12 Monkeys and Netflix inspired Bloober’s new horror game Cronos The New Dawn

Bloober Team unveiled their new survival horror game Cronos: The New Dawn during the October Xbox Partner Preview and spoke a bit more about what to expect from it

Bloober Team

Bloober Team unveiled their new survival horror game Cronos: The New Dawn during the October Xbox Partner Preview and spoke a bit more about what to expect from it in a new interview with Eurogamer. Cronos co-directors Jacek Zięba and Wojciech Piejko spoke about their goals for Cronus, why they don’t like jumpscares, and some of the unexpected inspirations that helped them dream up the sci-fi horror adventure.

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Zięba said the team wanted to use Poland and specifically their hometown of Krakow for a few reasons. They believed it would feel exotic and unfamiliar for international audiences, and they just liked the idea of blending what they grew up knowing with a futuristic sci-fi vibe like the Alien films use. Other inspirations include a wide range of films. 12 Monkeys’ time traveling to save the world from disease, the lurking horror of John Carpenter’s The Thing, and even the Traveller suit from Netflix’s Traveller helped give the team ideas about how to move forward with their vision, Zięba said.

That vision doesn’t include jumpscares, either. Zięba told Eurogamer that the Cronos team thinks jumpscares are “cheesy or tiresome” and would rather get under the player’s skin by creating an atmosphere of tension, of fear of what might lurk around the corner, even if the thing in question won’t leap out and terrify you.

Bloober considers Cronos its first “mass-market horror game,” and Piekjo described that as less about appealing to broader audiences and more about the kind of experience they’re creating. Piejko gave no specifics about what you’ll be doing in Cronus aside from being scared, but he did say it’ll be more “gameplay” heavy than The Medium. So don’t expect another adventure game.

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Not that many people likely did after the reveal trailer. It looks like a cross between Dead Space – Bloober also teased “unique” mechanics, such as Dead Space’s limb severing – and the mind-boggling environmental design of Layers of Fear. 

Cronos: The New Dawn is slated for release sometime in 2025.