Bloober’s forthcoming survival horror Cronos: The New Dawn has received a fresh trailer to give a proper look at gameplay and its unique merge mechanic.

Cronos is the Polish studio’s all-new original survival horror, following its success last year remaking Silent Hill 2.

The trailer, below, introduces the game’s apocalyptic setting of 1980s Poland, hinting at story details and warning players of enemies that merge.

Downed enemies must be completely destroyed using fire. If not, existing enemies can merge with them to evolve into deadlier versions with new abilities.

This is one of the game’s core combat mechanics, which co-directors Jacek Zięba and Wojciech Piejko hinted at when I spoke to them last year about Cronos, comparing it to Dead Space’s limb shooting and Alan Wake’s flashlight.

As for the story, it’s set across two time periods as a mysterious Traveller from a dystopian future is sent back to the 1980s to discover the truth of its apocalypse.

The Polish setting is inspired by the real-life Nowa Huta district of Krakow, here seen as brutalist architecture warped by strange time anomalies.

There’s no specified release date yet, but Cronos: The New Dawn is due for release this year across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

For more on the game, check out my interview with the co-directors about how Cronos will be a worthy follow-up to Silent Hill 2.