Claustrophobic hallways, a predator stalking you with no real way to defend yourself, and an ’80s-inspired take on what the future may look like – you’d be forgiven for thinking I was talking about Alien Isolation, but it’s actually Routine. This indie title spent over a decade in development hell after its reveal back in 2012, but now it’s finally here, and thankfully, it’s one of the best horror games of last year. If you’re waiting for Alien Isolation 2 like me, you won’t want to pass on Routine when it’s cheaper than ever.
After years of development, leaving fans wanting and with high expectations, you’d expect the typical software bloat to happen, taking Routine from a tight, linear experience into a bigger one, focusing on quantity over quality. Fortunately, that didn’t happen – Routine is focused on suffocating level design that makes you take things slow. A stealth approach is key to survival, rather than a Resident Evil-style kill-or-be-killed.
As the de facto ‘basic’ worker set in a sci-fi world, Routine’s spacesuit plastered on the marketing is an empty void that you’ll fill. That does mean there isn’t a true narrative, the story being told through documents or by witnessing the chaos left over. However, that does allow you to soak in the atmosphere; a twisted science-fiction world drenched in Kubrick-style design.
Even though there are plenty of similarities to Alien Isolation, there’s no shortage of familiar design philosophies to those who have played SOMA. Terminals and puzzles are an important part of the world, allowing you to interact in a way that feels realistic. That makes every step you take, and every interaction, all the more frightening when enemies like the Type-05 security robots haunt you, attempting to crush you into a fine paste.
Developer Lunar Software understands that anyone in this unforgiving situation would be armed with at least something to help fight off the horrors within its lunar base – it’s just that the weapon you have is almost ineffective. That quaking fear as you try to aim for a weak spot isn’t just tense, it’s almost pointless, and in the classic mould of horror games like it, the stalking enemies don’t need to fight off a barrage of bullets. They’ll just walk through it to get to you.
You don’t need to take my word for it. In our Routine review, Nat gave it an impressive 9/10, with her final thoughts saying that “What Routine lacks in quantity, it makes up for in staggering quality.” It managed to land on our Game of the Year 2025 list, joining the ranks of massive contenders like Arc Raiders, Dispatch, and of course, Expedition 33.
If you’re keen to give it a try, or you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy a copy for your Steam library, you can grab Routine for just $16.74 at Fanatical, making it the lowest price it has ever been.
Whether you’re looking to enjoy more horror experiences after a Resident Evil Requiem run or you’re trying to pass the time waiting for Alien Isolation 2 (or whatever it may be called), then it’s definitely worth giving Routine a shot.
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