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Cronos: The New Dawn |OT| Survive The Future. Salvage The Past.

I do agree that cronos enemy design is kinda meh for now, but i would not exaclty call re8 an example of incredible enemy design or gore, do enemy even have marks when you shoot them? is there even enemy dismemberment other than lame exploding heads? i can't remember...

You fight lycans for like 70% of the game and they are generic as fuck.

gore wise this is worse than cronos, plus precanned death animations, at least cronos has some weighty ragdoll and you can stomp some limbs off.

 
You fight lycans for like 70% of the game and they are generic as fuck.
I take the so called "generic" lycans over the enemy we are fighting in Cronos….also are kidding me about gore? There is not much in Cronos, heck I take exploding heads than what we got in Cronos.

I know you really sensitive about if death animation is precanned or not but to me that shit doesn't bother me as much as boring ass enemies and bosses….especially the last boss in Cronos was so anticlimactic.
 
I do agree that cronos enemy design is kinda meh for now, but i would not exaclty call re8 an example of incredible enemy design or gore, do enemy even have marks when you shoot them? is there even enemy dismemberment other than lame exploding heads? i can't remember...

You fight lycans for like 70% of the game and they are generic as fuck.

gore wise this is worse than cronos, plus precanned death animations, at least cronos has some weighty ragdoll and you can stomp some limbs off.


If you want amazing ragdoll play Bloodlines 2, no kidding
 
The notes for now have only been about the virus and people surviving, no explanation about any of the time traveling fuckery, and those are the confusing parts.

Is your spoiler and endgame spoiler? I don't wanna know info that i'm not supposed to know at this point in the game (starting the tram to reach steelwork).
Not necessarily but save it for later if you're so inclined! Enjoy.
 
Also yea, Cronos is definitely my GOTY. I haven't played a huge amount of new games this year because some of the heavy hitters don't really interest me but I really love this game. I'm near the end on NG+ Hard and it's still hard to put down for me.

I also really loved Labyrinth Of The Demon King this year.
 
Has anyone here played the Switch 2 version? Debating if I wanna pick it up on there, but haven't seen much talk about that version.
 
Game has its share of bugs. One of the earlier cats in the game, you can't interact with it unless you follow it the very first time you encounter it. I had to reload a previous save to get the core from it.

Then an area in the steelworks I encountered a massive baddie and I didn't wanna waste ammo on it, I just decided to run away from it and it just randomly popped up later in a place it wasn't supposed to be, and then when I left an area and came back out it disappeared.
 
No one tried the pumpkin skin yet?! 😆

GRefBxwcU51IMxjg.jpeg


I've never been an alt skin guy but that does look pretty fucking cool
 
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I've got the game, and I've played it for a bit. The one thing I really think Bloober has locked down (the game looks great, but that's UE5) is the sound design. They learned a lot from Konami during the Silent Hill 2 remake.
 
So I did end up picking up a Switch 2 copy of it. Stupid game key card, but it's still better then going all digital to me. Anyway, I'm still really early, but already I can tell this is impressive on Switch 2. There are definitely some amazing things happening on Switch 2 with games like this and Star Wars Outlaws looking and running as well as they do on it.

I'm sure if you put it side by side with other versions, and do the whole nitpicking thing that digital foundry does, oh yeah, worse textures, lower this, and lower that....but as just a game, booting it up and playing it, it looks and feels great on Switch 2.

This game also just has a look and style I absolutely love so far. It's so cool. It might not be doing anything new for the genre, but games don't always need to. They just need to perfect what works, and I think this game might be doing that. Looking forward to going through it.
 
This game is 39,99 here for ps5 and switch 2. It seems like there isn't even a physical release for this game on Xbox (thanks ms for ruinjng your console) so I also picked up a copy for switch 2. Very interested in how it runs.
 
I played this game over the last week and it's easily a 9/10 for me. Probably a top 3 game for personally in 2025 alongside Silksong and KCD2. I thought I was just a Dead Space obsessive, but what Cronos has made me realise is that Sci-Fi Horror games might be my favourite type of game to play when they're done right, and Bloober knocked this one out of the park.

The visuals were mostly great and the OST has that 80s synth Stranger Things-esque vibe to it which really suits the aesthetic. The combat, weapons and upgrade systems were all very good.

If I had a couple of criticism it's that the story gets a bit convoluted towards the end. From the moment you find out the Warden is the Pathfinder at the Church I was wondering WTF was going on for the next 20-30 minutes. I had to read up on it once I'd finished to fully understand it, but I knew he was a shady fucker from the start.

The boss fights mostly felt very samey where you flame them and then target the blobs. Also could have done with a few more enemy types.

I also soft-locked a couple of times during gauntlet fights when the doors wouldn't open after I'd cleared them out.

Other than that, I haven't had this much fun with a Sci-Fi Horror game since the Dead Space Remake.
 
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Just started the PS5 version tonight....grabbed it on the PSN sale.

Not super far but initial impressions are this is too difficult on the default difficulty and no way to change it. It wouldnt be so bad if the game wasnt so stingy on ammo and WTF with no dodge move? Im hoping it clicks since im digging the atmosphere so far.

Also quick saves in between actual saves seem to far when youre dying alot.....
 
Any tips on the church of Abby boss thing, the one that shoots acid and you have to try and shoot the glowing orange ball thigs. I pass the first two stages but then so many enemies are spawned and I can't kill them and shoot the orange thingys, it gets all a bit too busy and I end up dying.
 
Just started the PS5 version tonight....grabbed it on the PSN sale.

Not super far but initial impressions are this is too difficult on the default difficulty and no way to change it. It wouldnt be so bad if the game wasnt so stingy on ammo and WTF with no dodge move? Im hoping it clicks since im digging the atmosphere so far.

Also quick saves in between actual saves seem to far when youre dying alot.....
It gets better when you upgrade your weapon firepower and your health etc. You'll find later on there are paths that lead back to the same safe/save room and sometimes it's also quick to double back and save after going through and killing a lot of enemies so if you die, you don't have to go through it again. I was ready to give up early in the game thinking this was going to be too hard, it has been a little hard for me but once you get into a rythmn, it gets easier.
 
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Reached the first boss of the steelwork (the big boy that break the wall) and the game continue to be the quintessential decent 7\10.

Atmopshere and audio design are good but it is way too obvious when you reach a combat arena and enemy quality\variety really is abysmal for now, plot continue to be a nothing burger for now, i don't care about anything that is happening because everything feels so abstract, i don't even know why i'm doing what i'm doing so it is hard to care.

Still a good time but after some of the praises here i was expecting the second coming of sliced bread, not just a competent but dull game.

Still surprised that people had problems with resources, i have dozens and dozens of ammo for both weapons in the safebox and like 10+ health objects between small and mediums, i guess people never used stomps or exploding barrels to finish enemies.
 
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but it is way too obvious when you reach a combat arena
Yup this game does same thing as Bioshock Infinite, in that game you see time distortion in the map for Elizabeth to use which is huge sign there goin to be a fire fight and Cronos does same thing with small black hole thing which she can use to respawns red barrels.
 
Yup this game does same thing as Bioshock Infinite, in that game you see time distortion in the map for Elizabeth to use which is huge sign there goin to be a fire fight and Cronos does same thing with small black hole thing which she can use to respawns red barrels.
But that is probably the smallest problem i have with the game, sometimes your game is gonna feel very game-y, even other much better survivals have the same problem sometimes.
 
Reached the first boss of the steelwork (the big boy that break the wall) and the game continue to be the quintessential decent 7\10.

Atmopshere and audio design are good but it is way too obvious when you reach a combat arena and enemy quality\variety really is abysmal for now, plot continue to be a nothing burger for now, i don't care about anything that is happening because everything feels so abstract, i don't even know why i'm doing what i'm doing so it is hard to care.

Still a good time but after some of the praises here i was expecting the second coming of sliced bread, not just a competent but dull game.

Still surprised that people had problems with resources, i have dozens and dozens of ammo for both weapons in the safebox and like 10+ health objects between small and mediums, i guess people never used stomps or exploding barrels to finish enemies.
I'm still early on, but I don't think I ever expected the second coming from this. I just wanted a good polished game, and that's what this feels like so far. It's also a bit of a showcase on the Switch 2, so I'm happy to see something look this good on the system that I can take with me.
 
I'm still early on, but I don't think I ever expected the second coming from this. I just wanted a good polished game, and that's what this feels like so far. It's also a bit of a showcase on the Switch 2, so I'm happy to see something look this good on the system that I can take with me.
People in here were scoring a 9 or they were comparing this one with the best in the genre but i just can't see it at all.

It is just a competent survival horror for now.

Don't know about the switch 2 showcase, i would never play anything more than a shitty pixelated indie on a tablet, on pc it looks decent\good but not great.
 
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Any tips on the church of Abby boss thing, the one that shoots acid and you have to try and shoot the glowing orange ball thigs. I pass the first two stages but then so many enemies are spawned and I can't kill them and shoot the orange thingys, it gets all a bit too busy and I end up dying.

I found the Javelin to be extremely useful in these fights. Fortunately, I hadn't used it much up until then, so had a ridiculous amount of ammo for it.

If you have 150 ammo, you can pretty much get the job done with that weapon alone. Take out the handgun for the acid spitters and basic orphans, then switch to the Javelin to target the blobs.
 
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Atmopshere and audio design are good but it is way too obvious when you reach a combat arena and enemy quality\variety really is abysmal for now, plot continue to be a nothing burger for now, i don't care about anything that is happening because everything feels so abstract, i don't even know why i'm doing what i'm doing so it is hard to care.

Yeah, it's a game that wears it's inspirations hard, whilst not really offering anything innovative of it's own. I got bits of Silent Hill in the atmosphere and resource management, and Dead Space/Resident Evil 4 with the gameplay mechanics. Then some of the cinematography and the strange abstract nature of the plot reminded me a lot of Control.

That being said, I still really enjoyed it.
 
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Yeah, it's a game that wears it's inspirations hard, whilst not really offering anything innovative of it's own. I got bits of Silent Hill in the atmosphere and resource management, and Dead Space/Resident Evil 4 with the gameplay mechanics. Then some of the cinematography and the strange abstract nature of the plot reminded me a lot of Control.

That being said, I still really enjoyed it.
Control was way less abstract than this one, i at least cared about her finding her brother and defeating the higs and i knew what she was trying to achieve, in this one i have no idea why i'm searching this people, who am i or who sent me here.

Cronos has some "new" ideas like the merging and the fire but they are not really great or add much.

I'm still enjoying the game aswell, atmosphere and audio design are good and the shooting is at least punchy when you charge the shots (audio design being the main responsible).
 
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Does anyone else get graphical glitches on the housing project level just after using the emitter?
 
Reached the first boss of the steelwork (the big boy that break the wall) and the game continue to be the quintessential decent 7\10.

Atmopshere and audio design are good but it is way too obvious when you reach a combat arena and enemy quality\variety really is abysmal for now, plot continue to be a nothing burger for now, i don't care about anything that is happening because everything feels so abstract, i don't even know why i'm doing what i'm doing so it is hard to care.

Still a good time but after some of the praises here i was expecting the second coming of sliced bread, not just a competent but dull game.

Still surprised that people had problems with resources, i have dozens and dozens of ammo for both weapons in the safebox and like 10+ health objects between small and mediums, i guess people never used stomps or exploding barrels to finish enemies.

Gym, you're just not into it and that's fine man, thing is, I don't know what you were expecting, I and others kept saying that it doesn't reinvent the wheel and that it's derivative but what it does, it does really well, it's a polished, very atmospheric game.

We're all right about the "combat arenas" but, if it were the opposite then people would shit on it for "cheap jump scares ®", it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't type of scenario, people will bitch either way.

As for the story, you've said multiple times that you're not into "sci-fi time travel shit" so I don't know what you were expecting again, for it to change your mind ? 😁

The story and its beats are presented perfectly IMO - there's the right amount of build up, the atmosphere is immaculate and everything hits when it should...
The story explains what it needs to explain while leaving some things vague on purpose - things that will be explained in sequels most probably and when that happens - guess what - the game will lose all of its mystique when "everything" will make sense/will be unveiled.

Its a just a game that came at the right time (for me, not the devs 'cause of the Silksong shadow drop), everything it does it does well, it's just a no bullshit, "honest" game that doesn't outstay its welcome.

Edit : Control was ABSOLUTELY and CATEGORICALLY NOT less abstract than Cronos, In fact, I loved Control exactly because of how f'ed up abstract it was, it's in a whole different league of "fooked up abstractness" compared to Cronos 😁
 
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Control was way less abstract than this one, i at least cared about her finding her brother and defeating the higs and i knew what she was trying to achieve, in this one i have no idea why i'm searching this people, who am i or who sent me here.

Cronos has some "new" ideas like the merging and the fire but they are not really great or add much.

I'm still enjoying the game aswell, atmosphere and audio design are good and the shooting is at least punchy when you charge the shots (audio design being the main responsible).

I honestly had no idea what was going in Control for a good portion of the game, but the gameplay kept me invested.

Like Cronos, it spoke way too much in riddles at times. Things that could have been said in a sentence or two were stretched out and then once the characters were finished with their diatribe, it offered very little in the way of answers.
 
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I honestly had no idea what was going in Control for a good portion of the game, but the gameplay kept me invested.

Like Cronos, it spoke way too much in riddles at times. Things that could have been said in a sentence or two were stretched out and then once the characters were finished with their diatribe, it offered very little in the way of answers.
Disagree, control was far more clear than this.

you knew the basic stuff, who is the protagonist, why is she there, why she has resistance against the hiss, who is the generic enemy faction etc.
 
It gets better when you upgrade your weapon firepower and your health etc. You'll find later on there are paths that lead back to the same safe/save room and sometimes it's also quick to double back and save after going through and killing a lot of enemies so if you die, you don't have to go through it again. I was ready to give up early in the game thinking this was going to be too hard, it has been a little hard for me but once you get into a rythmn, it gets easier.

I also (after doing that post last night) went into the settings and set the auto aim to max with zero regrets lol Odd that its completely off by default.....Ammo is too sparce to be wasting shots on these fuckers that seem to dance and zig zag as they race towards you. That's made it more bearable. I also was following your advice too about taking trips back to saves after clearing enemies, so that's been a help. I'll definitely stick with it, the atmosphere has been great so far.
 
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I started playing this last week and I am at the steelworks. I'm not sure how much further I have to go in this section. But man is this game intense. I can only play for so long before needing a break. I don't find the difficulty too bad. I wouldn't say it's too hard. But a good challenge.
 
Disagree, control was far more clear than this.

you knew the basic stuff, who is the protagonist, why is she there, why she has resistance against the hiss, who is the generic enemy faction etc.
I agree that Control was more straight forward, not that I think that's a negative. I really liked Control. Game got so fun when you really got more weapons and abilities.

I don't know what's going on in this game still, but there's hints, and it's like a mystery. Sometimes that can annoy me like crazy, but I don't mind it in this so far. I guess it'll depend on if it's satisfying when I'm done with it or not.

I started playing this last week and I am at the steelworks. I'm not sure how much further I have to go in this section. But man is this game intense. I can only play for so long before needing a break. I don't find the difficulty too bad. I wouldn't say it's too hard. But a good challenge.
Yeah, I'm around the same point. It hasn't been super hard for me yet, but it's been challenging and tense still. I also feel like I need to take breaks just cuz I'm need to breath after a little bit.
 
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I just got done with the Steelworks section last night.

This game is wonderful. Truly that OG dead space feeling.

So far, I think the game has had a great balance of exploration and combat, new items being doled out to the player etc.

It's been fun playing this back to back with tormented souls. They are both modernized takes on two distinct eras of survival horror and they both do it very well.
 
I just got done with the Steelworks section last night.

This game is wonderful. Truly that OG dead space feeling.

So far, I think the game has had a great balance of exploration and combat, new items being doled out to the player etc.

It's been fun playing this back to back with tormented souls. They are both modernized takes on two distinct eras of survival horror and they both do it very well.
Yep, it does not invent anything new but the game design is really solid overall
 
I also (after doing that post last night) went into the settings and set the auto aim to max with zero regrets lol Odd that its completely off by default.....Ammo is too sparce to be wasting shots on these fuckers that seem to dance and zig zag as they race towards you. That's made it more bearable. I also was following your advice too about taking trips back to saves after clearing enemies, so that's been a help. I'll definitely stick with it, the atmosphere has been great so far.
They don't really dance too much while they run towards you, it is the absurd sway of the pistol that fuck you up, i invested 2 points in the stability and now it is "almost" precise, very tlou-esque in this aspect.

Shotgun has a gigantic hit-zone and you shoot from up close so it is not needed.
 
Gave it a good attempt but even with auto aim, the games insanely overboard of bulletsponge enemies that take off way too much health with one hit has made this way too frustrating of an experience. Im out.

If they ever do a difficulty slider patch or do something about the insane lack of ammo with no way to dodge or even half dodge, ill come back. Too many other games to play that arent intentionally designed to be infuriating.
 
Any tips on the church of Abby boss thing, the one that shoots acid and you have to try and shoot the glowing orange ball thigs. I pass the first two stages but then so many enemies are spawned and I can't kill them and shoot the orange thingys, it gets all a bit too busy and I end up dying.
Focus on re-spawning the explosive barrels as soon as you hear the sound of the time warp thingies popping up again. They make a distinct sound even if you don't have a visual. You can kinda cycle through barrels if you time it right. Also if you keep kiting them, you can shoot through several enemies at once with a charged shot. play the first few stages safe and stay in those side areas, then keep moving when it gets hectic.

Do you have the Arbalest? If so, save it for the last stage or whatever and unload. Also, the Lance is great. You can undo all upgrades on a weapon and get your money back so I used all the Javelin upgrades on the Lance. The 3 shot burst is great for the orange weak spots.
 
Focus on re-spawning the explosive barrels as soon as you hear the sound of the time warp thingies popping up again. They make a distinct sound even if you don't have a visual. You can kinda cycle through barrels if you time it right. Also if you keep kiting them, you can shoot through several enemies at once with a charged shot. play the first few stages safe and stay in those side areas, then keep moving when it gets hectic.

Do you have the Arbalest? If so, save it for the last stage or whatever and unload. Also, the Lance is great. You can undo all upgrades on a weapon and get your money back so I used all the Javelin upgrades on the Lance. The 3 shot burst is great for the orange weak spots.
I don't have the Arbalest, I must have missed it, but will take your advice, see how I go. Thanks!
 
I don't have the Arbalest, I must have missed it, but will take your advice, see how I go. Thanks!
It's not a must. Just blast and be aware of the acid spray and then stick and move later. There's a ton of item drops. I walked out with more shit than I came in with so don't worry. The grunts are all one shots thankfully.

Hint: If you don't have the other rifle I talked about, explore more before tackling the boss. And remember, you can pull all upgrades out of one gun and respec another with all that cash for the new one if you want.
 
Gave it a good attempt but even with auto aim, the games insanely overboard of bulletsponge enemies that take off way too much health with one hit has made this way too frustrating of an experience. Im out.

If they ever do a difficulty slider patch or do something about the insane lack of ammo with no way to dodge or even half dodge, ill come back. Too many other games to play that arent intentionally designed to be infuriating.

Man...sorry, but it sounds like you'd like it to be on auto-pilot.

This game lives and dies by its atmosphere, the encounters are limited and by making them easier than they already are... it'd turn into a 80s alternative Poland walking sim or life is strange kind of game.

Silent Hill f on hard was hard, Ninja Gaiden 4 is hard, this one though ? Arenas are telegraphed, enemies are slow AF, the game SHOWERS you with mats and bullets, barells/canisters can be infinitely respawned, I mean, what would you have expected ? God-mode ? Being able to take 10 hits ? dropping enemies with 1 bullet ?

This is no Sekiro, Bloodborne, Ninja Gaiden, Moon Scars or even Blasphemous levels of difficulty, I don't get it.
Difficulty wise, It's on par with Dead space remake, a little bit harder than Resident evil 4 Remake and on par again with SH2 Remake.
 
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Man...sorry, but it sounds like you'd like it to be on auto-pilot.

This game lives and dies by its atmosphere, the encounters are limited and by making them easier than they already are... it'd turn into a 80s alternative Poland walking sim or life is strange kind of game.

Silent Hill f on hard was hard, Ninja Gaiden 4 is hard, this one though ? Arenas are telegraphed, enemies are slow AF, the game SHOWERS you with mats and bullets, barells/canisters can be infinitely respawned, I mean, what would you have expected ? God-mode ? Being able to take 10 hits ? dropping enemies with 1 bullet ?
Yeah, I find it strange people having such a hard time with this game.

I recently finished playing RE8 on hardcore difficulty and it was way harder than Cronos, not only enemies take way more bullets to go down but also enemies like Lycans will move around and dodge your shots.
 
Yeah, I find it strange people having such a hard time with this game.

I recently finished playing RE8 on hardcore difficulty and it was way harder than Cronos, not only enemies take way more bullets to go down but also enemies like Lycans will move around and dodge your shots.

Listen, if the man finds it hard, it means it's hard (for him).

Thing is, we've been conditioned by easy, autopilot western games for decades and now, every game in existence has to feature some kind of "accessibility" options 'cause people have zero patience or tolerance nowadays.

The games I mentioned earlier are hard indeed and I wouldn't expect for people that prefer more...relaxed experiences to enjoy them and that's perfectly fine, I mean, I passed the controller to my partner when playing little nightmares 2 and we even played it takes two together but i sure as hell wouldn't pass her the joypad when I'm playing something like Dark souls, Ninja Gaiden or what have you, these games are for a specific - masochistic even - audience and it's OK, thing is, not every game needs to be as hard as a souls game or easy like a little nightmares one - and this is my peeve, people expecting games on autopilot nowadays, this is why there's many games with silly tutorials that just won't go away for the first 30+ minutes upon starting it.

If you told me you dropped Bloodborne due to restarting the orphan of Kos battle for the 80th time I'd get it, if you told me that you couldn't take the final double fights bullshit in Sekiro anymore I'd get it, if you told me that NG2 on MN made you enraged I'd get it, but this ?
 
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