ROUTINE Reddit Verdict: Worth the Wait or Just Worth Game Pass?

Wow that's a wide gulf between review scores, 9/10s and 5/10s. Kinda reminds me of the reviews of Alien: Isolation, it either clicked for you and you loved it, or it didn't click and you found it tedious. I'm of the former and I wager I'll like Routine.

When you get frustrated in a horror game it takes absolutely all the spook away.

The reviews being all over the place might actually be a good thing. After a 12 year dev cycle, getting canceled at least once, and then being reannounced and released soon after, I expected much worse.

SOMA is one of my favorite games of all time. Whoa. Apart from this being good for the game - this review is a high quality write-up. Really well written.

It's been 13 years in development, and this game is absolutely worth the wait.

I second this big time. I'm a sucker for how they use such little non-diagetic sound to build the atmosphere, it makes it so much more immersive.

the higher scores read like they're from horror game enjoyers, and the lower scores read like their idea of a good horror game is an on rails experience with jump scares.

SOMA is one of those games that left me just slapped quiet for about a week. What an excellent accolade for Routine.

It doesn't really do much to point you around, but that will make you explore by yourself and things kinda fall in place that way. It's a lot of help if you check terminals and consult your CAT projector every once in a while.

I've barely begun, it took me a while to get passed the opening because I could not for the life of me figure out how to gain access to the first areas. So far the robots are extremely menacing and I find them: scary. What's blown me away so far are the environmental detail and sound design, the latter of which very much keeps me on my toes. I love the retro-futurism of it all, too.

Runtime aside... worse stealth mechanics than soma, worse enemy ai than soma, the audio and written logs are uninteresting (and not enough in my opinion), level designs are worse than soma and alien isolation (not enough environmental storytelling), worse puzzles than alien isolation, the story has little to no substance. We waited 10 years... for this?

I can't get my head around the fact that this game was in one of the worst development hell situations I can recall, and yet it's actually a good game. Maybe not the best ever, but the fact that it isn't terrible is already an achievement, and landing multiple 9s is huge, in my opinion.

Some of the best atmosphere in modern horror gaming, top class shit.

I loved ROUTINE, I love the confusion and fear that comes from the lack of hand holding. I loved the atmosphere and story, any horror fan should give it a go.

I never thought I'd live to see the day this game finally got released. I got it for $20 USD since I already owned SOMA. Played a little bit between meetings at work today and I'm already hooked.

I find the game good. Atmosphere is nice, unsettling and mysterious vibes, so it's enticing from that end. But it's also a game that's supposedly had 10+ years on and off to be finished. With that in mind it felt incredibly short. And in terms of scale, level design, AI, mechanics and length it really feels like several 'smaller budget' games I've played before, maybe even shorter.

As a huge fan of the genre let me just tell you after playing some of it that it straight up sucks. Everything about it is a nuisance I cannot believe this game took a decade to make and is still a heap of garbage. Save your money.

This was exactly my experience with this game. I dropped it within the steam refund window due to invincible stalkers in a new area where I didn't have time to learn what I was supposed to do.

I think its biggest problem is its length; it only lasted me 4.5 hours, and $20 seems very expensive to me. I also think the game is too easy; the enemies are slow and ammo is plentiful, and the story is okay, but near the end it starts doing something strange that I didn't really like.

Visuals are fantastic. The retro 80's everything is what I have been waiting for and wanting. The enemies aren't Alien Isolation level smart, but they kept me on my toes and caught me off guard a bunch of times. Movement and everything felt smooth and fluid, no janky moments. Puzzles are genuinely fun, immersive, and large enough in variety that nothing feels the same.

I'm a horror game fanatic. I play them so much that I consider them a relaxing guilty pleasure to me now. For some reason, this game is one of the only ones in recent memory that raised my anxiety levels and made me stressed while playing.

Love it. It has a raw ass vibe to it, no handholding, brutalist analog designs, killer sound effects. Very mature, dead serious space horror. It was exactly what I wanted. Wish some stuff had been more developed but not a deal breaker.

For some reason I love the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing. The no HUD thing is draws me in. Plus it feels like Alien Iso. I'm only an hour in to the game but I love it's lack of finger pointing and hand holding. However, I don't think this game is for everyone.

Bought the game yesterday, I thought it is a dead project, so I was really surprised it came out. I am in chapter 5 and enjoying the game, puzzles, atmosphere etc. It is scary, but I found e.g. SOMA, Alien: Isolation, Amnesia or Penumbra to be scarier. But overall great game, worth the money.

My absolute biggest complaint so far is that after disabling the enemies, there are right back in the fight and attacking less than 30 seconds. I had to read a paper at a terminal and mid read...BOOM, dude is back up and swinging. If they can make that damn time longer I would be having a better time. Especially with only 3 rounds and not being able to carry more Batteries/Ammo.

Being able to pause would be nice. Not sure what the lack of a functional pause brings to the game other than getting killed by type 05's while I'm taking a leak.

Very disappointed by the game. First part is kind of fun and scary but the puzzles are poorly implemented. In the second part of the game I felt completely lost and had to read a walkthrough to progress. The game could be good, but to me the design in puzzle lack of clarity. I also got stuck two times just because I didn't see a code card to pick up. Interface and commands are not optimal also.

Routine was a game I downloaded from Gamepass a week ago and had never heard of it or of its long development. I've been reading a lot about of other reviewers critiquing the lack of clues to progress the game but honestly it was refreshing to not have a game that holds your hand. It forces you to think and to look closer to the packed details of the environment. The result was that it made me feel like a detective unravelling the mysteries of the moon-base all the while feeling hopeless and afraid.

Fully agree. I think Routine is the best horror game I've played in a long time. The atmosphere is incredible and your immersion is really helped by basically no HUD and the scanning tool. I just wish it was a little bit longer because I enjoyed it so much.

I remember Routine since 2014 I think - it's such a pleasure to see the project finally done. Big kudos to the game creators. Yes, it echoes Alien: Isolation vibes a lot in the first part, even though the scope of the game is much smaller. But it's done with a lot of love and care, and it shows.

It's peak, but boy can it shoot your nerves.

Did not enjoy it. Cumbersome, tedious controls (both on keyboard/mouse and controller). I also feel like I'm walking around my basement with a pair of dark shades on with the lights out. IE, I can't see a goddamn thing. Coupled with the forced film grain, with no setting to disable, it was quite visually unpleasant for my eyes.

The only complaint I ever really have on Routine is I wish it was longer or least had a difficulty setting (so I can make a very aggro boy like Alien Isolation). It was such a treat, I wanted to play more.

The art-direction and atmosphere are top notch. Also the audio design is so fucking good that this game just demands you to play it with a good pair of headphones.

I just finished it and I absolutely loved it despite it's many flaws because it was probably the scariest horror game I have ever played. The atmosphere, audio and visuals were just so damn well executed that there wasn't a single moment where it felt like I could breathe. I also can't recall a single game that's made me jump so much, genuinely 10/10 in scariness.

I didn't really enjoy it very much. The puzzles were aggravating and took me out of the horror. The visual style was really cool in parts but much of that game felt samey, the novelty wore off quickly most of the time. The robots could have used more design and behavior work, felt very 'indie' in not a good way. Too much reading and hardly any of the notes actually pushed the story forward or revealed very much of interest. No characters I cared about, and your avatar has zero persona.

I'm with you, it's one of my favorite horror games ever. Routine isn't just a horror game, it has artistic and philosophical undertones that I really appreciate. Also, the level of environmental detail really impressed me. You can tell that a lot of love was put into making it an immersive and engaging experience.

I enjoyed this game immensely. It doesn't hold your hand and the puzzles to solve are genuinely difficult. Atmosphere is 10/10 and actually some pretty scary moments.

Yea and it's only like a 4-6 hour linear play through that 90% of the shit they alleged was gonna be in the game, surprise…is not. Still kinda unique for what it is. Not worth full price imo.

Its insane how well optimised is this game. Im just at the first 30 min in the game, but my Vivobook laptop with Ryzen 7 5600h and Rtx 3050 laptop graphic card its runs smoothly between 30-60 FPS at max graphics in 1920x1200. 0 bug, 0 lag. Wonderful how they made this.

Controls on console are absolute ass. The dying animation is too long and really boring after a few times. The same thing in most of these survival games they get wrong is nerfing player movement - let us move quickly while being chased etc. That's more scary than knowing the devs couldn't stand to let you move faster than a slow place because their AI is shit. Looks nice tho. That's about it.

It's so good. It feels so good and sticks to its aesthetic very well. I loved how monotonous some of the security things were. it felt so real. It felt so corporate. I love the design of the CAT. the big chunky buttons and the pitiful frame rate on the camera scope. I love how the robots try to fuck with you. turning on their flashlight to blind your camera and strafing so you can't hit them.

This game is sick, real raw esthetics and great vibe. The atmosphere is terrifying with original mechanics i love it.

This game is in no way a soma successor. Neither in story telling nor in gameplay. Maybe a little bit in atmosphere.

Great game, finally something that doesn't stick your nose into what to do and lets you think for yourself. I'm happy so many people enjoyed it as much as I did. Wish there was more though!

Part with robots was good, after that i saw SOMA, Moons of Madness and probably many more games. I guess i waited 13 years for another game. My own problem. Anyway game was good.

Beat the game in a single, quite long sitting. If that's not the sign of a good game than I don't know what it is.