Routine is out and today at Infinite Start we are doing a Routine review, I’m surprised that Routine didn’t even get a space at the game awards, let alone even a single mention. This new horror game is hauntingly beautiful and the work put behind every aspect of it is noticeable, however there’s some small issues with it that I will be covering. Without further ado, let’s start with a proper Routine review.
We are in the 90s, or more like a retro futuristic vision of them, while technology is pretty similar to the one we have grown to be familiar with there’s some twists around this time. It seems that the race to land on the moon was more of a collaborative effort because Union Plaza, or what remains of it, used to be chock full with people from different countries and regions. Routine commits so much towards the retro futuristic aesthetic that even PC interfaces look like something straight from the 80s, even if we live in the late 90s.
That does not mean that everything is stuck in the 80s or 90s, that would be a mistake, being able to reach the moon with so many people and managing to build a base where they could live is an amazing achievement for humanity, and perhaps their final one. There’s secrets that really shouldn’t be unearthed but curiosity often takes the best of us. You wake up from containment at your own quarters, and your task is to find out what even happened to Union Plaza and why are you seemingly alone in all of this mega structure.
It is clear that the developers behind the game put everything into make it feel as realistic as possible, and the dark spaces really help set the mood of not being in the right place. Looking around and interacting with objects feels extremely immersive, almost enthralling I would say, and the fact that you don’t have to deal with any sort of pesky UI or hand holding mechanic is a breath of fresh air from the overcrowded and stale triple A market. While the game looks impressive, one thing to note is that I had to disable upscaling to make it less blurry, however this cheap trick is what makes it work on Steam Deck according to users.
If only horror games could aim to have this level of immersion, perhaps they would be more scary, however the promise of something psychological like early Silent Hill games isn’t quite there. On the seemingly abandoned Union Plaza, machinery seems to still be working, however we don’t really know for who it is working or if it is working by itself. Our main enemy in the game, the scary Type-05 was a series of machines that was meant to help the crew but they are now against you. One by one they have taken down the crew, as if it were a plot out of The Thing or any space horror film.
All of this is neat, very neat in fact, because we were missing some good games that used space and horror like Alien Isolation did and this time its pretty much coming from the hands of a double A studio. While not entirely an indie due to the funding of Raw Fury, the fact that smaller studios are able to produce results as impressive as Routine should put the triple A market on alert. Unfortunately the gameplay feels like it could have been in the oven a bit more, while the concepts provided by the game are neat, perhaps a different execution would have done them justice.
Enter the C.A.T. one of the most important tools of the game that looks like a very bulky gun. This is your way to fend off the Type-05 albeit you can’t really kill them in any way and trying to do so will only stun them for a few seconds. However, you will learn very quickly that this isn’t useful at all, your C.A.T. runs on a limited battery that can only fire three shots before running out. All of this is amazing when you think about it, a game where you really have to be careful on how you use your tools since the C.A.T. can also be used to solve puzzles.
The biggest issue is that batteries aren’t really limited, everywhere you look you can find some laying around, lessening the need to optimize the way you play the game. This, at least for me, made the game feel not scary at all because part of the terror coming from Psychological horror games is the fact that you really need to take care of your inventory and running out of ways to defend yourself is often fatal. The Type-05, while scary at first, is actually rather easy to fool too and you don’t even need to use the C.A.T. to fight them off.
Routine is an amazing concept, but the atmosphere was more intimidating than the enemies itself, the world building is focused and almost feels like some sort of Augmented Reality Game. The soundtrack is really good and feels like it belongs to the era this game is trying to mimic, the atmospheric music really sets the mood of being in Space and also plants a seed of doubt about your safety. The way the first person view of Routine works feels like a prime candidate to implement some sort of VR feature, while some people seem to be doing that themselves, official support should be a thing for this game.
The best part of Routine is the desolated and oppressive atmosphere, along with the slow burn story that unravels as you advance through each chapter, finally trying to discover the truth behind what happened to Union Plaza. Puzzles are also pretty good, some of them feel like fetch quests but with a more analogue twist to them. The biggest flunk was the fact that the parts that should have been scary don’t really hit the spot the Type-05 is so easy to trick that they really don’t feel scary. Routine has some excellent things going on, but dealing with the Type-05’s isn’t really scary, they feel more like an annoyance at best.
At least the push for retro futurism gave us a very neat mascot, the IC Robot is definitely something cute amidst the sheer terror that we are meant to be surrounded by. The digitized speech was really well done for it, and it almost feels like they used the tool Apple provided with old Macintosh workstations, even the UI of the terminals looks like some mix of older Mac and Windows, the artists really outdid themselves when making the world of Routine. Despite being made for 14 years, Routine needed a bit more time in the oven to feel perfect.
Routine Review – Verdict
Routine: Routine looks impressive, a testament to the 3D art skills of those involved with it. While upscaling is enabled by default, one can disable it for a better experience. The puzzles are very clever, the atmosphere is immaculate, yet the enemies feel more like an annoyance rather than something scary, trivialized by the pile of resources available. What's scary is the plot itself, along with the setting that leaves a lot to think about. – Hiro
[Editor’s Note: Routine was reviewed on PC and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]
