After scoring a main win with the critically-lauded Silent Hill 2 remake, Bloober is able to present the world what they’ll do subsequent – with a slight change of tempo – in an action-oriented horror recreation known as Cronos: The New Dawn. I bought a probability to sit down down with Bloober’s time-hopping newest and discover out what makes the world of Cronos so compelling.
Cronos places you in command of a character known as The Traveler, a lady tasked with going into areas ravaged by a human-eliminating virus that’s quickly reworking them into monsters. The Traveler’s objective is to not solely log her observations and discover human survivors, but in addition to put a path for Vacationers that come after her – simply as those that got here earlier than her did. However that activity is less complicated mentioned than finished.
“The theme of this recreation is merging and becoming one thing new,” co-director Wojciech Piejko explains, earlier than including, “Hey, this isn’t a good method to truly play this recreation, however watch this.”
Piejko proceeds to get up a sleeping enemy with a stomp that may solely be described as Useless Area-esque. Upon waking, the enemy observed that the corpses of different monsters had been littered round, and rapidly went to devour one. Then one other. Then a third. By the point the contaminated human had completed feasting (uninterrupted by Piejko), it had “merged” a number of occasions, basically leveling up its monster kind. In doing so, it grew to become stronger, more durable to kill, extra aggressive, and had entry to new talents to take The Traveler out, such as spitting poisonous bile at her. After a truthful quantity of ammo, it lastly goes down.
The solely means The Traveler may have prevented this taking place is to kill the monster earlier than it has a probability to feast or rid the world of corpses utilizing fireplace, a valuable useful resource that may’t be used capriciously. That mentioned, greater monsters imply greater rewards, so it’s generally a good selection to burn some sources for a greater payday of crafting supplies.
“That is the core of Cronos,” Piejko says. “Handle your sources, take dangers when applicable, and survive.”
Simply because a monster doesn’t awaken doesn’t imply The Traveler is protected, nevertheless. Anybody that tries to hoard sources will quickly uncover when backtracking by way of areas that enemies have a tendency to select inopportune moments to pop up and begin merging with different corpses on the bottom. Not being conscious of your setting could be a lethal mistake in Cronos, however losing sources could also be even worse.
The demo I participated in takes place in Nowa Huta, an jap district in Krakow, Poland that was as soon as an industrial hub of the previous Soviet Union. Sooner or later, it has been torn aside by the monster-plague infecting the world. It’s the Traveler’s obligation to determine vital those who dwell or lived within the metropolis and make use of time-travel to rescue them from the pre-plague age of the Eighties. Since solely The Traveler can hop by way of time, rescuing them includes digitizing their souls to hold round along with her to take again into the current.
The Traveler is proscribed in what number of souls she will be able to carry along with her, which leaves the selection as much as the participant to resolve who will get saved and who doesn’t. This may have an effect on Cronos’s narrative, as totally different individuals may have totally different reactions to issues The Traveler encounters and locations she goes. For example, The Traveler can rescue somebody previously and convey them to the long run, whereby she visits that particular person’s condo a long time later and the previous tenant describes their life earlier than all of it went to hell.
In one other instance given, two of the souls in possession have a historical past and trip with one another.
Bloober says that Cronos will include an emphasis on the studio’s trademark psychological horror regardless of the motion bent. After Silent Hill 2 launched, which was developed in parallel with Cronos, the Cronos crew absorbed their colleagues (or “merged,” to maintain it thematically on-brand) to assist end the sport out.
Oh, and all through Nowa Huta, The Traveler will come throughout some much less conversational survivors: cats. Kitties are locked away safely in varied rooms all through the sport and, upon being rescued, assist with sources for The Traveler. All of the cats within the recreation are primarily based on the pets of the builders at Bloober.
“We had so many submissions we needed to begin casting for them to resolve who would get in,” Piejko says.
As a part of their 1-2 punch with Silent Hill 2, Bloober is hoping Cronos proves the studio’s mettle as an industry-leading horror recreation developer. The New Dawn’s premise and designs are serving to it begin off on an fascinating foot as a part of Bloober’s journey there.