Routine

Steam Reviews

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• Recommended Posted December 8, 2025 on Steam Routine – Early Impressions Routine is fantastic for what it is, and honestly, the story behind its development makes it even more impressive. This game was announced back in 2012 with a vision that instantly grabbed everyone. Then everything went dark. Development stalled, radio silence dragged on for years, and most of us assumed it had died somewhere between the engine swaps and bad luck. People joke that it looks inspired by Alien Isolation… but this existed before that game was even shown. So seeing Routine finally released felt surreal. I was ready to play it purely out of respect for that old promise, expecting anything from a rough curiosity to a half-finished relic. Instead, the game turns out to be genuinely good. Better than good. You can tell they cooked this thing patiently over all those years. Massive respect to the team for pulling off what honestly felt impossible. Their resilience and grit deserve praise on its own. It’s even crazier when you remember this was built by something like 3–4 people. Because the visuals do not look like a tiny-team project. The art direction is killer. Even the simplest objects have style. The materials, the lighting, the texture work… it’s all insanely polished and beautifully optimized. This game runs smooth as butter even on older machines. The audio is on the same level. I haven’t felt this kind of immersion in ages. It genuinely brings back the era of Thief and System Shock 2, when audio wasn’t just background noise but the thing that pulled you under. Mick Gordon touched this during early development and you can feel the intensity in the soundscape. There’s also a clear Valve-like philosophy at play. Not in copying Half-Life’s gameplay, but in how it tells the story. Environmental storytelling, little details, a world that feels handcrafted with purpose. You can feel the passion baked into every corner. Overall, Routine is essential. It’s the kind of game the sci-fi horror genre desperately needed to remind everyone that atmosphere and craftsmanship matter more than budget or spectacle. And if you’re into Half-Life, System Shock, Alien Isolation, Prey, SOMA, Amnesia, or basically anything dark, lonely, atmospheric and heavy on mood… this is a blind recommendation. Don’t think. Just play it.
• Recommended Posted December 10, 2025 on Steam This game is kind of like Amnesia, but sci-fi. Sneak around, dodge enemies, solve puzzles. The areas aren't that big, and the game can take about 7 hours to complete 100%. The first playthrough is really fun, but the replay value is very low. -Atmosphere and sounds are very good. -Infinite stamina. -Unique tool mechanics. -Only one missable achievement. -Sound-based enemies. -No pause (even if you press ESC). -No map. -No manual flashlight without the tool (while aiming with it, you sacrifice part of your view) -No autosave (manual save points are fair). -No collectibles. -After the tutorials, you're on your own. You can view your objectives, documents, etc. at any time in the in-game save point. Beyond that, there is no help, no markers, no reminders.
• Recommended Posted December 4, 2025 on Steam This isn't horror, this game is pure terror. Man, waited years for this game to release and its wayyyyy better than I expect. For people not able to pass the starting area, please read all papers when you get the CAT. This game does not hold you hand at all and its amazing for it.
• Recommended Posted December 14, 2025 on Steam You already know what I'm going to say about the decade+ wait so I'll skip it and just tell you to play this right away. The review publication Gamerant scored this a game a 5/10, from the same writer which scored concord a 7/10, BO7 an 8/10, and starfield a 10/10. I bring up this up to fully illustrate the kinds of people which will be ruthlessly filtered by this experience: tasteless, corporate tools, which have every part of their problem solving mind atrophied by years of over tutorialization and pervasive hand holding. The second half of this game is "mixed" in the same way that Inside's ending is "abrupt". Mixed in the same way that Death Stranding is "too slow". Like those titles, you can tell if you'll love or hate this game just by looking. Trust those instincts. There's no reason to hold yourself off form playing if you miss artists like Kubrick and Tarkosky, and Lem. Thank you, Lunar Software for never letting this project go. You just gave the greenlight to future subversive developers of the future, and there's no going back now. Thank you.
• Recommended Posted December 4, 2025 on Steam Years of hand-holding and blatantly telling the player what to do have done irreparable damage to gamers' critical thinking and attention spans. What's your ID? It's on your suit - look down. How do I get this thing to raise? Shoot the thing. You're a technician - how do you fix the thing? Turn it on and off. There's so many simple things with simple solutions that will filter out streamers like DSP. The game does very little hand holding. Everything is so diegetic in this game for the sake of immersion. There's no UI, but you can see relevant information directly on your CAT. You directly interact with the terminal without a secondary UI popping up. I'm liking it so far. It's definitely well made. I like the atmosphere.
• Recommended Posted December 4, 2025 on Steam On steam deck, limit the fps to 45 and set settings to low, it runs perfectly well. Graphics look incredible, and for a team of any size (let alone 3); you can tell that a lot of love and work went into this game