Bloober Team didn’t exactly hide their inspiration when developing Cronos: The New Dawn. The Polish studio has previously credited Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys as a foundational influence on their latest survival horror venture (via Bloober Team’s YouTube channel), and now that the game’s actually here. Players are actively connecting the dots between the 1995 cult classic and this post-apocalyptic nightmare.
12 Monkeys planted seeds that took three decades to bloom in gaming form fully. What started as James Cole (played by none other than Bruce Willis) stumbling through time to investigate humanity’s plague-driven extinction has evolved into something far more interactive and terrifying.
How Terry Gilliam’s Dystopian Vision Lives in Cronos
12 Monkeys introduced audiences to time travel as surveillance rather than salvation. James Cole couldn’t prevent the plague that wiped out humanity. He could only observe, gather data, and report back to his underground masters.
Cronos lifts this concept wholesale but adds interactive teeth. The Traveler visits 1980s Poland not to stop “The Change” (the cataclysmic event in the game’s narrative) but to extract essence from people already doomed. Same futility, different execution.
The visual connections hit even harder. Both worlds feature Eastern European brutalism mixed with retrofuturistic decay. Underground societies ruled by paranoid bureaucrats. Bulky protective gear that makes movement awkward and claustrophobic.
Gilliam’s film explored predetermined fate and the madness of trying to change unchangeable history. Bloober Team translated that existential dread into their enemy merging system. Kill an Orphan but forget to burn the corpse? Another enemy absorbs it and becomes stronger. Past mistakes literally make future battles harder.
The plague angle works differently but serves identical thematic purposes. Where Gilliam imagined a virus forcing humanity underground, Cronos transforms people into monsters who can fuse with dead flesh. Both ask the same question: what happens when survival becomes more horrifying than death?
Polish Developers Keep Raising the Bar Globally
Cronos launching in the mammoth-sized shadow of Hollow Knight: Silksong could have been catastrophic timing for most developers. Instead, Bloober Team is busy carving out its survival horror niche while proving Polish talent extends far beyond CD Projekt Red’s RPG success.
This studio went from psychological horror specialists to legitimate AAA competition in less than two years. Their Silent Hill 2 remake earned universal praise, and now their original IP shows they don’t need established franchises to create compelling experiences.
Polish gaming culture seems built for this kind of ambitious storytelling. Where American studios often prioritize broad market appeal, teams like Bloober Team embrace darker themes, complex narratives, and mechanics that demand players to stay on their toes and think outside of the box.
Cronos: The New Dawn succeeds because it commits to being uncomfortable. The enemy merging creates real consequences for sloppy play. Resource scarcity forces actual decision-making. The time travel feels genuinely futile rather than empowering.
Have you spotted connections between 12 Monkeys and Cronos that go beyond what Bloober Team admitted? Comment below!
