Cronos: The New Dawn arrived on 5 September 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, PC and Linux, and Bloober Team built it alone — developer and publisher both. The studio’s return to original survival horror sold 500,000 units by 26 November 2025. It earns an 8.1 of 10.
Trailer, via Bloober Team.
The Traveler and the Collective
You play the Traveler, an agent of the Collective, sent into a post-apocalyptic wasteland on a mission called the Vocation. Her job: reach points that let her travel back to 1980s Poland and extract people who did not survive the Change, the event that turned humans into monsters called Orphans.
The camera sits behind her shoulder. Pistols, shotguns and melee abilities carry the fight.
Fire, or the Dead Get Stronger
Kill an enemy and leave the body, and a surviving enemy can merge with the corpse, absorbing its abilities and growing stronger. Burn what you drop, or fight it twice.
That rule turns every cleared room into a decision.
Edward Wiśniewski and the Dive
Traveler ND-3576 wakes from hibernation and takes a mission to extract Edward Wiśniewski, diving into the past to collect his Essence for upload through Ascendance. Edward tells her he believes government experimentation caused the Change. The Ascendance Terminal then fails, and the Warden — another Traveler who oversees the Collective’s work — pulls her back from death.
Artur, Gabriel and the Foreman’s Office
Repairs underway, the Traveler is sent after Artur Baryka, Edward’s friend. At the Steelworks she meets Dr. Weronika Kamiński, who flees. The Traveler corners Artur in the foreman’s office beside an infected Gabriel, mid-mutation into an Orphan. Artur blames her kind for bringing the Change from the future. Then the game hands you the choice: take Artur’s Essence or Gabriel’s.
Dr. Dawid Zybert at the Hospital
Whichever you choose explains that a Traveler was captured by the military, and the Change followed their arrival. The Traveler sets Dr. Dawid Zybert, who examined that captured Traveler, as her next target. She dives to the hospital, finds Weronika again, and discovers Zybert has already become an Orphan.
Two Ways to Extract
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Developer / publisher | Bloober Team, both |
| Release | 5 September 2025 |
| Units sold | 500,000 by 26 November 2025 |
| Perspective | Third person |
| Modes | Single player |
What Holds and What Slips
The time-travel frame gives the horror a spine. The Orphan-merging rule makes combat tense.
The plot leans hard on terminals and exposition. Edward, Artur, Gabriel, Zybert — the game keeps handing you names and asking you to care before it has earned it. The choice between Artur and Gabriel is the one moment the story trusts you to decide anything.
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