Silent Hill 2 Developer’s New Game Makes Me Want to Play Horror Games Even Though I Hate Them

It is no secret that I don’t play horror games. You put me in a movie theater and turn on a horror movie, no problem. But put a controller in my hand, put me in charge of controlling a protagonist in a horror game, and it will be a bad time. I could barely play Alan Wake 2, and that was with the lights on. To this day, my friends still make fun of me for fear-quitting Dead Space 3 in high school, and we were playing that co-op. But an upcoming horror game by Bloober Team, the developers behind the Silent Hill 2 Remake, has me reconsidering my stance on horror games.

What draws me to this game isn’t the horror aspects. It’s the surrounding narrative and atmosphere that have me willing to risk a mini heart attack and soiling myself. What few trailers we have received have intrigued me enough to look past and power through my fear so I can play Cronos: The New Dawn.

Cronos: The New Dawn Is Making Horror Interesting Beyond Fear

The most appealing aspect of Cronos: The New Dawn is the narrative. A mysterious organization, the Collective, sends Travelers back in time to 1980s Poland to extract the souls of humans during a cataclysmic event. This also includes futuristic wastelands where the laws of physics no longer apply and grotesque monsters called Orphans wander.

Setting aside the horror, the world of Cronos: The New Dawn just looks so cool. I did my best to avoid the spooky monsters and focus on the reality-warping aspects. Buildings torn to pieces and floating in the sky, objects and events that are both not there and there at the same time, and other bizarre instances immediately captured my attention.

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It isn’t just the environment that is out of this world, but also its monsters. While I know I’ll panic at every encounter, the Orphans are such a cool concept. Body horror enemies that grow stronger by absorbing the remains of fallen enemies is such an interesting twist. Even in victory, you aren’t safe, and combat requires you to strategically decide what enemy to kill and when to do it.

Aside from its foes, Cronos: The New Dawn’s friendly, or non-hostile, faces bring even more mystery. The Warden, another Traveler who serves as the Collective’s caretaker, services the weapons and safehouses in the game. But it’s his perspective that interests me. The Warden seems off and perhaps a little crazy, but who wouldn’t be in this world? His calling of the human race an “anomaly” and following it up with “a perfect one” makes me want to uncover more about this character.

Bloober Team is playing Cronos: The New Dawn close to its chest, not revealing much, and what little it does reveal is drip-fed. That said, I am eating it up and dying to know more. If I have to force myself to play through a survival horror game to learn more, then I guess I have no other choice.

Cronos: The New Dawn Combines Elements From Incredible Non-Horror Games

Several games stand out to me after watching every trailer Bloober Team puts out for Cronos: The New Dawn. Dead Space is the obvious answer, but there seem to be inspirations beyond one of the most iconic survival horror series. I see elements of Metroid and Returnal in Cronos: The New Dawn, two games I love, and one of the main reasons I’m willing to struggle through this horror game.

It wasn’t until the Traveler spoke in a trailer that I realized it was a woman, and Samus Aran’s reveal immediately came to mind. Metroid inspirations are prevalent throughout the game beyond the protagonist’s gender. The armor the Traveler wears invokes images of Samus’ armor, just without all the bright colors. Not only that, but the Traveler’s weapon transforming into others is similar to Samus’ blaster arm that can alt-fire missiles.

Returnal’s inspirations come in the form of the unsettling and unknown reality-warping elements. Time travel plays a big role in Cronos: The New Dawn and brings me back to being stuck in a time loop in House Marque’s roguelike game. We see the corpse of another Traveler, and while it wasn’t our Traveler, it still brought back memories of finding my own corpse in Returnal for the first time.

Bloober Team has not revealed much about Cronos: The New Dawn aside from a handful of story and a look at combat. I’m sure we’ll see more elements that took inspiration from Metroid and Returnal once the game releases on September 5th. Bloober Team shared some inspirations like Star Wars, Alien, The Thing, and other classic films, and it’s easy to see these in the game.

Cronos: The New Dawn is one of those rare gems that has me willing to play a horror game. Alan Wake 2’s story was the last title to bring me to the horror side, and Bloober Team is making it hard not to come back. I may pause and put my PS5 in sleep mode at a sudden noise or have my wife stay in the room with me, but I am determined to experience everything Cronos: The New Dawn has to offer.