Bloober Team’s latest venture, Cronos: The New Dawn, has begun its pre-release access ahead of the official launch on the 6th. It has already climbed to the very top of Steam’s global best-seller list, earning a 'Very Positive' rating from users who can’t help but draw comparisons to the atmosphere and narrative depth of Dead Space.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a survival horror title set in a desolate, fractured future. The root of this collapse lies in a mysterious 'Shift' that occurred in 1980s Poland, where humanity’s contact with alien entities known as 'Cronos' triggered a catastrophic transformation into monsters. As a traveler belonging to a cryptic future organization called the Collective, the player is tasked with navigating rifts back to 1980s Poland to track down critical individuals.

The gameplay hinges on shifting between past and future, tasking players with surviving against grotesque horrors. A standout mechanic is the absolute necessity of incineration; simply downing a monster isn't enough, as they will fuse with nearby threats if left to rot. With limited ammunition and resources, managing combat encounters requires a strategic, often desperate touch.

Since the pre-release access began on the 2nd, the user feedback for Cronos: The New Dawn has remained 'Very Positive' (with 253 reviews, 85% positive). Players are praising the Dead Space and Resident Evil-esque atmosphere and the core systems. However, even with the warm reception, some have pointed out optimization woes. While the recommended specs list an i7-10700K CPU and an RTX 3080, some report severe frame drops on even more powerful rigs unless DLSS is enabled.

Elsewhere on the charts, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries has surged to the top thanks to a new DLC release. Meanwhile, Borderlands 4 is generating significant buzz, climbing to the number one spot despite being more than a week away from launch.

In the daily peak Concurrent Players top 20, Hollow Knight has hit an all-time record of 72,916 players. It seems the imminent launch of the sequel, Silksong—now less than 10 hours away—has prompted a massive wave of players diving into the original. Dead by Daylight also saw a bump to 76,338 players following the addition of a new killer to its test servers.