ROUTINE

Wonderful game. Like 2001 meets Alien Isolation. I really hope they do a sequel or DLC

Incredibly terrifying. This game has instilled a fear in me that no other horror game has before. would highly recommend to any horror game enthusiasts that liked alien isolation.

Routine - A Spoiler-Free review The game certainly picks on many unique types of phobias not often seen in the horror genre; selenophobia and coprophobia being the two of them, and the more common claustrophobia and automatonophobia. The game does a fantastic job building tension without frustration, (no bullsh!t deaths, plentiful batteries if you know where to look, and very tasteful jump scares). There is no pause function in this game. I’m not sure if it was intentional by developers, but it certainly added a sense of dread when I couldn’t simply freeze the situation on the fly to make up an exit strategy. The player does not spent too long in each area (which are wonderfully designed in the cassette-futurism aesthetic) as long as they’re paying attention to the environment and reading through various terminal entries. Initially, I had concerns about overwriting a saved game slot from the main menu since the first option is ‘New Game’ rather than to ‘Continue’ from a previous save. Fortunately, on starting a New Game. the player is prompted with a warning. Perhaps the first option after creating a new game should be to Continue or load the game. Because the game relies on environmental story telling through signs and papers scattered throughout the game, I noticed the text can be hard to read on low or medium texture settings. This makes reading directly from the pages very difficult, but this is a common issue with games that present information through textures simulating text. Thankfully, there is an option to present the text on screen for accessibility, or if setting textures to high is not an option for the low-spec gamer. Fiddling with the texture settings may require a restarting the game which the user is not informed about. The last spoiler-free criticism I have is operating the ‘older’ terminals that have a ‘red’ UI in the later chapters. The tab/pane to navigate to different diary entries can be difficult to see as it looks like light-grey text on a red background. It wasn’t a big deal, as the interfaces all look similar from what the player encountered previously. It was impossible to read the date on the Steam Deck’s display. The other concern I had was accessibility. The fast static-imagery can be jarring to the senses, and while many games have a warning. It’s a shame games don’t offer the option to reduce these effects to reduce risk of epilepsy. I would also be concerned about the Red UI on the terminals which may make it challenging for people with protanopia (Red color-blindness). I’ll admit that I am not knowledgeable on these conditions, but it is something I hope developers will bear in mind. With all that said. I'm delighted the game came to fruition from the depths of development hell. If you appreciate Alien Isolation, SOMA, or Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I'd strongly recommend this one. [spoiler]Chapter 4 SPOILER... Very few video games gave me a sense of dread about what I was about to encounter in Chapter 4, and the numerous terminals found throughout this location increased my anticipation. Something about the thought of an invisible being observing and lurking in the shadows... The elongated, human-like footprints on the first defecated corridor... Not knowing a strategy to outwit this new alien terror like I have done with Alien: Isolation in the past... The puzzles are generally not difficult to resolve, but what frustrated me was that on practically every hardcopy leaflet and note discovered in the game up to this point, the back of the page is left blank. I regrettably spent more time than I would have because of the one instance where I did not observe the back page for an essential clue in a hostile area. The whole chapter felt it dragged on for longer compared to other chapters in the game. It's not so much a complaint, but more of an observation about the pacing of the game that didn't quite match the momentum in the previous chapters. [/spoiler]

ダイアローグはあまりなく、ちりばめられたドキュメントなどから読み進めていくタイプのストーリーです。 少しわかりにくいところもありますが、全体として雰囲気も良く、適度な難易度でとても良いゲームでした。

Was interesting to play, Cool entity design's, also cool mechanics with the C.A.T and what not. Unfortunately the story was very confusing at times, and with a confusing plot. Not bad by any means, but i feel they could have done a little better when wrapping up at the end, I'm left with allot of questions. Maybe a part 2 in the future? Id give it an honest 7.5/10

When selling Routine to someone, there's a lot you could bring up. The stunning visuals, incredibly imagined space stations realized with unbelievable graphical fidelity. The sound design, which seeps into your brain, and infests you with fear throughout the entirety of the games runtime. The enemy patrols, resource management elements, and map design, turning you into a rat skittering through a plastic maze. The diegetic elements, which draw you into the experience and ask you to interface with the world in a way most games don't. It's very likely that this game will scare you. It's also likely that, at the end, once you've reached the end, it'll be the story, more than anything else, that sticks with you. The small moments you find within the eye of the storm, when the monsters disappear and all you have left is a mirror that's begging you to wonder what lies on the other side. Games like these are a gift, and Routine is a game that keeps on giving long after you roll credits

it's worth buying on sale, i think, but the game only took me 4 hours to beat it (i wasn't necessarily doing everything as fast as possible, but you can only stop and appreciate the visuals for so long) it's basically 90% look and feel, 10% gameplay. the threats in the game are simply not threatening enough, and the puzzles were too simple.

After playing the first couple chapters, I was intrigued by the world but thought that the scare level was going to remain pretty tame. Boy was I wrong. The last half had some of the most tense moments I've had in a game and some serious scares (including a few unscripted ones). Throughout the game, I noticed several design choices that, on the surface, seem like sloppy development. On closer examination, it's much more likely they are thematic. For example, not being able to pause adds a lot of tension. The limited save/data access availability follows the 80's style. Yes, some of these might be inconvenient, but they work really well here. Some of the puzzles or what to do next weren't always obvious. I'd say check out the Tasks section if you get stuck. There were some good hints in there. Visuals were pretty good and the sound design was great. Length was about right, maybe a little on the short side (6-7 hours for me). Check this one out. Impressive work from a small dev team!