I don’t want to say that this new trailer for Routine is giving off an amazingly powerful vibe of any particular sort but if you’re a fan of System Shock 2, you probably don’t want to miss it.
We know very little about Routine save that it’s a non-linear, first-person horror/exploration game set on an abandoned moon base. The catch is that it’s not supposed to be abandoned: everyone there very suddenly disappeared, and you’ve been sent to figure out why. What could possibly go wrong?
This alpha gameplay trailer isn’t very clear on that point (beyond “everything,” that is) but it does show off what very much appears to be My Kind Of Game. The System Shock 2 atmosphere is impossible to miss (unless you haven’t played it, in which case it probably feels more Dead Space-y) and there’s a distinct element of the more straight-up first-person horror that’s become so popular over the past couple of years, too – Amnesia on the moon, perhaps.
I don’t know why it is that I hate horror games for what they do to me and yet can’t stop inflicting them upon myself, but if Routine is anywhere near as good as this trailer promises, I’ll be there on launch day, cursing the game, the people who made it and my own stupid self, while trying to peer under the edges of my monitor to see what’s waiting for me around that corner. Yeah, good times.
Routine is being developed for the PC by a three-person indie team calling itself Lunar Software. To find out more about the game, hit up routinegame.com.
