Routine review: frustration in space

Cassie Mammone

2/12/2025

Translation: Megan Cornish

Pictures: Cassie Mammone

I was looking forward to a horror-filled trip on an abandoned moon base. The vibe’s fun – the rest, less so.

I feel despair deep down inside as, after an hour of frustratedly searching through the lunar base’s living quarters, I finally discover the detail that’ll help me progress. I’d just missed a fuse box, which I can disable with a shot from my gadget. That opens the door to the next area, and I can finally explore more of the lunar base.

I’m determined to pay closer attention to my surroundings in the next few areas. Surely I can’t fail to find the next fuse box or whatever it is for so long again…can I?

Unfortunately, I can. In Routine, it’s common to hide gameplay mechanics behind clunky controls and barely noticeable details. It’s a shame, because the vibe of the abandoned moon base has potential.

Alone in space – a good premise

But let’s start from the beginning, with the story. If you like space horror, the story will seem familiar.

You wake up on a lunar base with no memory of who you are. You wander through the abandoned station until you find a device. The C.A.T. (cosmonautical auxiliary tool) is your personal data assistant and only companion.

Only when you take possession of it can you move through the station. Gradually, you unravel events on the moon base and learn why you haven’t encountered a single soul. However, you’re not entirely alone – hostile robots and monsters hamper your progress.

The narrative style – in the form of text and audio recordings – is quite nice, but it doesn’t stand out compared to competing games such as Dead Space. Crucially, the story isn’t compelling enough to distract from the clunky gameplay.

Immersion seems to be more important than fun

A key element of Routine is that you operate the technical equipment on the moon base manually. As soon as you interact with a screen, for example, it’s as if you were actually controlling the user interface of a computer. You use your mouse – which is actually for aiming – to operate a virtual mouse via the desktop screens. Mouse-ception.

The same applies to your C.A.T. device, which is in constant use. You use it to operate other technical devices, shoot obstacles and use installable modules to solve puzzles. The developers at Lunar Software have done a fantastic job: operating the devices feels realistic – complete with their strengths and weaknesses.

Before you can execute a function, you need to operate things manually. When you pick up the C.A.T. device, you can select all the buttons. One button connects you to terminals in need of repair. You can also insert a module that grants you a new capability, such as Ultraview mode. This makes fingerprints visible, which is useful when copying door codes. Or you can prepare the C.A.T. device to shoot at annoying robots. But more on that in a moment.

According to Lunar Software, Routine’s inspired by an 80s vision of the future. This also means that the technology’s stuck in that decade. The game mainly reminds me how cumbersome some devices are to use – and how grateful I am for the accessibility of modern tech.

The immersive operation of these devices sounds better than it feels. It’s not at all intuitive and is even distracting in stressful situations. What’s more, operating screens without a mouse wheel becomes so irritating after a few uses that I’d rather do without it altogether.

When frustration’s integral

In survival horror games such as Dead Space, the puzzle gameplay’s often shallow, yet still entertaining. If that were also the case in Routine, the clunky controls of the futuristic devices wouldn’t bother me.

Now here comes the «but»: while the puzzles themselves are simple in Routine, their execution is terrible. As I mentioned earlier, I literally wandered around an area for an hour because I simply didn’t notice a fuse box. It wasn’t marked at all.

What was particularly annoying about this spot was enemy robots patrolling it. Because you can only disable them briefly with a shot from the C.A.T. device, I kept encountering them.

I’m not losing any progress because I’m stuck anyway, but I am losing my patience. Ultimately, I don’t see the point. The robots are a small part of the story and don’t add to the horror feel. They just represent the tedious part of escape missions.

Even later in the game, I repeatedly get stuck for varying lengths of time because I don’t know which of the identical-looking objects or doors I’m supposed to interact with. This is incredibly frustrating and completely kills any potential enjoyment that the atmosphere and simple puzzle gameplay might otherwise create. My patience finally snaps when I’m stuck on yet another unclear puzzle and can’t even explore the area properly because there’s a monster running around.

This isn’t what user-friendliness looks like.

Even the rock-solid graphics can’t make up for it. The stylish look comes at a price, though. The game’s indie nature’s clear from all objects having fixed positions. I can’t move them, no matter what I try. On the plus side, the ultra-wide screen support’s a welcome addition.

Routine is due for release on 4 December 2025 for PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. I tested the Steam version, which was provided to me by Raw Fury.

Cassie Mammone

Freelance Editor

cassie.mammone.freelance@gmail.com

I wrote my first text about video games when I was eight years old. I haven't been able to stop since. The rest of my time is spent on my love for 2D husbandos, monsters, my cats and sport.

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