After a 13-year wait, it’s finally time to enter the abandoned lunar base and unravel the mysteries of what happened there in the first-person survival horror game Routine.
Routine
Developer: Lunar Software
Price: $25
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review.
Routine was originally announced in 2012 as a sci-fi horror game that had you investigating an abandoned lunar base, with a retro-futuristic aesthetic inspired by how science fiction in the 80s imagined the future. I learned about it a year later and immediately put it on my list of horror games to watch out for. Every few years since then, I’d ask, “What happened to Routine?” and check various sources to see if there was any news yet. As you can imagine, when it showed up at Summer Game Fest in 2022, I was ecstatic, and when a new trailer came out this year with a release date, I could hardly believe it was really happening. Now Routine is out at last, so how did this long-awaited game turn out?
Expectations are set from the moment you start the game. You’ve arrived at the lunar base to investigate its problems, and you start in a small chamber where a retro terminal teaches you the basic controls. You need to take things slowly and pay attention to your surroundings to understand what the game wants from you. At one point, I was puzzled over how to find my ID number without any sort of inventory, until I realized I had to look down at myself to see it. Most things are presented to you in an immersive way, with minimal UI. With that said, while the game rarely offers direct guidance, it does a good job of using lighting to signpost areas you should investigate. The whole base is dark and eerie, but if an area is shrouded in complete darkness, you probably don’t need anything over there.
The main thing that will help you in your investigation is the Cosmonaut Assistance Tool (C.A.T)., a handheld device that lets you interface with machines throughout the base. Some of its functions can be used freely, such as accessing wireless terminals to check your current objectives or save your game. Others, like the ability to overload machines, cost battery power. While this might sound intimidating, batteries are scattered throughout the base in plentiful supply, and I never found myself actually worrying about running out. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock various new functions for the C.A.T., as well.
Terminals are an important feature in the lunar base. You’ll use them to read logs and emails, play media, open doors, and solve puzzles. A particularly neat feature is how the game handles interacting with these devices. Instead of clicking or hitting a key to use a terminal, your controls simply switch over to controlling the cursor on the screen once you focus on one. Logs, audio recordings, and documents are the primary way you’ll piece together the events leading up to the game, so you’re in for a treat if you enjoy that style of storytelling. Meanwhile, puzzles usually involve figuring out a passcode, often by being directed to a different location to find either the code itself or clues toward it. These puzzles are logical and intuitive. One section did stand out as frustrating due to a lot of flashing lights while I was trying to follow a terminal’s instructions, but I hit a bug at that point as well, trapping me in that section for longer than I should have been. When I reloaded and tried again, the intended shorter duration made it much more tolerable.
Routine is a Immersive Sci-Fi Horror That Nails Its Tension
The C.A.T. also functions as your one point of defense. While the base might seem abandoned, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any threats, and you learn that the hard way when a security robot begins chasing you down. When an enemy spots you, your best option is usually to run and hide, but you can fire the C.A.T. to overload a robot’s systems and temporarily disable it. This gives you a little extra time, though not enough to ease the tension. These enemies, together with your own limited defensive options, can be terrifying, and they get scarier the further you get into the game. You can’t pause, either, so sometimes all you can do is run for the nearest save point and hope for the best. Unfortunately, enemy patrols can be frequent enough to feel more annoying than frightening at certain points, especially if you’re working on a puzzle and they keep interrupting you. Fortunately, these moments aren’t too common, and most of your time will be spent in well-paced dread as you ask yourself if you just heard footsteps or if it was only the game’s excellent–and nerve-wracking–ambient sound.
The Final Word
It’s hard not to overhype a game after waiting for over a decade, but when I think back to what I hoped for when I watched the original trailer all those years ago, it delivered. Routine is a creative, tense, and dread-filled experience that makes the most of its aesthetic and sound design, and horror fans shouldn’t miss it.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
