Cronos: The New Dawn will have a "linear" structure with "moments of freedom," according to the developers. Read on to learn more about what this means for players.
Cronos: The New Dawn to Be a Linear Experience
But Players Can "Backtrack" and Freely Explore Levels
Cronos: The New Dawn developer, Bloober Team, recently confirmed that the upcoming sci-fi horror game will have a linear gameplay experience with some opportunities to explore freely within the confines of each level. They revealed that the story will have multiple endings and a New Game Plus Mode for players who want to uncover more secrets hidden in the devastated world of Cronos.
The story of Cronos: The New Dawn is set in a retro-futuristic world that holds time-space rifts that lead to 1980’s Poland. One of the core aspects of the gameplay is finding and collecting the lingering souls of those "who perished in the ensuing apocalypse," according to the game’s official Steam page. Each time the Traveler harvests one of these souls, she gains a boon that will help her in battle, but in exchange, the soul’s "whispers" will affect her psyche, bringing her "ever closer to madness."
When asked by MP1st about the nature of their intended experience and whether the game will have any "open world type of content." Game director Jacek Zięba responded, "It’s hard to answer because we have a time travel story."
"In the case of structure," he explained, "it’s linear with moments of freedom, like backtracking, and resolving all the stuff on the level. But still the story will need to go on a proper pace, because we want to say something very specific here."
A More Friendly Environment for Horror
Lead Writer Grzegorz Like said that after a period of experimentation, they eventually decided to focus on its linearity and having players progress steadily from one level to the next to create a "more friendly environment for horror stories."
"But we still wanted to give the player that kind of feel of choices and all that, so we have dialogue choices, and your choices affect what you see in the game, what souls you have in your collection."
Player Choice Still Matters in Cronos: The New Dawn
Multiple Endings and a New Game Plus Mode
Despite the straightforward progression, Bloober Team emphasizes that player choices will lead to significant, nuanced outcomes. The game will feature multiple endings designed to be thought-provoking rather than simple good
or bad
conclusions. "All things need to be a bit more, say sophisticated, nuanced, and thought-provoking here," Like explained in a separate interview last July.
To encourage players to see these different endings and add some replayability, Bloober Team has already confirmed that Cronos: The New Dawn will include a New Game Plus mode. This will allow players to dive back in after their first run with an increased difficulty level to explore different choices and unlock the other endings the game has to offer.
Bloober Team’s Evolution
Bloober Team stated that they have found their niche in horror games, and that Cronos: The New Dawn is meant to be the product of an "evolution"that began with the Silent Hill 2 Remake. What they have created is indeed a big step away from all the horror titles they worked on, including their breakout title Layers of Fear, in terms of scale, story, and gameplay.
However, while Cronos is shaping up to be one of the more unique survival horror games out there, Zięba credits the Silent Hill 2 Remake for their latest project’s inception, saying, "the basis [for Cronos] [...] was there thanks to the Silent Hill team."
Cronos: The New Dawn is set to release on September 5, 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. To stay up to the date with the latest news on Bloober Team’s newest game, check out our article below!
Source:
Bloober Team’s New Horror IP Cronos: The New Dawn Will Have Multiple Endings That Aren’t Clearly ‘Good’ or ‘Bad'
Cronos: The New Dawn Will Feature New Game+; Expect Linear Experience With "Moments of Freedom" Says Bloober
Cronos: The New Dawn Steam Page
