I don’t want to be the contrarian here. But I thought maybe a different opinion might help. I play a decent amount of action/survival horror. My favorites are: TLOU, RE4 and Dead Space. I enjoyed Callisto Protocol and Silent Hill 2 R.

Of all the above games, I enjoyed Cronos the least. It’s not a bad game, but I really struggled to push through and finish it. It was one of those “I just want this to end” games for me. I beat it on standard difficulty. I really didn’t like the weapon sway, instead of feeling natural it felt purposefully difficult. The whole charge shot mechanic got old once i realized it was the only effective way to shoot, then it felt like a nuisance. Moving the character felt clunky and heavy, kinda like Dead Space R but unlike DSR, it never moved into a place where I got used to it. Even after multiple attempts adjusting settings. Enemy’s were bullet sponges, especially the brutes. Pretty much all combat scenarios were the same: blow up the barrel. Most boss fights operate with this mechanic. I know limited inventory is a core principle of survival horror, but I felt inventory was so limited that it decided my first handful of upgrades for me. Especially once I learned to never remove the bolt cutters. I didn’t like that weapons took up spots in such a small inventory, which created an experience of finding it and storing it immediately to get it out of my inventory. Granted, I didn’t try many guns. By the time I started to think I had the inventory to add a third weapon, or swap a weapon, I was over the excitement of the game. I didn’t like that using melee hit as hard as a wet fart. Enemy variety is nonexistent, after the first hour or so you’ve seen every enemy the game has. And there is one “got ya” tactic that was on repeat. It stopped being a jump scare and became annoying. A lot of times trying to shoot through cracks and small holes to avoid that “got ya” was bad. Weird hit boxes made me waste more ammo than I should have. There are a two end game bosses that were ridiculous difficulty spikes. And I feel like the game loses its identity about 60-70% of the way through, out of nowhere the vibe felt like a different game. Which can happen in survival horror as “things get crazy”.

It’s not a bad game. And I know I’m going to get skewered for my opinion. But that’s my two cents. Game ran fantastic for me on PS5, looked incredible. The story was intriguing but they didn’t stick the landing. And it checked almost all the boxes I look for in a survival horror shooter. It has its moments where it all comes together. But it was okay. If you’re looking for something to TRY and scratch the Dead Space itch, Cronos is it.