Roundup: Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About Bloober Team's Cronos: The New Dawn

Cronos: The New Dawn makes its Xbox Series X|S debut this week, and ahead of Bloober Team's upcoming launch, a bunch of early reviews have just dropped for the upcoming horror title.

So, we've gathered some of those up down below for you all to take a look over. It's sounding pretty promising for the Polish developer's brand-new horror IP!

Windows Central (5/5)

"Cronos: The New Dawn's satisfying combat, evocative environments, stellar sound work, polished performance, and inexplicably ambitious story showcase Bloober at its absolute best, solidifying their place as one of the industry's most exciting independent studios in the world. September 2025 is absolutely stacked, but horror fans absolutely must not sleep on this game."

Shacknews (9/10)

"Bloober Team took what they learned from combat and survival design on Silent Hill 2, blended it with its expertise in environmental design, and told a story that sinks its hand-claws in and leaves you uncertain of your decisions at pivotal points. It’s not always ticking at a good pace, but Cronos is an intense time-hopping journey that adds frightful new flavor to the horror universe."

Push Square (8/10)

"Cronos: The New Dawn is a brilliant addition to the survival horror genre. In a lot of ways it's derivative, especially when it comes to how it plays and how it feels. However, Bloober has injected enough charm, curiosities, and weirdness into it to make it not only its own thing, but something almost endearing. With impeccable visuals, an entrancing score, and a captivatingly dark time-travelling mystery, Cronos: The New Dawn is a delectable piece of sci-fi horror."

Insider Gaming (4/5)

"Once it gets going, Cronos batters you with a buffet of scares, stress, and superb combat. I can’t overlook the stingy inventory management headaches that will last a lifetime, but there’s no denying that Cronos: The New Dawn wants you to think and strategize. I’ll wrap up this review by saying Cronos: the New Dawn is an excellent new survival-horror title. If you have an interest in the genre, this is a must-play, and old-school horror fans will love this: Such is our calling."

IGN (7/10)

"Cronos: The New Dawn presents an intriguing mystery to unravel and a creepy sci-fi hellscape to explore, but its run-of-the-mill combat system prevents it from stepping out of the shadows cast by survival-horror heavyweights like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4. Like a Traveler’s corpse that’s trapped inside a temporal apocalypse, Cronos: The New Dawn contains the essence of survival horror, but there’s not quite enough spark in it to really bring it to life."

GamesRadar (3.5/5)

"Cronos: The New Dawn is an unabashed mash-up of survival horror's greatest hits, from Dead Space to Silent Hill, and its references make it a thrillingly familiar experience for fans of the horror genre. The only problem – which is, at times, significant – is a frustrating inventory system that can make combat feel more irritating than tense. Still, this is an atmospheric and uniquely introspective adventure for those who value a game's story as much as its action."

VGC (3/5)

"Cronos is an entertaining enough survival horror that will certainly hold your attention until the credits. It’s far from original and never really does anything particularly spectacular (with the exception of its wonderful visuals), but nor does it ever do anything that’s particularly awful. It’s perfectly fine, and sometimes that’s all you need."

Final Weapon (4/10)

"Cronos: The New Dawn is filled to the brim with potential, that ultimately falls short in how it executes all of its concepts. While there is a great story foundation and some interesting mechanics, the lackluster conclusion to the narrative, combined with irritating combat, frequent glitches, poor pacing of traversal, and repetitive gameplay scenarios make for a product that fails to capture the quality of other entries in the genre."

At the time of writing, the game is sitting at a Metacritic score of 78 and an Open Critic rating of 83 - both quite impressive results for a new horror IP in this day and age. Cronos: The New Dawn brings its sci-fi spookfest to Xbox Series X|S on September 5th, 2025.

Is this on your gaming radar for September 2025? Talk to us about Cronos: The New Dawn down below.