Cronos: The New Dawn’, developed and published by Bloober Team, crashes onto the Nintendo Switch 2 with a chilling twist on survival horror. Set in a brutal post-apocalyptic wasteland, you’ll be forced to battle grotesque merging creatures while uncovering the origins of humanity’s downfall. Bloober Team is aiming to deliver a whole new breed of horror. But does the leap into the future of the genre pay off? Let’s dive in and find out.

The game combines a deep, engaging plot with challenging strategic gameplay. You play as a traveller in a post-apocalyptic world shattered by a mysterious cataclysm called “The Change”. Your mission is to explore monster-infested ruins, hunt time rifts, and, like all good games, you need to confront said monsters that look like they were dreamed up by Freddy Krueger.

If you are in the hunt for a nice, calm, relaxing game, then don’t look twice, as this game is intense but rewarding for how intense it is. It focuses heavily on survival, strategy and adaptation because death is a part of the learning curve, which means you might need to do things three or ten times. You need to plan for managing limited resources, and combat is dynamic, and if you are too slow, they can merge, which makes things a lot worse.

You’ll need to ensure you upgrade your weapons when you’re prompted to on your adventure, and also use the environment around you to your advantage, or you will perish. The boss fights made me feel a little like I was playing Dark Souls, which, after six tries of trying to kill the same boss, the Switch 2 would almost end up across the room. It blends a great story with gameplay and creates the perfect high-stakes, post-apocalyptic adventure.

When I’m handed a Nintendo Switch 2 title to review, it reminds me constantly that I don’t play on the console enough due to it taking me a solid ten minutes to get used to the controls again, but then we start cooking.

I was impressed by the controls, which felt tight and responsive, making exploration and combat smooth and intuitive. Moving through the environments felt nice and natural,but my only issue was that the camera movement felt slow and delayed for how fast I wanted to spin around.

The combat inputs were precise and quick, which helped with those faster reactions. I was trying to find a way this game could incorporate the touch screen, but couldn’t find anything unless you count the menu as the game, then I suppose you could use it for that.

The sound design in Cronos: The New Dawn is excellent to say the least, and the entire time added to the game’s atmosphere. The ambient noises, from wind sweeping across the wasteland to distant, unsettling sounds, created the perfect mixture of tension and immersion. Footsteps in particular are surprisingly loud, which adds to that “oh shit, what’s happening next?” feeling every time you move.

The creature growls, and combat effects feel punchy and realistic, making the encounters feel that little more intense. I was a huge fan when you were in combat. You got this, almost like a thriller sound you would expect in a movie added over the top, so if you weren’t tense enough before, now you are, which built the perfect story.

I was really surprised by how visually stunning this game looked on the Nintendo Switch 2, which, for me, was a standout feature of the game. The game delivered a detailed, atmospheric environment from wastelands to nightmarish areas; the world felt alive and immersive.

The character and creature models were highly detailed and looked scary when they really needed to. I was surprised by the animations and how natural it felt, and didn’t encounter jitters or anything.

I was a massive fan of the cutscenes and how crisp they looked, like you were sitting in a cinema watching an animated, realistic-feeling movie. The developers did a fantastic job painting the storyline for us.

The visuals were sharp, polished and played a massive part in the storytelling in this game and comparing it to the console variation, there was not much difference in the visuals, which is great to see from current generation gaming, even if it’s hand-held.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a thrilling, high-stakes survival horror experience that pushes the Nintendo Switch 2 to deliver on every front, story, gameplay, visuals and sounds. Bloober Team have crafted a game that demands strategy, patience and adaptability, rewarding players with tense, cinematic moments and satisfying combat.

While challenging, the game balances its intensity with deeply immersive environments, a compelling narrative and smartly designed mechanics. 

Written by: Hayden Nelson