even in motion. FSR 3.1 is the worst regardless of being set to Quality, lots of instability, with XeSS coming close behind DLSS. Internal TSR is poor performance, so avoid it at all costs. DLSS Frame Gen is nicely implemented here, so use if you desire, it has no motion issues.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the technical issues. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are set to native 4K. not the same engines but this example is to highlight that there is a distinct lack of proper optimisation here.
So yeah, the cinematic quality of the graphics, the audio direction, the ambience and vibe of the game world and combat mechanics etc are all fantastic otherwise, but we should not normalise poor optimisation which requires weeks/months of patches to fix as we gamers do not want to continue being beta testers for new game launches.
I have updated this review a few times now and have decided I will not be changing my recommendation. Bloober team has a good game on its hands but has as of yet not acknowledged the technical issues that have been immediately obvious, which means it knew about them before launch and launched the game anyway.
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
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the same sort of issues I mentioned in my review:
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
** UPDATE on comments as of 2025.09.04:
@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.
@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.
@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.
@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.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561198021487173
Not Recommended9 hrs played (5 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
22 votes funny
76561198160287967
Not Recommended16 hrs played (16 hrs at review)
Performance:
The performance is the biggest issue. Stuttering and severe FPS drops happen in some areas, even though I’m running the game on a 4090 with 7800x3d. With this kind of hardware, I shouldn’t have performance problems, but unfortunately, it suffers from the same issues as Silent Hill 2—it's a mix of Unreal Engine 5 struggles and poor optimization from the developers, and that’s unacceptable.
Story & Presentation:
I actually enjoyed the story, the level design, and the voice acting. Those aspects were well done and kept me invested.
Gameplay:
The gameplay, however, was disappointing. The beginning is strong—you need to be careful with your shots, conserve ammo, and manage inventory. But in the second half, the pacing falls apart. The game just throws waves of enemies at you, one after another, purely for the sake of difficulty. That isn’t good design. On top of that, recycled boss fights make the experience feel repetitive, boring, and lazy.
20 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.
16 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
76561198842695269
Not Recommended9 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
76561198084108249
Not Recommended2 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
Played on Mouse and Keyboard. Controller appear to be Broken with several inputs not registering properly. Game Officially recommends Controller
I really want to like this one, the setting is immaculate, sound design is absolutely on point. The opening hour of the game are Incredible at building tension, and the initial enemy reveal was done Beautifully. Unfortunately that's where the good stopped for me.
I don't know if I just got bad RNG. But in the 3 hours or so, I've found maybe a total of 25 bullets. Not missing a single shot its 3 charged shots to kill an enemy, but there's such a heavy artificial weapon sway that for every 3 shots I hit, one or two miss.
The combat gets in the way. I love hard, I love gritty "Every shot count" tension. One of my favorite survival shooters that does this well is is Metro 2033, which I've completion on Hardcore Ranger mode. Looting every little scrap and finding clever ways to deal with enemies to save even a single bullet, with the threat that one mistake and I die and it's over. The challenge was always exhilarating. Recently also completed Resident Evil Biohazard on Permadeath mode, as well as the recent Deadspace remake in the leadup to the release.
That balance is not found here.
I'm constantly having to Buy or Craft every piece of ammo i physically can, and still running out Every Single Encounter. I've died more in the first 3 hours than I did in the same time in Dark Souls 1.
That's just not fun.
The oppressive tension of never having enough of anything to progress is too constant. When its all pull no push its numbing.
Enemies lost their Fear factor Very quickly due to this and instead became a headache.
Can't comment in the story, as I did not get far enough in to have much understanding of any narrative aside from Theres a Virus, I have an Anchor, looking for an Anomoly.
Got locked into an inescapable auto-save death loop and put down the game.
EDIT - I will be picking the game back up after completing some other games releasing using some tips from the folks in the comments. I REALLY want to know what happened in this world, and Everything aside from the never having any bullets is perfect. Hopefully I will have better RNG on my next run.
10 votes funny
76561199097008765
Not Recommended6 hrs played (6 hrs at review)
- The game in unplayable like it is now, even when standing still the FPS goes from 60 fps to 40 fps, very bad optimization for some average graphics. I can play with 40 fps - 50 fps but there are like every 2 mins lag spikes (5 seconds or more).
- In the new areas it needs to load a lot, so for like 5 mins I will have 20 - 25 FPS, then going back up to 90 FPS, right when a smile will form on my face, the game starts going back again to like 70 - 60 FPS, in the same location, with barely any movement in the background.
!! THIS GAME IS A MESS !! I WAIT FOR SOME FIXES !!
This is why I play only Resident Evil games and indie games, the awful new games are made just 5080, wow amazing, good job !!!
...I have RTX 3070 8 GB...
- But the game for what I played is made in my style, so I like it very much, I will come back later, maybe after some patches,
- The graphics, gameplay, story are fine enough !
9 votes funny
76561197970400865
Not Recommended21 hrs played (21 hrs at review)
this game is the epitome of "mediocre" . you keep waiting for something interesting with the story to happen but it just keeps dragging on and on and on and on. i seriously wish i could refund it but i kept playing hoping that at least late game or the end would be some kind of big pay off. nope. just super lame. you spend 90% of this game walking through dark hallways and rooms picking up resources, the rest of the 10% is combat related. which would normally be fine if there were some really cool story things happening but the bread crumbs are so small and so spread out that nothing really feels impactfull. visually the game is cool, the aesthetics are pretty unique but the back drop of the story and the end of the game makes it all feel so hollow
9 votes funny
76561197968360228
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
I'm not the greatest gamer, but this game beat me at the 2nd enemy. I've been trying different ways to kill it for over an hour but just keep dying. And due to the save system it takes me about 5 minutes just to get to the spot, and die!
I've never experienced anything like this in my gaming before...... And we're looking at over 40 years of gaming.
The combat is terrible and not fun. I like a challenge but also want to feel like a baddass, but I just feel frustrated!
Plays well on the Steamdeck though.
9 votes funny
76561198147326920
Recommended20 hrs played
As someone from Kraków, I can confirm - This is how our average day looks like.
8 votes funny
76561198851046117
Not Recommended0 hrs played
I was not going to Write review for a game i refunded, it doesn't sit right on my soul.
But Positive reviews on Steam hurts me.
The game runs like hot pile of garbage, RTX 5080 with 1080p, there is some areas the game gives around 40 FPS. Is this even a joke?
it's not absolutely impossible to get better performance out of optimized / custom settings but generally this game is not performant at all. If you go back to Alan Wake 2, you will see much better visual fidelity and at least 50% better performance on your PC.
My main issue with this game was, the preset quality is very bad and doesn't scale well. I should not be worried about tweaking much setting for 1080p resolution with RTX 5080 / 13700k system.
If you say this game is performing fine, you are giving them idea, and you are the part of the problem.
7 votes funny
76561198298809766
Recommended6 hrs played (4 hrs at review)
it's a good game, but not what I expected. it's the true definition of a hardcore survival horror game. the lack of resources is a little extreme to be honest, and the fact that there is NO DODGE mechanic is also annoying as hell. you give zero ammo but don't let me dodge attacks?
if you'ere a true fan of games like this, then yes, play this game. if you're a casual fan of this genre and play Silent Hill or Resident Evil on easy mode, then no, this game is not for you.
keep it up Bloober.
add a goddamn doge mechanic please.
9 votes funny
76561198118785843
Not Recommended0 hrs played
The game is poorly optimized and doesn't fully utilize the power of my RTX 4090.
Only 390W OF 600W 41fps 4K MaxOut.
2025 game doesn't support Arabic language. That's just plain rude.
6 votes funny
76561198064390102
Recommended11 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.
6 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
76561198070915649
Not Recommended2 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
Biggest waste of $60
Combat is awful because somehow the extremely capable alien species that made it to Earth can't hold a gun straight.
The performance is so bad and wildly inconsistent its hard to go for headshots, which feels like an absolute must in combat if you don't want to get rushed by the enemies and 2 or 3 tapped.
The game has resource management with little to no bullets to be found but PLENTY of healing items. I actually started having to put all the healing items i was getting into the storage because it was so much. Ammo though? Go F*ck yourself.
There are also times where you're forced to interact with cats in the game that give you important key items to proceed in the game. And even though the music dies down and you're in a cutscene petting the cat, you can still be attacked and killed in the middle of the cutscene. This happened to me twice and it was the final straw for me.
Do not buy.
5 votes funny
76561199025423287
Not Recommended0 hrs played
Performance is just awful THAT IS MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT i cannot play a game with bad performance,anyone that says this game is good is mind blowing, this will never be dead space an this game is nothing like DEAD SPACE........ it was boring i get it was the beginning but it was boring in my opinion,people nowadays just will play anything an say its good ,its really sad that gamers now just love slop they dont care anymore. idc if people say oh well it gets better no,FIRST impressions MEAN EVERYTHING sorry but no im saying no to this game as of now,I WILL WAIT an see if it improves.just wait do not buy it as of now wait n see if they fix performance.
5 votes funny
76561198031200115
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Didn't really have much fun with this one. Got just before the big yellow drop point in the apartment building before I decided to quit so I could refund. Might buy the game again on a heavy sale and flip my review around then, but for now I can't really recommend the game at full price because I didn't really enjoy what I was playing. Just kind of felt braindead while playing.
The general negative things I felt are as follows:
- Lots of the negative reviews say the game is too hard, personally I felt the complete opposite. Game was really easy for me. Once you figure out that enemies take 3 charge shots to kill you pretty much have got the combat down.
- Really dislike the way the charge shots felt. I disliked how it would make me fire once fully charged instead of being able to hold and release the charge shot.
- The game is VERY boring looking early on. Maybe it gets more interesting later, but if you're a real "grey and dust" fan, or you REALLY liked the other place thing in Stranger Things, this might be your cup of tea.
- They'll probably explain why the characters talk like stiff robots eventually, but I just wasn't hooked by what was going on at all story-wise.
- Exploration felt pretty hand-holdy and minimal. Typical "go slightly left or right then return to the main path" type of exploration. It could open up later, but I doubt it as there isn't a map in game or anything.
- They introduce a time power, but you pretty much get disappointed immediately upon getting it. It's just a typical "look for thing to use it on" type of power and didn't see any further expansion during the 2 hours I played. Might get more later though (no idea if so).
- The enemies are REALLY boring and not scary. Lots of people are like "it's like Dead-Space" when it barely is at all. There is no limb cutting, you just shoot enemies till they're down. The only variations I ran into during the first two hours of play were "enemy that goes down in one shot," "enemy that takes more than 3 shots," and "guy that explodes if you get close." Though, tbh, that last one was more of an obstacle than an enemy. Maybe they get cooler later on, but I simply cannot imagine them being that varied or interesting to fight.
- Continuing the Dead Space comparisons - since many like to make them. All of the game's similarities to dead space start and end at "you're in a suit". There are no diegetic elements to the game, I literally forgot the stomp existed until writing this exact line, the first power you get seems to be unable to be used in combat, and the world/enemies simply aren't that interesting. A vastly closer comparison would be to the more recent Resident Evil remake games in terms of gameplay loop.
Some things I did like:
- I did like the suit, minus the weird mouth thing it's got going on.
- I did like the inventory management somewhat. The game kind of forces you to craft things so you don't horde materials, which I didn't hate. I immediately rushed inventory slots though, so inventory space literally wasn't an issue when I played. I imagine it could become something you consider later on in the game for things though.
- Sound was good. Liked the sounds. Bit squishy, bit ominous. Didn't blow me away, but they didn't do bad with it.
- I did like the VA gimmick of the main character and her faction/people she works with. Them talking like robots did have me mildly intruiged, though I can imagine I'd get tired of it after a bit.
- I liked the general design of actual game UI, suit, guns, and tech in the game.
That's about all I can think of at the moment. To be clear, don't hate the game or anything, just real "meh" on it. I'll probs pick it up on a sale in like a year.
5 votes funny
76561197981863900
Not Recommended2 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
low item drop resources scarce if you like silent hill youll like this game if you don't your like me and think its a waste of time
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
76561199095821353
Recommended16 hrs played (16 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
Edit: Having finished the game in both endings I could say this was an insane ride someday ill rerun the true ending.
5 votes funny
76561197963685279
Not Recommended2 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Extreme fps fluctuation, Low fps, constant studdering just like silent Hill 2... I see a pattern with these devs, and since silent Hill 2 is still not fixed to this day, I see no hope. Not buying from these devs ever again.
45-60 fps with frame gen and dlss, most of the time in the 55 range with massive studdering.
4k qd oled
4080
64 gigs ddr5 ram
I13700k
4 tb m.2 ssd
W 11
4 votes funny
76561197989298452
Not Recommended0 hrs played
I think the majority of the reviewers are either paid bots, or easily impressed children. This game seems like a mixed bag of Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dead space, and it has failed all three. Yes the game looks stunning, it also runs badly. Yet another Unreal Engine 5 game that trades functionality for art. My cpu is stronger than the reccommended settings, and my gpu is i'd say 10% weaker than what would be reccomended.
I run it all on high speed RAM and the game itself is on an SSD, it stutters so.. so much. Framerate wil jump erratically between fluent 60+ down into the sluggish and laggy feeling of 30fps or below. Without much reason either, as it can happen when there's almost nothing on screen. Then there's character control, she's slow as a tank but has the HP of a fruitfly. Your 'sprint' is a disinterested jog. Now, i know for a fact that the more immature community on steam wil shoot this review down because it is inconceivable to them that someone can get a general feel for the core parts of gameplay rather quickly. That gameplay as far as i've noticed, is nothing special or interesting. The character is incredibly slow and bulky, which is already a major red flag.
Movement in a game is critical, it must feel right, examples of this would be early call of duty or even unreal tournament, or the DOOM (2016) reboot or DOOM Eternal. All these games are fantastic due to a combination of the right feel of movement, plus visual art. This game only delivers on visuals, and wil tank performance as a result. Perfect for screenshots, not very practical in real life. And don't go saying "Lol just buy a 3000$ rig". If a piece of modern software cannot run even half decently on very modern and reasonably high end hardware, then the software has not been made correctly.
All in all, this is yet another case where steam would benefit from a point system. I don't want to give it a flat-out thumbs down, rather i'd rate it roughly 6/10. It matters not how great a story is or how interesting or quirky a character is.. Once you spend your own money on a product, and find it lacking, one should make a review detailing the how&why of why it didn't land properly. Prepare for a highly demanding graphical experience, unsteady FPS even if you are in the same area, frustratingly slow character movement, and overall prepare yourself for a game that took too many ideas from too many IP's and implemented them poorly. Yknow the whole meme where a child asks a parent and the parent says they got it at home? This is "We got deadspace, at home."
I know many wil lose what little emotional control they have at the sight of this review, as any negative review these days somehow equals to "utter and complete hatred" But that is not the case here. The case here, is a person writing a review using freedom of speech to review a product that was found to be lacking in every aspect i could find. Any time a survival horror game introduces slow motion movement as your go-to standard move style, is a no-no. It's survival horror, survival, as in run away. Not a geriatric jog while a limb shredding monster wants you for dinner. Its old, silly, and annoying.
TLDR: Looks like total eye candy, runs like shit, typical Unreal Engine 5 product designed to keep your money within the first 2 hours as it draws you in with stunning vista's and atmospheric effects, that ultimately do little to nothing as the game offers not much else, as per by other people's reviews as wel. Get it on sale, its not 'bad' but very.. underwhelming. I'd prefer to replay deadspace 1-2 for the 8th time, than to push myself beyond the 2 hour grace period that steam gives for refunds.
4 votes funny
Cronos: The New Dawn
Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 5, 2025Sep 4, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 3, 2025Sep 6, 2025Sep 6, 2025
76561197967416569
Not Recommended3 hrs played (3 hrs at review)
** Final review update after several hours of playtime.
At its core this is a great game marred by technical issues which include both shader compilation stuttering if enabling hardware RT mode, and traversal stuttering that affects both software and hardware RT modes. You cannot turn RT off in any UE5 game as Lumen is its RT implementation. You do gain framerates by turning off hardware RT, but you lose image quality in areas where the classic UE5 Lumen boiling effect is obvious.
The stuttering is more obvious the higher the framerate you have. I am locking the game in HW RT mode and Epic settings at 100fps (with DLSS Frame Gen), and often see framerate drops into the 40s or 50s which causes frametime break-up for split-moments impacting the gaming experience.
I got the game for £35 and for that price I am prepared to put up with some technical issues, but as we all too often now have to tolerate UE5 games launching with the exact same issues almost every single time, it has come to the point I cannot recommend the game until this habit stops.
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 if you play on a non HDR monitor. The best experience is with an OLED display, and you must adjust two key settings in HDR settings in the game menu, HDR peak brightness is wrongly valued in the game, so if you have a 1000 nits display, then you need to set this value to 1200 nits. Also, the HDR mids value should be set to 3 or 4, and then drop the UI brightness to something lower like 150 or 200. Leave everything else default. This will dramatically improve the black level to be very close to excellent and make OLED gaming in this superb.
I have a video up on YT showing gameplay in HDR, it will take up to a week to process which is typical, but once it's done, it will showcase what HDR looks like:
https://youtu.be/UWQGWw_JENs
The best Supersampling mode is also DLSS as it uses Preset K, even Performance is excellent quality, so crisp and clean free from any instability even in motion. FSR 3.1 is the worst regardless of being set to Quality, lots of instability, with XeSS coming close behind DLSS. Internal TSR is poor performance, so avoid it at all costs. DLSS Frame Gen is nicely implemented here, so use if you desire, it has no motion issues.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the technical issues. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are set to native 4K. not the same engines but this example is to highlight that there is a distinct lack of proper optimisation here.
So yeah, the cinematic quality of the graphics, the audio direction, the ambience and vibe of the game world and combat mechanics etc are all fantastic otherwise, but we should not normalise poor optimisation which requires weeks/months of patches to fix as we gamers do not want to continue being beta testers for new game launches.
I have updated this review a few times now and have decided I will not be changing my recommendation. Bloober team has a good game on its hands but has as of yet not acknowledged the technical issues that have been immediately obvious, which means it knew about them before launch and launched the game anyway.
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
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the same sort of issues I mentioned in my review:
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
** UPDATE on comments as of 2025.09.04:
@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.
@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.
@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.
@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.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561197967416569
Not Recommended3 hrs played (3 hrs at review)
** Final review update after several hours of playtime.
At its core this is a great game marred by technical issues which include both shader compilation stuttering if enabling hardware RT mode, and traversal stuttering that affects both software and hardware RT modes. You cannot turn RT off in any UE5 game as Lumen is its RT implementation. You do gain framerates by turning off hardware RT, but you lose image quality in areas where the classic UE5 Lumen boiling effect is obvious.
The stuttering is more obvious the higher the framerate you have. I am locking the game in HW RT mode and Epic settings at 100fps (with DLSS Frame Gen), and often see framerate drops into the 40s or 50s which causes frametime break-up for split-moments impacting the gaming experience.
I got the game for £35 and for that price I am prepared to put up with some technical issues, but as we all too often now have to tolerate UE5 games launching with the exact same issues almost every single time, it has come to the point I cannot recommend the game until this habit stops.
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 if you play on a non HDR monitor. The best experience is with an OLED display, and you must adjust two key settings in HDR settings in the game menu, HDR peak brightness is wrongly valued in the game, so if you have a 1000 nits display, then you need to set this value to 1200 nits. Also, the HDR mids value should be set to 3 or 4, and then drop the UI brightness to something lower like 150 or 200. Leave everything else default. This will dramatically improve the black level to be very close to excellent and make OLED gaming in this superb.
I have a video up on YT showing gameplay in HDR, it will take up to a week to process which is typical, but once it's done, it will showcase what HDR looks like:
https://youtu.be/UWQGWw_JENs
The best Supersampling mode is also DLSS as it uses Preset K, even Performance is excellent quality, so crisp and clean free from any instability even in motion. FSR 3.1 is the worst regardless of being set to Quality, lots of instability, with XeSS coming close behind DLSS. Internal TSR is poor performance, so avoid it at all costs. DLSS Frame Gen is nicely implemented here, so use if you desire, it has no motion issues.
I would wait to see IF Bloober Team patches the technical issues. For a direct comparison, PATH TRACING in Indiana Jones with 4K DLAA sees almost twice the FPS when both are set to native 4K. not the same engines but this example is to highlight that there is a distinct lack of proper optimisation here.
So yeah, the cinematic quality of the graphics, the audio direction, the ambience and vibe of the game world and combat mechanics etc are all fantastic otherwise, but we should not normalise poor optimisation which requires weeks/months of patches to fix as we gamers do not want to continue being beta testers for new game launches.
I have updated this review a few times now and have decided I will not be changing my recommendation. Bloober team has a good game on its hands but has as of yet not acknowledged the technical issues that have been immediately obvious, which means it knew about them before launch and launched the game anyway.
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
UPDATE: Digital Foundry video is now up and Alex finds the same sort of issues I mentioned in my review:
https://youtu.be/xC8BjDoX-xM
** UPDATE on comments as of 2025.09.04:
@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.
@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.
@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.
@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.
@Zeruca
"... but its more sad the reviewer is editing their post to attack the comments back,"
>> "Attack" lol, that's funny.... Attack... 😂😂😂
24 votes funny
76561198021487173
Not Recommended9 hrs played (5 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
22 votes funny
76561198160287967
Not Recommended16 hrs played (16 hrs at review)
Performance:
The performance is the biggest issue. Stuttering and severe FPS drops happen in some areas, even though I’m running the game on a 4090 with 7800x3d. With this kind of hardware, I shouldn’t have performance problems, but unfortunately, it suffers from the same issues as Silent Hill 2—it's a mix of Unreal Engine 5 struggles and poor optimization from the developers, and that’s unacceptable.
Story & Presentation:
I actually enjoyed the story, the level design, and the voice acting. Those aspects were well done and kept me invested.
Gameplay:
The gameplay, however, was disappointing. The beginning is strong—you need to be careful with your shots, conserve ammo, and manage inventory. But in the second half, the pacing falls apart. The game just throws waves of enemies at you, one after another, purely for the sake of difficulty. That isn’t good design. On top of that, recycled boss fights make the experience feel repetitive, boring, and lazy.
20 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.
16 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
76561198842695269
Not Recommended9 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
76561198084108249
Not Recommended2 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
Played on Mouse and Keyboard. Controller appear to be Broken with several inputs not registering properly. Game Officially recommends Controller
I really want to like this one, the setting is immaculate, sound design is absolutely on point. The opening hour of the game are Incredible at building tension, and the initial enemy reveal was done Beautifully. Unfortunately that's where the good stopped for me.
I don't know if I just got bad RNG. But in the 3 hours or so, I've found maybe a total of 25 bullets. Not missing a single shot its 3 charged shots to kill an enemy, but there's such a heavy artificial weapon sway that for every 3 shots I hit, one or two miss.
The combat gets in the way. I love hard, I love gritty "Every shot count" tension. One of my favorite survival shooters that does this well is is Metro 2033, which I've completion on Hardcore Ranger mode. Looting every little scrap and finding clever ways to deal with enemies to save even a single bullet, with the threat that one mistake and I die and it's over. The challenge was always exhilarating. Recently also completed Resident Evil Biohazard on Permadeath mode, as well as the recent Deadspace remake in the leadup to the release.
That balance is not found here.
I'm constantly having to Buy or Craft every piece of ammo i physically can, and still running out Every Single Encounter. I've died more in the first 3 hours than I did in the same time in Dark Souls 1.
That's just not fun.
The oppressive tension of never having enough of anything to progress is too constant. When its all pull no push its numbing.
Enemies lost their Fear factor Very quickly due to this and instead became a headache.
Can't comment in the story, as I did not get far enough in to have much understanding of any narrative aside from Theres a Virus, I have an Anchor, looking for an Anomoly.
Got locked into an inescapable auto-save death loop and put down the game.
EDIT - I will be picking the game back up after completing some other games releasing using some tips from the folks in the comments. I REALLY want to know what happened in this world, and Everything aside from the never having any bullets is perfect. Hopefully I will have better RNG on my next run.
10 votes funny
76561199097008765
Not Recommended6 hrs played (6 hrs at review)
- The game in unplayable like it is now, even when standing still the FPS goes from 60 fps to 40 fps, very bad optimization for some average graphics. I can play with 40 fps - 50 fps but there are like every 2 mins lag spikes (5 seconds or more).
- In the new areas it needs to load a lot, so for like 5 mins I will have 20 - 25 FPS, then going back up to 90 FPS, right when a smile will form on my face, the game starts going back again to like 70 - 60 FPS, in the same location, with barely any movement in the background.
!! THIS GAME IS A MESS !! I WAIT FOR SOME FIXES !!
This is why I play only Resident Evil games and indie games, the awful new games are made just 5080, wow amazing, good job !!!
...I have RTX 3070 8 GB...
- But the game for what I played is made in my style, so I like it very much, I will come back later, maybe after some patches,
- The graphics, gameplay, story are fine enough !
9 votes funny
76561197970400865
Not Recommended21 hrs played (21 hrs at review)
this game is the epitome of "mediocre" . you keep waiting for something interesting with the story to happen but it just keeps dragging on and on and on and on. i seriously wish i could refund it but i kept playing hoping that at least late game or the end would be some kind of big pay off. nope. just super lame. you spend 90% of this game walking through dark hallways and rooms picking up resources, the rest of the 10% is combat related. which would normally be fine if there were some really cool story things happening but the bread crumbs are so small and so spread out that nothing really feels impactfull. visually the game is cool, the aesthetics are pretty unique but the back drop of the story and the end of the game makes it all feel so hollow
9 votes funny
76561197968360228
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
I'm not the greatest gamer, but this game beat me at the 2nd enemy. I've been trying different ways to kill it for over an hour but just keep dying. And due to the save system it takes me about 5 minutes just to get to the spot, and die!
I've never experienced anything like this in my gaming before...... And we're looking at over 40 years of gaming.
The combat is terrible and not fun. I like a challenge but also want to feel like a baddass, but I just feel frustrated!
Plays well on the Steamdeck though.
9 votes funny
76561198147326920
Recommended20 hrs played
As someone from Kraków, I can confirm - This is how our average day looks like.
8 votes funny
76561198851046117
Not Recommended0 hrs played
I was not going to Write review for a game i refunded, it doesn't sit right on my soul.
But Positive reviews on Steam hurts me.
The game runs like hot pile of garbage, RTX 5080 with 1080p, there is some areas the game gives around 40 FPS. Is this even a joke?
it's not absolutely impossible to get better performance out of optimized / custom settings but generally this game is not performant at all. If you go back to Alan Wake 2, you will see much better visual fidelity and at least 50% better performance on your PC.
My main issue with this game was, the preset quality is very bad and doesn't scale well. I should not be worried about tweaking much setting for 1080p resolution with RTX 5080 / 13700k system.
If you say this game is performing fine, you are giving them idea, and you are the part of the problem.
7 votes funny
76561198298809766
Recommended6 hrs played (4 hrs at review)
it's a good game, but not what I expected. it's the true definition of a hardcore survival horror game. the lack of resources is a little extreme to be honest, and the fact that there is NO DODGE mechanic is also annoying as hell. you give zero ammo but don't let me dodge attacks?
if you'ere a true fan of games like this, then yes, play this game. if you're a casual fan of this genre and play Silent Hill or Resident Evil on easy mode, then no, this game is not for you.
keep it up Bloober.
add a goddamn doge mechanic please.
9 votes funny
76561198118785843
Not Recommended0 hrs played
The game is poorly optimized and doesn't fully utilize the power of my RTX 4090.
Only 390W OF 600W 41fps 4K MaxOut.
2025 game doesn't support Arabic language. That's just plain rude.
6 votes funny
76561198064390102
Recommended11 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.
6 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
76561198070915649
Not Recommended2 hrs played (2 hrs at review)
Biggest waste of $60
Combat is awful because somehow the extremely capable alien species that made it to Earth can't hold a gun straight.
The performance is so bad and wildly inconsistent its hard to go for headshots, which feels like an absolute must in combat if you don't want to get rushed by the enemies and 2 or 3 tapped.
The game has resource management with little to no bullets to be found but PLENTY of healing items. I actually started having to put all the healing items i was getting into the storage because it was so much. Ammo though? Go F*ck yourself.
There are also times where you're forced to interact with cats in the game that give you important key items to proceed in the game. And even though the music dies down and you're in a cutscene petting the cat, you can still be attacked and killed in the middle of the cutscene. This happened to me twice and it was the final straw for me.
Do not buy.
5 votes funny
76561199025423287
Not Recommended0 hrs played
Performance is just awful THAT IS MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT i cannot play a game with bad performance,anyone that says this game is good is mind blowing, this will never be dead space an this game is nothing like DEAD SPACE........ it was boring i get it was the beginning but it was boring in my opinion,people nowadays just will play anything an say its good ,its really sad that gamers now just love slop they dont care anymore. idc if people say oh well it gets better no,FIRST impressions MEAN EVERYTHING sorry but no im saying no to this game as of now,I WILL WAIT an see if it improves.just wait do not buy it as of now wait n see if they fix performance.
5 votes funny
76561198031200115
Not Recommended1 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Didn't really have much fun with this one. Got just before the big yellow drop point in the apartment building before I decided to quit so I could refund. Might buy the game again on a heavy sale and flip my review around then, but for now I can't really recommend the game at full price because I didn't really enjoy what I was playing. Just kind of felt braindead while playing.
The general negative things I felt are as follows:
- Lots of the negative reviews say the game is too hard, personally I felt the complete opposite. Game was really easy for me. Once you figure out that enemies take 3 charge shots to kill you pretty much have got the combat down.
- Really dislike the way the charge shots felt. I disliked how it would make me fire once fully charged instead of being able to hold and release the charge shot.
- The game is VERY boring looking early on. Maybe it gets more interesting later, but if you're a real "grey and dust" fan, or you REALLY liked the other place thing in Stranger Things, this might be your cup of tea.
- They'll probably explain why the characters talk like stiff robots eventually, but I just wasn't hooked by what was going on at all story-wise.
- Exploration felt pretty hand-holdy and minimal. Typical "go slightly left or right then return to the main path" type of exploration. It could open up later, but I doubt it as there isn't a map in game or anything.
- They introduce a time power, but you pretty much get disappointed immediately upon getting it. It's just a typical "look for thing to use it on" type of power and didn't see any further expansion during the 2 hours I played. Might get more later though (no idea if so).
- The enemies are REALLY boring and not scary. Lots of people are like "it's like Dead-Space" when it barely is at all. There is no limb cutting, you just shoot enemies till they're down. The only variations I ran into during the first two hours of play were "enemy that goes down in one shot," "enemy that takes more than 3 shots," and "guy that explodes if you get close." Though, tbh, that last one was more of an obstacle than an enemy. Maybe they get cooler later on, but I simply cannot imagine them being that varied or interesting to fight.
- Continuing the Dead Space comparisons - since many like to make them. All of the game's similarities to dead space start and end at "you're in a suit". There are no diegetic elements to the game, I literally forgot the stomp existed until writing this exact line, the first power you get seems to be unable to be used in combat, and the world/enemies simply aren't that interesting. A vastly closer comparison would be to the more recent Resident Evil remake games in terms of gameplay loop.
Some things I did like:
- I did like the suit, minus the weird mouth thing it's got going on.
- I did like the inventory management somewhat. The game kind of forces you to craft things so you don't horde materials, which I didn't hate. I immediately rushed inventory slots though, so inventory space literally wasn't an issue when I played. I imagine it could become something you consider later on in the game for things though.
- Sound was good. Liked the sounds. Bit squishy, bit ominous. Didn't blow me away, but they didn't do bad with it.
- I did like the VA gimmick of the main character and her faction/people she works with. Them talking like robots did have me mildly intruiged, though I can imagine I'd get tired of it after a bit.
- I liked the general design of actual game UI, suit, guns, and tech in the game.
That's about all I can think of at the moment. To be clear, don't hate the game or anything, just real "meh" on it. I'll probs pick it up on a sale in like a year.
5 votes funny
76561197981863900
Not Recommended2 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
low item drop resources scarce if you like silent hill youll like this game if you don't your like me and think its a waste of time
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
76561199095821353
Recommended16 hrs played (16 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
Edit: Having finished the game in both endings I could say this was an insane ride someday ill rerun the true ending.
5 votes funny
76561197963685279
Not Recommended2 hrs played (1 hrs at review)
Extreme fps fluctuation, Low fps, constant studdering just like silent Hill 2... I see a pattern with these devs, and since silent Hill 2 is still not fixed to this day, I see no hope. Not buying from these devs ever again.
45-60 fps with frame gen and dlss, most of the time in the 55 range with massive studdering.
4k qd oled
4080
64 gigs ddr5 ram
I13700k
4 tb m.2 ssd
W 11
4 votes funny
76561197989298452
Not Recommended0 hrs played
I think the majority of the reviewers are either paid bots, or easily impressed children. This game seems like a mixed bag of Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dead space, and it has failed all three. Yes the game looks stunning, it also runs badly. Yet another Unreal Engine 5 game that trades functionality for art. My cpu is stronger than the reccommended settings, and my gpu is i'd say 10% weaker than what would be reccomended.
I run it all on high speed RAM and the game itself is on an SSD, it stutters so.. so much. Framerate wil jump erratically between fluent 60+ down into the sluggish and laggy feeling of 30fps or below. Without much reason either, as it can happen when there's almost nothing on screen. Then there's character control, she's slow as a tank but has the HP of a fruitfly. Your 'sprint' is a disinterested jog. Now, i know for a fact that the more immature community on steam wil shoot this review down because it is inconceivable to them that someone can get a general feel for the core parts of gameplay rather quickly. That gameplay as far as i've noticed, is nothing special or interesting. The character is incredibly slow and bulky, which is already a major red flag.
Movement in a game is critical, it must feel right, examples of this would be early call of duty or even unreal tournament, or the DOOM (2016) reboot or DOOM Eternal. All these games are fantastic due to a combination of the right feel of movement, plus visual art. This game only delivers on visuals, and wil tank performance as a result. Perfect for screenshots, not very practical in real life. And don't go saying "Lol just buy a 3000$ rig". If a piece of modern software cannot run even half decently on very modern and reasonably high end hardware, then the software has not been made correctly.
All in all, this is yet another case where steam would benefit from a point system. I don't want to give it a flat-out thumbs down, rather i'd rate it roughly 6/10. It matters not how great a story is or how interesting or quirky a character is.. Once you spend your own money on a product, and find it lacking, one should make a review detailing the how&why of why it didn't land properly. Prepare for a highly demanding graphical experience, unsteady FPS even if you are in the same area, frustratingly slow character movement, and overall prepare yourself for a game that took too many ideas from too many IP's and implemented them poorly. Yknow the whole meme where a child asks a parent and the parent says they got it at home? This is "We got deadspace, at home."
I know many wil lose what little emotional control they have at the sight of this review, as any negative review these days somehow equals to "utter and complete hatred" But that is not the case here. The case here, is a person writing a review using freedom of speech to review a product that was found to be lacking in every aspect i could find. Any time a survival horror game introduces slow motion movement as your go-to standard move style, is a no-no. It's survival horror, survival, as in run away. Not a geriatric jog while a limb shredding monster wants you for dinner. Its old, silly, and annoying.
TLDR: Looks like total eye candy, runs like shit, typical Unreal Engine 5 product designed to keep your money within the first 2 hours as it draws you in with stunning vista's and atmospheric effects, that ultimately do little to nothing as the game offers not much else, as per by other people's reviews as wel. Get it on sale, its not 'bad' but very.. underwhelming. I'd prefer to replay deadspace 1-2 for the 8th time, than to push myself beyond the 2 hour grace period that steam gives for refunds.
4 votes funny
