Actually playing ROUTINE, however, instantly shows you where all of that development time and money went, since it’s essentially one of the most unique horror games to have come out in a while. Now, don’t get me wrong, there isn’t a lot happening in ROUTINE that we haven’t already seen in other games before. A lot of the gameplay is just slow-paced exploration and puzzle solving before you run into robotic enemies that you have to run away or hide from. What sets it apart from others, however, is its emphasis on making you feel your character’s body over the course of gameplay. To explain this, however, we’ll also have to take a more granular look at how it controls and plays.

"Just like how it wants you to be aware of all your body parts, the game also has an emphasis on having a more naturalistic UI."

ROUTINE isn’t exactly complicated when it comes to its controls. You get the WASD movement key cluster along with two important keys that affect how you control your body: crouch and lean. Holding down the lean button, as you might expect, lets you lean to either side. Unlike other games that also feature a lean button, however, ROUTINE also lets you use it with the forward or backwards movement buttons, which in turn let you stand on your tip toes or go fully prone to try and get your hands on things that might be in harder-to-reach places. While this might sound like a gimmick, the mechanics are used quite well throughout the game, since there aren’t really any objective markers or UI elements that let you know what you should be looking for.

Full-body awareness is a major gameplay aspect of ROUTINE, and just like how it wants you to be aware of all your body parts, the game also has an emphasis on having a more naturalistic UI. This means that you don’t really get a HUD where you might keep track of your CAT’s (we’ll get to that) battery level or your health. You don’t even get a button prompt for opening doors, in fact. Rather, you have to interact with computers to open doors, and this computer use takes a page right out of 2017’s Prey in giving you a real mouse cursor that you have to use to navigate the system. This adherence to not offering any “gameified’ elements like a HUD goes a long way when it comes to setting up the game’s overall atmosphere.

Speaking of which, one of the best things about ROUTINE is just how good it looks. Fidelity was clearly an important aspect of development, and developer Lunar Software did a phenomenal job of creating a moon base that looks lived-in. To accomplish this, the title goes for a very 1980s-inspired look for its in-universe technology. This means that, rather than having sleek flat screens, computer terminals are large kiosks with low-resolution curved CRT displays and big, blocky buttons. All of the technology is like this, including your own CAT – the Cosmonaut Assistant Tool – which also happens to be your primary method of interacting with the world aside from using computers.

"Going deeper into the base, like entering the living quarters, on the other hand, gives you a great idea of just how out-of-hand things have gotten here"

The visuals go a step further by offering plenty of fun contrast in the different parts of the lunar base that you explore. You start out in ROUTINE’s equivalent of its entry way, for instance, and while things are in disarray, there isn’t really too much wrong there aside from some suitcases being strewn open on the ground and a lack of anyone else in the vicinity. Going deeper into the base, like entering the living quarters, on the other hand, gives you a great idea of just how out-of-hand things have gotten here; there are broken-down doors and blood splatters all over the place. Heading to the abandoned mall will then present you with a more classical style of horror where light and darkness are more pronounced.

Audio is similarly top notch, with ROUTINE opting to not really have much in the way of background music. Rather, the title is more focused on providing you the sense of you actually being in the lunar base and exploring it. This means that you only really hear sounds that your character could feasibly hear, be it the creaking of a loose tile, the opening of a door, the clattering of a tiny robot walking around, or the heavier stomps of a larger robot chasing you.

The story of ROUTINE isn’t a particularly complex one, but it is told in a more twisted way than you might expect. There aren’t really any cutscenes that are going to help you figure out what’s going on. Rather, the entirety of the game’s plot is uncovered through the player’s own exploration and environmental storytelling. You often get large parts of the story beats happening through recordings left behind by other people who might have once lived and worked at the lunar base, and you’ll often find notes, forms, books, and various paperwork that will let you know what you should be doing and where you should be going.

"The central story is fine enough and does a great job of constantly pushing you forward"

Things start off with you waking up in the isolation chamber of the lunar base after having slept through your seven days of quarantine. On waking up, you’re prompted to stretch your body, get your spacesuit helmet and ID badge, and step out the door to marvel at the wonders of the moon base. What you do find when you step out of the door is a base that has seemingly been abandoned and is in complete disarray. Over the course of the game, you realise the threat posed by the robots that once worked as the lunar base’s security force, and have a singular main objective: shut down the system powering the robots.

While the central story is fine enough and does a great job of constantly pushing you forward, some of the smaller stories you get to read about or listen to through old recordings left behind tend to be a lot more interesting. These stories often also give you more questions that you will want to find answers for, like what exactly made the security systems turn on the lunar base’s human denizens to begin with, when all of this started, and even the most basic questions of why you’re on the base to begin with and how you can escape. However, answers to these questions are sparse, and are entirely dependent on your own sense of exploration.

To help you deal with this, you’re given a single item: the Cosmonaut Assistance Tool – the CAT – which is basically your omni-tool for dealing with most of the obstacles in your path. The CAT can be used to diagnose computers that might be too messed up to open doors, clear up the distorted signal coming from some speakers to let you better listen to an old message, or even just power up an electrical box so that it can open a door. This ability of the CAT to release bolts of electric energy can also be used as a makeshift weapon – albeit not a particularly good one. The robotic enemies you face in ROUTINE can’t really be killed with the CAT, and it tends to take several shots to even stun them. This is especially problematic since the CAT’s battery can only hold three shots, and you don’t really get to carry spares.

"What makes it a truly excellent experience is its emphasis on making you feel like you’re really there"

That’s not to say that the CAT can’t eventually become a more useful weapon, however. Depending on your own exploratory efforts, you might find some upgrades for the tool that can allow it to fire shots with more energy, making it a more effective way to stun the menacing robots. However, ultimately, your best bet is to still run away and maybe even hide; these robots will stop at nothing to get you, and you can’t really survive more than a single hit from them. A second hit will outright kill you.

ROUTINE is an interesting horror experience, and even if you ignore its incredible development story that involved two game engine migrations, is still one I’d recommend to fans of the genre. The title isn’t particularly challenging, and even though you don’t get any markers or maps to help you navigate, it’s still a fairly linear experience. However, what makes it a truly excellent experience is its emphasis on making you feel like you’re really there, be it from a general lack of a video game-styled UI, to even how you interact with the world and can do things like check under couches for a spare CAT battery. The only major downside here is the fact that the robot enemies’ overall hardiness means that combat isn’t really an option here, and while running around and hiding is always effective, it’s not the style of horror some players may personally enjoy. Despite that, however, ROUTINE still feels like a game I’m glad to have experienced.

This game was reviewed on PC.

But what happened over the course of the thirteen years since the game was first announced? How much has it changed in the process? What’s so special about it that has us quite excited to make it to at least one of its endings before the holidays are done?

We’re going to dive into all of that, showing you why this one’s worth your attention if you’re a fan of horror titles or games that get very immersive indeed. Join us as we examine a title that has been quite a pleasant surprise.

A Warm Welcome

When we first heard of Routine, it was at Gamescom 2012, and it seemed like a very interesting title at the time. It brought a lot of familiar elements from the best of media in the horror genre to a passion project that saw its lead designer, Aaron Foster, set out to bring his childhood passions together into an experience, and Lunar Software was born once he began to expand his team.

Taking place on the Moon, Routine puts you in the shoes of a nameless protagonist trying to piece together a series of events on a desolate base, braving sentient robots that seem quite insistent on preventing you from going any further. We’re going to dive into why it’s as good as we think it is in just a bit, but before that, let’s take a look at why it’s taken thirteen long years for the game to make its way to its players.

Although things were looking good for Routine following its 2012 announcement, it was hit by what would be the first delay in a long line of them. Nearly four years and multiple announcements of delayed release windows later, 2016 finally gave the game a March 2017 release date. We were as excited back then as we are now to play a game that looked so darn good in all of its promotional materials.

But another blow came to eager fans in April 2018, with the developers expressing dissatisfaction with the narrative’s endings, and further delaying the game’s release. With the team unable to agree on a mutually acceptable option, Routine would be on a very long hiatus until development would resume in 2020. With a lot of the funding for the project coming from within the team, financial constraints would also be a factor at this stage.

The game shifted to Unreal Engine 5 once its development resumed, a move that seems to be the right one based on our time with its early hours. The rest is now old news. The game was announced once again in 2022 at the Summer Games Fest and is finally in our hands.

Sci-Fi Scares

The desolate station you explore in Routine is quite a nasty place. But it’s also a world that’s been cleverly designed to balance scares with a good amount of interactive elements that make exploration a fairly unpredictable experience that does play it safe in order to ensure optimal balancing, but does a good job of keeping you on your toes nonetheless.

It took me a while to get into the habit of keeping my eyes peeled as I carefully made my way through the adventure. That’s because the station’s security system really doesn’t like you and sends its robots to remove you from the board. Although I was initially relieved to know that it could activate only one robot at a time, my elation was short-lived.

That’s because you never know when and where it could choose to activate a robot. Coupled with procedurally generated levels, that’s a recipe for a game of cat and mouse that decidedly places you in the latter role, and at quite the disadvantage. It’s enough to make the sound of robots’ thumping footsteps set your pulse racing as you try to find a way to safely mitigate the threat they pose.

With no HUD and permadeath being an ever-present problem that’s always a nagging thought at the back of your mind as you try to make sense of the world around you, Routine doesn’t shy away from defying mainstream traditions despite being the first release after a very turbulent period for the studio.

It’s clear in its vision, which is to present an unforgiving world that seems hell-bent on preventing you from uncovering the secrets it’s trying to hide. Even the tools it gives you in its attempt to even the odds require a lot of strategy to be effective against your enemies, and its limited battery capacity means you’re going to want to have a contingency plan in place whenever you decide to use it in battle.

However, Routine could have easily fallen prey to a frustrating loop of gathering enough supplies to make a run for your next objective, with failure resulting in some tedious farming as a result. However, the things you need to proceed are never quite far from you, but finding them requires some diligence on your part.

The gameplay loop in Routine is thus suitably tense and fraught with enough peril to make playing through the adventure a riveting, satisfying experience that’s helped along with some excellent art direction and creative flourishes.

An Unreal World

The Moon was always going to be the stage for this adventure, being an area of fascination for Foster and also a location that could convey a sense of loneliness and desolation in the wake of a series of unfortunate events that the player must uncover. While the jury is still out on how the story ultimately plays out, we’re certainly enjoying taking it one painstaking step at a time. But each of those steps feels so immersive thanks to the game’s retro yet futuristic art direction that really sells the material it’s working with. The enemy designs are also suitably impressive, the robots’ raw speed, size, and strength being evident in the way they toss your player around like a ragdoll if you’re unfortunate enough to let one catch you.

You truly feel vulnerable thanks to how well the experience is presented, the lack of any sort of indicators about your health being a superb touch that makes it all feel very real from moment to moment. On the presentation and visual fronts, this one is definitely a winner. The audio design is similarly good, with heavy silences being broken by the sound of your next encounter so suddenly you can’t help but jump.

The level design is another highlight, with enemies so cleverly hidden away, lying dormant until they are called upon to make your day as miserable as they can manage. It helps that said enemies are quite smart, hunting you down with unerring precision and invading hiding spots with clinical efficiency in their quest to put a premature end to your playthrough.

The entire vibe in Routine comes together quite well, making you feel like even the slightest of errors can have you on the backfoot since death comes with very real consequences. By choosing to make the gameplay loop as intense as it has, Lunar Software has crafted an experience that’s largely been worth the wait.

It makes you hold your breath as you carefully make your way past a dormant automated monstrosity, hoping against hope that it isn’t going to power up and give chase. Just when you think you’ve managed to get away with your espionage, you’re set upon by another, entirely new one that you failed to spot since its buddy was holding your attention.

It’s a game that feels like it’s been worth a thirteen year wait. And that’s saying something for a game that languished in development hell for so long. It’s rare for such titles to turn out okay, and for one to be as great and entertaining as Routine currently is, there were clever decisions made and implemented quite well.

Those decisions seem to have paid off, and we’re hoping that Routine continues to enthrall us as we take on more of its challenges and threats. We’re also wondering if 2025 has any more gems hidden under its sleeve as a year of great games draws to a close.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

First announced in 2012, ROUTINE is a sci-fi survival horror where players venture through a lunar base filled with dangerous robots. That’s the same year that Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Mass Effect 3 and more launched, and almost all of them have received sequels (we don’t talk about Mass Effect: Andromeda).

What separates it from the likes of Alien: Isolation is permadeath. And just in case you think that trial and error through the same environments will save the day, there’s a bit of procedural generation at play. That also applies to the enemies, so you’ll never truly know where they’re coming from on any given run.

While there could be another delay, Lunar Software confirmed in July that development was approaching the “finish line.” It even released some new gameplay, highlighting the hacking mechanics and the importance of stealth.

ROUTINE will be available for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on release. Check out our interview with the team from 2014 to learn more about its setting and compare how much it’s changed since.

Quite early on in the title, we get to look at how ROUTINE handles its in-game computer terminals, complete with its own special UI that players will have to navigate. Through this terminal, the player can seemingly upgrade their core tools and get descriptions of the new gameplay options they might open up. The one shown in the gameplay trailer is the C.A.T., which can seemingly be used to neutralise magnetic interference from nearby machines, and even has its own camera and screen. It is worth noting that the C.A.T. is seemingly more of a maintenance tool than a weapon, however.

After the opening parts of the video showcase a quick puzzle being solved by using the C.A.T., the player then finds themselves running through a dark corridor before encountering a room with a computer offering some paths forward. The puzzle design in ROUTINE seems to borrow heavily from real-world computer programming, with the player having to read through various terminals’ diagnostics and error codes, and figuring out how they can then fix these errors by understanding what the codes mean.

The final few moments of the video give us a look at the stealth horror gameplay of ROUTINE, with the player needing to carefully make their way across a room and then a hallway without being spotted by seemingly-hostile robots.

Development on ROUTINE has seemingly been going on for over a decade at this point, since the title was first announced all the way back in 2012. Over the years, developer Lunar Software has been popping up every now and then to release new trailers for the still-in-development horror title, before once more going radio silent to continue work on the game. Back in July, designers and artists Aaron Foster and Jemma Hughes, along with programmer Pete Dissler, reiterated that the game is “still very much in active development”.

Developers of the title acknowledged the studio’s tendency to stay relatively quiet about the game, and largely put it down to the studio’s smaller size, as well as the importance for the developers to keep working on the game.

“Working on ROUTINE has always been a huge undertaking for a team of our size, and because of that, we felt it was important to keep our heads down and focus entirely on finishing ROUTINE,” wrote the developers. “But we are aware of the interest in our work, and we are sorry for any frustration that this may have caused.”

ROUTINE is being developed for PC and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release later this year.

In a new Steam Community post, designers/artists Aaron Foster and Jemma Hughes and programmer Pete Dissler acknowledged the long absence. “Working on ROUTINE has always been a huge undertaking for a team of our size, and because of that, we felt it was important to keep our heads down and focus entirely on finishing ROUTINE. But we are aware of the interest in our work, and we are sorry for any frustration that this may have caused.”

The team confirmed that ROUTINE is “still very much in active development” and “We are beginning to approach the finish line for the game. We’ve learned a lot from past experiences. One of those is not to commit to a release window before we’re absolutely sure we can hit it. However, we’re confident that we’ll be able to share more news on that front soon.”

Though the team consists of three employees, Lunar Software has been “fortunate enough to gain the support and expertise of additional contributors during the game’s development. We are super thankful to have worked with a variety of awesome and skilled people over the years!” DOOM composer Mick Gordon is one such contributor, and though he worked on the project for “many years,” he ultimately departed in July 2024 due to “conflicts in his schedule.”

“During his time with us, Mick created many outstanding audio assets that will be featured in the final game and provided invaluable audio direction for ROUTINE. These contributions will now be implemented by a new audio designer and team. Over the years, Mick has been an incredible friend and collaborator, supporting us through thick and thin. We are deeply grateful for his work on ROUTINE and wish him all the best in his future projects.”

ROUTINE is in development for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. It’s a first-person survival horror title where players explore an abandoned lunar base inhabited by killer robots. Permadeath is a big part of the gameplay loop, and since there’s no way to heal, players must focus on stealth to ultimately survive.

ROUTINE will see players exploring a mysterious space station as they unleash an enemy force that will seek and hunt them out. The game will feature distinct locales such as abandoned malls and living quarters. ROUTINE will also have minimal UI and a module system that will be used for all kinds of upgrades to the Cosmonaut Assistance Tool (C.A.T.).

As for what went down behind the scenes, ROUTINE was essentially on the brink of being canceled as the developers weren’t satisfied with the quality of the game, even after working on it for 5 years. The game was then essentially sidelined as the team began to look for other jobs since the studio had run out of finances. Now though, ROUTINE has restarted development, thanks to a new publisher backing in the form of Raw Fury.

“We were surviving on an extremely tight budget. The financial stress began taking a toll on us, especially as we realized we needed to work on things for longer. ROUTINE at this point became a part-time project as we had to work on other jobs/projects to stay afloat,” a statement reads (via Gematsu).

“It took us a while to figure out how to finish the project and deliver it as the experience we intended, but when a line of communication opened with Raw Fury, we knew we had found a partner who would be able to support us in all the areas we previously struggled with. To everybody who has waited both long and short, we want to say thank you for all of the love, support & patience. We’re excited to be back and working with Raw Fury, so we can finally bring ROUTINE to you,” the developer added.

Unsurprisingly, there’s still no release date, but ROUTINE is confirmed to be coming to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S alongside launch day availability on Xbox game Pass.

We caught up with the artist and designer of the game, Aaron Foster to talk about the game’s different survival mechanics, the setting, potential next gen versions and more.

Rashid Sayed: First of all, tell us a bit about yourself and your company Lunar Software? 

Aaron Foster: My name is Aaron Foster and I am a Designer/Artist for Lunar Software, we are mainly based in the UK and there are 4 of us in total working on Routine with one or two freelance artists helping us out also! Routine will be our first game and while it may not be perfect, we do hope that it will be something quite different to what you have experienced before.
 
Rashid Sayed: What can you tell us about the protagonist of the game? How does he land up on the abandoned Moon base?

Aaron Foster: In Routine you take control of a nameless person and is there purely for the player to embody rather than have a personality and story of his own. We want the focus to be on the environment and things happening around him, rather than him specifically.

"The C.A.T is something that you will rely on for keeping track of progression, it will help with navigation and vision in some areas, it's a way to remotely connect to certain interfaces and of course you are able to use it to "defend" yourself in a non permanent and quite rudimentary way."

Rashid Sayed: Against who is the player fighting? From what I see they seem to some kind of robotic aliens or is there a supernatural force in action?

Aaron Foster: SPOILER! 😀

Rashid Sayed: Do you think the inclusion of weapons might reduce the suspense/horror element? 

Aaron Foster: The C.A.T is an extremely rudimentary tool when it comes to defending yourself with it, you will not feel empowered and honestly it’s there as a last resort and comes with a cost.

Rashid Sayed: What can you tell us about Cosmonaut Assistance Tool? How will it tie up with the weapons upgrade system? 

Aaron Foster: The C.A.T is something that you will rely on for keeping track of progression, it will help with navigation and vision in some areas, it’s a way to remotely connect to certain interfaces and of course you are able to use it to “defend” yourself in a non permanent and quite rudimentary way.

Rashid Sayed: Lighting seems to be an integral part of Routine. Can you share the technical methods that you utilized in achieving the same? Furthermore, how better the lighting will be in the final version?   

Aaron Foster: From a technical standpoint we are just trying to keep the game optimized, so we mostly use static lighting (lightmaps) We do throw in some dynamic lights for variation and gameplay purposes though and luckily we use Unreal Engine 3 which has a pretty solid Global Illumination solution for all of our static lighting needs.

"Depending on the type of person you are, you will be faced with the option of Survival or Discovery and both will come with its own set of challenges and "rewards" The game does have multiple endings to really embrace your choices."

Rashid Sayed: The game seems to be following a similar camera trend like those found in Outlast and Amnesia. How do you plan to make it unique for someone who has already played those games? 

Aaron Foster: I personally don’t see much similarities to Amnesia or Outlast due to it also being a way to potentially defend yourself, it’s also upgradable and takes a little bit more finesse to use due to us using a deadzone aiming system. We were never inspired by anything when it came to the C.A.T it was spawned out of a long brainstorming session early in development.

Rashid Sayed: The game promises to deliver a non-linear experience. This obviously means there are multiple paths that the player can take to achieve in-game objectives.  How will this actually work in-game? Can you please explain with an example? 

Aaron Foster: Depending on the type of person you are, you will be faced with the option of Survival or Discovery and both will come with its own set of challenges and “rewards” The game does have multiple endings to really embrace your choices.

Rashid Sayed: Routine features permanent death system. To make things difficult there are no health bars as well. How are you making sure that the game is challenging and at the same time not frustrating for the player? 

Aaron Foster: Permadeath isn’t really in the game to make it difficult, it’s there as a way to make the player really question and care about the actions that he takes.

Rashid Sayed: Do we have a release date set for the game?

Aaron Foster: 2014 is about as close as a release date as we can get right now sorry ;(

"We have been working on Routine for quite a while now and may just need time to rest once we release. We do love the guys over at Sony, they have been great with us and we would love to release on PS4 if we have the energy to pull that off to a good standard."

Rashid Sayed: The game is currently planned for the PC platforms. Do you have any plans to bring it on the PS4 and Xbox One? Especially on the PS4, given that Sony has a solid self publishing system in place.

Aaron Foster: PS4 is a small possibility after the PC release.

Rashid Sayed: Why is the possibility ‘small’ for bringing it over the PS4?

Aaron Foster: We have been working on Routine for quite a while now and may just need time to rest once we release. We do love the guys over at Sony, they have been great with us and we would love to release on PS4 if we have the energy to pull that off to a good standard.

Rashid Sayed: Xbox One has ID@Xbox program for indie developers. I am wondering if you are interested in bringing the game to the Xbox One. If not, why?

Aaron Foster: We are PC games and developers at heart, so for us to even think about doing a console release is strange enough in itself. If we did finally decide on doing a console version we would like to support Sony for all the great things they are doing to support our industry.

Rashid Sayed: I am sure you must be aware of the technical specs of the next gen consoles. What are your thoughts on the technical prowess of PS4 and Xbox One? 

Aaron Foster: I have honestly not really looked into them so I honestly couldn’t give you much of an answer.

Rashid Sayed: Routine seems to be a pretty resource demanding game. But if you ever decide to port it to next gen consoles, do you think you will be able to do it without any compromise in resolution and frame rate? 

Aaron Foster: We are using Unreal Engine 3 so it won’t be too demanding and I doubt we would need to optimize much for next gen consoles.

If you are unaware of what Routine is all about then I suggest checking out the gameplay video above. If you are into horror games then there should be no reason why you should not be following this title. GamingBolt got a chance to have a chat with Aaron Foster, Designer/Artist for Lunar Software, the developers behind Routine.

In our discussion, GamingBolt was able to ask whether there are any plans to bring the game on the PS4 and Xbox One, especially on the former, given that Sony has a solid self publishing system in place.

Foster believes that the “PS4 [version] is a small possibility after the PC release.”

So, why is the possibility ‘small’ for bringing it over the PS4? “We have been working on Routine for quite a while now and may just need time to rest once we release. We do love the guys over at Sony, they have been great with us and we would love to release on PS4 if we have the energy to pull that off to a good standard.” Sounds reasonable.

But wait, what about the Xbox One? Microsoft has this ID@Xbox program for indie developers. We asked Foster if they have any plans for the Xbox One versions, and if not, why. Foster believes that Sony have been doing great things for the industry and if there is ever a console version, it will be the PS4 version.

“We are PC games and developers at heart, so for us to even think about doing a console release is strange enough in itself. If we did finally decide on doing a console version we would like to support Sony for all the great things they are doing to support our industry,” he said to us.

Do you own a PS4 and and do you want Lunar Software to release the game on it? Let us know in the comments section below.