ROUTINE review: Carefully crafted cosmic carnage

Creating something that feels new and authentic in the sci-fi horror niche isn’t easy, but the creators of ROUTINE have managed to do it anyway. Set in a retro-futuristic lunar base brimming with danger, this game feels equal parts terrifying and stylish.

Below, you’ll find The Escapist’s full, spoiler-free review of ROUTINE, looking at everything you can expect from this fresh addition to the sci-fi psychological horror niche. This review was completed on a PC.

The Escapist recaps

• ROUTINE is a retro-futuristic sci-fi horror, developed by Lunar Software and published by Raw Fury.
• In ROUTINE, you’re tasked with exploring a seemingly abandoned lunar base after an isolation period. Something has gone horribly wrong on the base, and as you might imagine, you’re not alone.
• This game has been anxiously anticipated – it was initially announced over a decade ago. Thankfully, it’s lived up to the hype, offering a masterfully tense and unnerving addition to the sci-horror genre. 
• Unlike most sci-fi games that lean into a futuristic style, ROUTINE stands out thanks to its low-tech, retro-futuristic atmosphere. It feels deliberately clunky in places; your technology is unreliable, adding to the tension nicely.

A look back at the future 

ROUTINE is a retro-futuristic sci-horror game, developed by Lunar Software and published by Raw Fury. It takes place on a seemingly empty lunar base, where your initial task is to figure out what happened and where everyone went. 

ROUTINE doesn’t hit you over the head with its story – you have to work for it. As you might imagine based on the genre, you’re not going to be alone on the lunar base for long, but it’s an initially solitary experience, with the story being told through slideshows, voice notes, and emails.

If you were a fan of Hell Is Us, you’ll like how hands-on the gameplay in ROUTINE is. There are no obvious quest markers, no guiding quest logs or yellow paint. You can check your current tasks using a C.A.T. portal, but the game demands you pay attention to your surroundings. This reviewer found it helpful to have a pen and paper to hand. 

Speaking of the C.A.T. – Cosmonaut Assistance Tool, not a fluffy friend – you’ll get it early on in the game. As much as it might look like a wicked weapon, it’s actually a tactical tool that you’ll be able to use for solving puzzles, unlocking doors, and accessing terminals. 

The C.A.T. is a little fiddly to use at first, and some players may not like how much it obscures the screen when zoomed in, but it felt perfectly in sync with the game’s overall theming.

The fact that it’s not much of a weapon also added to the overall horror experience fantastically. If you like psychological horror and survival horror that leaves you feeling defenceless and constantly on the run, you’ll love the style of horror that ROUTINE opts for. Your character is not a fighter. 

Disgustingly tense, beautifully atmospheric

One of ROUTINE’s strengths is its storytelling. It’s immediately clear from the get-go that something is wrong on the lunar base, but the gravity of the situation seeps in slowly, deliberately, ramping up the stakes as you progress.

Visually, ROUTINE is a delight. Even in its goriest, most intense moments, there was still an undeniable beauty to the game. The world has been meticulously crafted, with a variety of zones and areas to explore – ranging from luminescent malls to claustrophobic living quarters.

Tutorials were smartly implemented, too. Instead of having the game overtly tell you how to jump or use the C.A.T., it presents you with an instructive email and a C.A.T. slideshow, complete with funky graphics. 

Performance-wise, there were no notable issues with ROUTINE. It looked great, with no glitches or quirks, other than an enemy occasionally sending the player backwards and clipping the map slightly. 

The main element that’ll be divisive for players is the lack of overt instructions. ROUTINE isn’t necessarily an easy game to crack; the controls are quite specific and take a minute to get the hang of, and the lack of direct mission instructions or quest markers may prove frustrating to some. 

It’s worth the effort, though. ROUTINE stands out as one of the most memorable sci-fi horrors of the year, creating a genuinely unnerving, frightening, and otherworldly experience that’ll be a delight for seasoned horror lovers to tear through. Its story feels deliberate and well-paced, with a few startling moments that’ll have your heart thundering. 

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