ROUTINE

Few games carry a development story as long or as widely watched as ROUTINE. First announced in 2012 by Lunar Software with a vision so striking it's widely credited as a partial inspiration for Alien: Isolation, the game spent over a decade drifting in and out of public view before finally launching on 4 December 2025, published by Raw Fury. That wait shows up constantly in its review history -- reviewers openly reference following the project for ten, twelve, thirteen years -- and Steam's audience has largely decided it was worth it, calling the result Very Positive at 92% of more than 8,300 reviews.

An atmosphere that lives up to twelve years of anticipation

Whatever else divides this review corpus, the presentation doesn't. Set on an abandoned lunar base built around a specifically 1980s vision of the future -- CRT displays, analogue switches, a diegetic UI that requires physically looking down at a wrist display rather than a floating HUD -- ROUTINE draws consistent, often rapturous praise for visual design and sound work that reviewers repeatedly compare to SOMA, Alien Isolation and Observation. More than one reviewer describes the game as genuinely too frightening to play in a single sitting, and the retrofuturist aesthetic is cited so consistently across both positive and negative reviews that it's clearly the game's defining, unambiguous achievement.

A refusal to hold your hand, for better and worse

Structurally, ROUTINE commits hard to minimal guidance -- objectives, item identification and navigation are almost entirely diegetic, requiring players to read in-world text and actively investigate their surroundings rather than following waypoints or tutorial prompts. One widely upvoted review frames this explicitly as a rebuke to modern game design's over-explanation, arguing that years of hand-holding have "done irreparable damage to gamers' critical thinking," and that sentiment runs through a large share of the positive corpus. It's a real strength for players who want to feel genuinely lost and searching, though it also directly feeds the puzzle complaints below for players who prefer clearer signposting.

Two enemies and a lot of keycodes

Where the review corpus turns critical is the substance underneath the atmosphere. Multiple detailed reviews note that the entire game features only two enemy types, both relatively simple to evade once their behaviour is understood, and several reviewers who otherwise loved the presentation describe the actual threat level as surprisingly low for a horror game this acclaimed. Puzzle design draws an even more specific complaint: much of the campaign's progression comes down to locating a sequence of numeric keycodes scattered through the environment, which one detailed negative review compares to "untangling a bunch of wires" rather than genuine problem-solving. It's not a universal reaction -- several reviewers specifically praise the game's diegetic tool mechanics as inventive -- but the keycode-hunting complaint recurs often enough, independently, to read as a real structural thinness rather than a difficulty mismatch.

A short campaign that reignites the value question

Compounding those complaints is length. Most detailed reviews report finishing ROUTINE in five to ten hours, and a meaningful share explicitly questions whether that runtime justifies full price, particularly set against a twelve-year development window that raised expectations for a longer, denser experience. It's a complaint several positive reviewers raise even while still recommending the game -- more than one describes being glad they played it while also acknowledging they beat it faster than they expected, with replay value specifically noted as low given how much of the challenge depends on not already knowing the keycode solutions.

A tonal swing that splits its audience

A more specific, spoiler-adjacent complaint concerns the story's later chapters. Several reviewers describe the game shifting tone partway through in a way that departs from the more grounded, hard-sci-fi horror of its opening hours, and while some find that swing a rewarding escalation, others wish the game had stayed the course it set in its first several chapters. It's a genuinely divisive point rather than a consensus complaint, splitting reviewers who otherwise agree closely on almost everything else about the game.

What the achievement curve suggests

Global achievement data supports the "short game, mostly finished" read running through this review. Chapter-completion achievements start at 97.5% for the opening chapter and decline gradually rather than sharply through the campaign, down to roughly 28% for the final chapter -- a curve consistent with a short, largely linear game where a real, sizeable share of owners see the story through to its end rather than abandoning it early, reinforcing that the criticisms above are about depth and length rather than players failing to finish it. A handful of harder-to-reach achievements tied to optional systems and modifier chapters sit noticeably lower still, suggesting most owners engage with the core story path and skip the game's more experimental optional content entirely -- consistent with a linear horror game built to be finished in a sitting or two rather than replayed for its side systems.

Final verdict

ROUTINE earns its decade-plus of anticipation on presentation alone -- the retrofuturist atmosphere and sound design are genuinely among the strongest in recent horror releases, and Lunar Software's small team deserves real credit for delivering it. Where the game falls short is substance: a thin enemy roster, keycode-hunting puzzles that wear out their welcome, and a short runtime that leaves a real, detailed share of its own enthusiastic audience wanting more. For horror fans who prioritise mood and dread over mechanical depth, it's an easy recommendation; for anyone hoping twelve years of development bought a correspondingly substantial campaign, it's worth knowing what you're actually getting first.