Cronos Lazarus was playable at gamescom in Cologne a few weeks back, and today the Polish team at Bloober Team are back with a new gameplay video running over four minutes. It's a chance to get a much more concrete look at this first expansion for Cronos The New Dawn, released in 2025, and above all to see just how much beefier the combat has become. The studio is fully owning this far more action-oriented shift, too, with a Guardian who's better equipped, more mobile and able to call on new abilities to deal with some especially aggressive enemies.
And... Action!
Among the smaller details worth flagging: the "Lazarus" DLC has been co-developed with the studio PixelAnt Games, and Cronos Lazarus puts us in the shoes of the Guardian, a former Sentinel already glimpsed in the original The New Dawn. Cut off from the Collective, our new character is trying to awaken a lost essence while being hunted by a new and particularly formidable pursuer. More experienced and better equipped than the first game's protagonist, the Guardian mainly benefits from new abilities that completely change how you approach a fight. He can create a holographic clone to draw enemy attention, for instance, use optical camouflage to turn temporarily invisible, and even teleport over short distances if needed.
On the arsenal front, the expansion also bulks things up with an automatic weapon firing armour-piercing rounds and a particularly effective pump-action shotgun. The survival mechanics are still there, mind, if only to justify the family resemblance, with a limited inventory and healing items that remain scarce. That said, while the action turn is pretty obvious, the fights will be more aggressive and the Guardian can take the initiative far more often. But Bloober Team don't appear to have sacrificed the difficulty in the process: we should still be in for a rough ride, if you'll pardon the understatement. The other big draw will of course be the story, since Cronos Lazarus is set to dig into the Guardian's past and his relationship with the Collective, while answering the questions The New Dawn left hanging.
Cronos Lazarus is due out in autumn 2026 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.
