Considering how long ROUTINE took to make and how this is Lunar Software’s first game, the overall game is an absolute marvel. It isn’t perfect, but I was enamored from beginning to end with its beautiful aesthetic, terrifying setpieces, and unnerving narrative. I can’t wait to see how Lunar Software progresses its craft with its next game.
ROUTINE combines a retro-futuristic aesthetic with an unnerving sense of dread to create an incredibly engaging and highly atmospheric horror experience.
If you’re a fan of the slow burn, the unshakeable feeling you’re being watched, the hopeless isolation, the 1980s retro future world, dropped off where nobody’s there to hold your hand…
This is the game for you.
Sound design has never elicited such terror in me. I can still hear my pursuer, the CAT clanging against the metal flooring, the fluorescent lights fizzling, and my heart pounding.
The game took me 9 hours to complete. I wish I could have those moments back to experience it fresh again.
Well done, LunarSoftware!
ROUTINE is a frightful time on the lunar surface. While the narrative doesn’t entirely hit due to a lack of memorable characters, the sense of immersion and beautiful visuals carry the scares. ROUTINE is a game for horror aficionados who don’t mind basic gameplay and the occasional puzzle, even if some clues might be hidden slightly too well.
Routine blends an ’80s-style science-fiction atmosphere with tense, visually striking exploration. Despite its outdated mechanics and low-pressure encounters, its well-crafted puzzles and lunar setting provide strong immersion. The game doesn’t reinvent the genre, but it delivers a solid experience for fans of atmospheric horror.
Unfortunately, while Routine has flashes of brilliance in its found-footage presentation and lovingly rendered Space Race-era tech, it’s unable to live up to a decade-plus of anticipation.
Beautiful graphics, but extremely unfriendly for controller users. It's too difficult to pinpoint items since the highlight is barely visible. Navigating the in-game menu, which requires mouse-like cursor control, is a real pain
This gives me massive motion sickness. The station design is ok, but the graphics (color palette/filter/FX abuse) are very hard on the eyes. There's no flashlight in the future???? Everything is unnecessarily unintuitive, you do 3D pixel hunting for some dropped papers under benches, and random interactive items that don't highlight reliably unless you press your nose into them. So you have to press your nose into every wall and object in every room. The puzzles are not "puzzles", they're all just gameplay deficiencies where you simply don't know what to do and have to watch YT video how to get through it because literally nothing is logical or intuitive. It's a terrible copycat of Alien Isolation, but extremely ugly and tedious and annoying to play. Alien got everything right, this got everything wrong. There's not one good thing I can say about this game. And like I said, it just makes you sick. I don't want to spend another second on this station, it's just not fun at all. They should've abandoned this instead of finishing the way they did. Note to developers: if you don't know what makes a proper "game", then find another job.
Boring, sluggish game with awful controls. No tutorial no hints on puzzles, you just thrown right in the game. I was bored out of my mind how slowly the game progressed.There is no soundtrack, just silence and some random sound you make. Half baked alfa state game, skipp!
Waited 13 years for this only to get a 3 hour one-and-done walking simulator with almost no combat, scares or any kind of interaction. Would not recommend.
SummaryRoutine is a first person horror exploration game set on an abandoned Moon base. Your job is to find enough data to uncover the truth behind the strange disappearance of everyone stationed on the Lunar Research Station.