Routine. Horror lunar base

Routine is a First person shooter (FPS) sci-fi survival horror game developed by ‘Lunar software‘ and published by ‘Raw Fury‘. Routine is said to be coming out in this quarter of the year 2025 on the Xbox Series X/S and PC. Another Xbox exclusive. X35 Earthwalker likes a good survival horror game, especially sci-fi. Good to see more of these. Routine is looking to show its strength front and center. Let’s take a look.

Routine is set on a lunar base. That’s right, we in space. It’s also got a “1980s vision of the future”. This lunar base use to be a tourist and research complex. Now it has gone silent. No chatter or nothing. This reminds us of Jurassic park. Now off course players take on the role of a character who heads out to this lunar base. Now off course curiosity is what brought you here but repairing is what you now must do. So get your tools and get to work.

Now off course Routine wouldn’t be a horror game if it was that simple. Yes the station is surprisingly empty but there is at least something here. Something occupying the place now. It’s an intelligence. Worse, it sees you as a threat. EXTERMINATE!! It’s with this set up that Routine is aiming to set itself apart in the gameplay and mechanics. Remember that routine is first person like Doom 3: Resurrection of evil. These types of horror games tend to be scarier than third person like The Callisto Protocol. 

In this space horror the most emphasis is placed on things like exploration and investigation. Players must go around and actually pay attention. More so to the environment than the enemies. There will be environmental puzzles for you to solve will having a sense of dread thanks to the threat that resides here. Who is probably watching you… maybe even right now as you are reading this. Such is the Routine. 

That’s right. Routine is about dread, exploration and slowly learning what’s going on here and what happened. You are armed with a multi purpose device that allows you to mess with systems around the lunar base, of course interact with the environment and even face off against dangerous machines. Things will be happening slowly over time with off course moments of serious danger. After all this intelligence should be aware of what you are doing.

We checked out some Routine gameplay and it’s what we expected. The lighting is top tier and makes the game scarier with the darkness. The details on the environment and around are excellent. They have to be for a game like this. The game is slower pace that others and the robotic foes are cold and behave accordingly. Routine is clearly not the horror game where you will be blasting and firing on many enemies. This more like Alien isolation in that regards. There’s lots of room for stealth too. So come with the correct expectations.

Overall Routine is looking excellent. Another excellent game coming to Xbox and day one in Xbox game pass as well, so make sure to check out and support this game. Routine will force players at times to decide between running, using your tools (limited tools) to survive or off course just hide. Routine is about the atmosphere. The developers ‘Lunar Software’ have done an excellent job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep and eye out for this game. Now Routine may have a whole lunar base but it’s all too small for… the ‘Earth Walk!’