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We caught up with lead writer Grzegorz Like to learn more about what went into the development and production of Bloober Team's latest survival horror epic.
"Hi, we're back here at Gamescom 2025 in Cologne, and right now we're looking at a new game called Cronos, The New Dawn.
It's from Bloober Team, the Polish developer most known for their horror games such as the Silent Hill 2 Remake and Observer.
And yeah, I'm here with Greg from Bloober Team, so can you please introduce the game for us?
Yeah, hi, I'm Grzegorz, I'm the lead writer and the lead narrative of Cronos, The New Dawn, and it's like our new thing, new IP."
"We wanted to have a new approach on the survival horror genre, so we did Silent Hill, but this is all us, you know.
It's about, like, imagine if the world ended in 81, and you're this traveler who finds drift in time and go back in time to extract soul of people that are needed by the mysterious collective.
The world ended because of a weird virus we call The Change, so you travel between future, that is a desolated place full of monsters, and then back in time to just minutes before the end of the world."
"So I guess it's cool, it's just like, you know, our good old weird games, you know, and then it's just like we've balanced the whole thing with action, so I guess it's fun, you know.
Yeah, and speaking of the action, your earlier games were mostly exploratory, and then you did a lot of running also, but you didn't have a lot of chance to fight back.
But this time you really, yeah, you take the fight to these kind of monsters and viruses, so can you tell us a bit about how the action works in the game?
Oh, yeah, cool. Yeah, of course. You know, if you've played, like, survival horrors before, you will find the inspirations, like, from Silent Hill or Resident Evil are real here, you know, it's palpable."
"But we chose to kind of push the challenge a bit further with this one, and we, you know, we've came up with this thing we call the merge mechanic.
So basically it's like when you kill a monster, this isn't where the fight ends, you know, because when his colleague comes to him, he can devour his body and then become stronger.
So if you have, like, an enemy that is a spitter and he spits acid, and then you have, like, an armored one."
"When you kill the spitting one and the armor come and merge with him, well, now you have a, you know, spitting tank and that's a problem.
So sometimes very early on in the game you can get yourself in a boss situation that you created.
It wasn't scripted, it's on you, so, you know, it's fun.
And also, well, what else?
Well, we have, like, fun things with time anomalies because, of course, the world is a bit, you know, messed up because of the time travel thing."
"So it's falling apart a bit, so you will have, like, floating buildings there and all that.
But you have this, like, little black holes in the game, but the travelers are suited with, like, technology to kind of manipulate them.
So you see, you know, a canister, but it's, like, with gas, but it's broken and all that.
So you go, boop, and it's back to his normal state."
"Then you can shoot it and put everything on fire.
And the fire is very important in our game because, well, it can stun the creatures that are attacking you.
And, of course, you can burn the bodies that lie on the floor because you shoot them dead.
And they, you know, they can't be devoured by the other creatures, so they can't merge."
"And that's the whole point of the kind of, you know, combat experience in the game.
Don't let them merge, so, you know.
Yeah, and speaking a bit about the setting, with the Medium, you made a story that was set in Poland.
And, once again, you're returning to this Polish setting, though it's a bit weirder this time."
"So, yeah, why did you decide to go back to your roots, or at least your home place?
Oh, yeah, you know, it's fun because at some point we realized that we're kind of experts now of, like, putting Poland into every one of our games.
Well, besides Silent Hill, of course.
And, you know, we recreated one of our, like, tenement buildings from Krakow City in The Observer."
"Then we used that same tenement building in the Medium.
And also we recreated, like, the hotel, the whole game, like, takes place.
But now with Kronos we decided to go big, you know.
And we recreated the whole district of Krakow that is called Nowa Huta."
"But we, you know, translated that to New Dawn.
And it's fun because it's very personal for me because I live in that place.
I was, like, born in it.
And when I showed the trailer to my mom, she was like, where did you do that?
That was such a beautiful city, you devastated it."
"But, you know, it's cool.
And we chose that city not because, well, because of our egos, but because Nowa Huta was very interesting with her backstory and with the, you know, history and the creation of it.
Because, you know, after the Second World War, too, we've been under the Soviet influence, you know."
"Very dark times for Poland, but we decided to put the game in that space to kind of choose that moment.
Because it was very testing for the nation, you know.
And, you know, we decided to have this test for our characters and their relationships and all that.
Because, you know, as David Lynch once said, like, in the great darkness, the little sparks of beauty shine the most, you know."
"So this is why we chose that, you know.
And it also blends very well, like, the old brutalistic architecture.
It blends very well, like, surprisingly well with the cassette futurism.
You can see, like, the whole kind of technology of the travellers and of the collective."
"It blends very well with the communistic architecture, like Soviet social realism, as it's, you know, called professionally.
Yeah. So in terms of, you've made, as I mentioned earlier, you've made quite a lot of horror games.
And it's really a genre with a lot of conventions.
So how do you surprise the players during the game, like, with the story and with the monsters?
Because a lot of horror fans have played a lot of the earlier games."
"So, yeah, how do you keep surprising?
Yeah, you know, it's funny because I heard, like, voices that this is more, like, action oriented.
And some people are, oh, that's sad, because I like the stories and the games and all that.
But I assure you that there's still a big, big story there."
"Because if not, I would be, like, on the streets.
I need a job. So I'm here and I still, we're still writing those stories.
But I think at some point we were ready to balance that storytelling edge we had with the action.
And I think we, that's super cool that now we are able to create tension in the games and, like, suspense and all that."
"Not only with cheap jump scares and all that, but with the combat scenarios we have in the game.
So it's really, it's natural scares, you know.
You go through this desolated town and you're really kind of scared because of the atmosphere, because of the, well, very well crafted, I've got to say, sound design and all that, you know."
"And of course the combat situations, they're really palpable, you know.
You can feel that tension there.
And also, like, there are, you know, many layers of fear, you know.
So, of course, we try to be also, like, very horror-ish when we create not only the gameplay, but also the stories that we do."
"Because, you know, we are not just for scares, cheap scares here.
We want you to, like, ask yourself very important questions, because I think that very much supports every good horror story, you know.
To have this, like, a thing you really care about, you know."
"And also, like, putting this into a real city makes it great because people can, like, you know, relate to it.
Like, oh, this is a real place, but now it's scary, you know.
It works on your imagination.
Yeah, and of course you did the Silent Hill 2 earlier, which also had a lot of combat."
"So, was that the game that, like, gave you the confidence to do a game with more action?
Or do you think you would have arrived at this place eventually anyway?
Yeah, you know, I think we did Silent Hill because we were ready to do that, you know.
Not like Silent Hill made us, like, experts in that field."
"But, yeah, we were ready before Silent Hill.
I'm sure of that.
And, you know, we did that, but after the release of Silent Hill, we knew that Chronos must be something completely different."
"So, Silent Hill is a story about James Sunderland, basically.
And it's very, very psychological, and it's very on that side.
I feel Chronos is more like a philosophical thing, you know.
And the sci-fi setting, and also, like, the setting in the 80s very much support that idea."
"So, we asked ourselves what does this game need to be?
So, we decided on more, like, action, you know.
You know, the character is completely different than James.
She's, you know, big, bulky."
"She's got armor. She's got all those fun gadgets, like, many weapons.
She's just, like, cool, you know.
She's like a Polish Mandalorian, basically, you know.
So, yeah, that gave us confidence that it will work and still be like..."
"Because a different game, but still kind of in our style, you know.
Because, like, we love to put a little bit of Silent Hill in every of our games.
But with this one, I would say this is more like Risen Evil, in a sense.
Like Risen Evil 4, maybe."
"But we asked ourselves, what if, like, Risen Evil 4, a game with that kind of pacing and action, had, you know, a deeper sci-fi story?
Because, like, you know, Risen Evil stories are cool, but more adventure-oriented.
And, you know, we're here to, like, discuss the nature of humanity and all that."
"So it's a bit different, you know.
Yeah, and a final question. When is the game coming out and on which platform?
It's coming out September 5th.
It's two weeks from now. We're super excited."
"A little bit scared, no pressure, you know, and all that.
But I guess it's gonna be cool.
All the guys play the game in the booth, like, downstairs in the, you know, common area and all that.
They're, like, waiting four hours to play 15 minutes of a game."
"And I think that's crazy, that's cool.
But they're happy when they come out of the booth.
They're like, thank you, I died, like, five times, four times, or whatever, you know.
But I think they're having fun."
"So, you know, that's kind of awesome.
That's an awesome feeling.
Well, thanks, and enjoy the rest of the Gamescom.
Oh, thank you, and good luck."
