ROUTINE

Great atmosphere, sick story and pacing. Scariest game I've played since Amnesia the Dark Descent. It's the first game to make me alt + F4 because I was too scared to deal the consequences of my actions.

Very good liminal horror game with a decent story, worth picking up on sale.

shat my pants a few times but its ok. ive got a laundry mashine. good game gj devs.

Если сидеть и не выeбывaться, то страшно, пару раз за игру дёрнулся. Большинство времени давит просто атмосферой, "скримеров" только пара штук. В начале игра душная и почти не страшная, потом чуть менее душная и более страшная.

(Sidenote: ignore Gggmanlives' review of the game - totally dishonest) Highly recommend if you like Frictional games, Alien Isolation, or analog horror in general. I can't really say I completely understood the story, but the top notch presentation and sound design provide an extremely immersive experience. Runs well on the steam deck (medium settings, 60-70% resolution scaling with TAA); I only wish it came with an HDR option because the blacks were kind of washed out all the time.

Audiovisual journey. Strongly reccomend.

With its core gameplay loop, Routine doesn't present too much in the way of novel innovations. What it does do, is present a highly authored and competent artistic vision, clearly made with a lot of love by a small group of talented people. Re-watching the initial trailer from 2013, I was a little shocked to see how consistent the ultimate product was with that conceptual piece made on an earlier version of the Unreal Engine. Playing the game, I would think about similarities with other great games that presented themselves, from Alien Isolation, to Soma, to Still Wakes The Deep; but I couldn't ignore the fact that a fairly solid piece of this vision existed before any of these games were sent out to the market. Despite being made to think of a number of similarities to other games, I couldn't help but be enchanted by the final product for its inherent qualities. I was compelled to continue pushing through across several long play sessions, longer than I might normally reserve for games that cause as much anxiety as Routine does at times. The game's semi-invincible stalkers can be mitigated fairly easily, but I found the combination of presentation and sound design kept me on edge, even when I instinctively knew I could circumvent most confrontations. The game's story and lore, presented in a fairly rote manner through audiologs, diary entries, and email; nonetheless had me enthralled until the end. I found the conclusion to offer more than enough for a satisfying narrative loop with a good balance of fairly definitive answers and open-to-interpretation imagery. I also enjoyed the analog and hands off approach to the game's various puzzles, which often left me stumped for a time but always motivated enough to work it out myself rather than resorting to a walkthrough. I imagine it's a very hard thing to balance player assistance and motivate critical thought on the player's part to solve problems as presented, and I believe Lunar Software has done a great job. I felt like the game was about the perfect length, but I certainly am left very excited to see what these devs cook up next. Let's hope it doesn't take 13 years this time, though I'll wait just the same.

I've never seen such a terrifying world being shown in such a beautiful way. I cant stop thinking about this game. For me personally its 10/10.