Chronos: Before the Ashes Review

A prequel to 2019’s popular Remnant: From the Ashes is coming — if you can get past THQ Nordic’s shocking trailer announcement.

It’s called Chronos: Before the Ashes, based on the 2016 VR game of a similar name, and is slated as a prequel to Remnant: From the Ashes.

The RPG game will see you as a young explorer who sets out to save his home from an ancient evil. To do so, the hero has to enter a labyrinth, fighting monsters and creatures that want to kill you along the way.

That’s a pretty standard storyline for a bunch of video games but what sets it apart is that each time you die, you have to re-enter the labyrinth and you age a year. It’s not exactly clear how this affects gameplay but the release information suggests the older you age, the more wise you’ll need to be about magic. Presumably, that means you don’t want to die too often if you can avoid it.

THQ Nordic announced the game’s upcoming arrival with a trailer that seemed to do the opposite of what it’s supposed to:

The nearly-two minute trailer is set in the ’80s and includes a real-life teenager — a red flag for any video game trailer — who just can’t wait to get back into the game. It’s possibly one of the worst trailers I’ve seen.

Thankfully, in the glimpses of gameplay you do see, the game looks beautiful.

The game’s release will be welcome news for anyone who missed out on playing the 2016 Chronos, an exclusive on Oculus Rift VR.

Chronos: Before the Ashes will be out on December 1 on PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Hopefully, that’s long enough to forget about the trailer’s existence.