ROUTINE

This is a game that I thought I would like with the surreal atomosphere and retro-futurism, and those things I do like. Even having to degause your tool's monitor is cute. The graphics are nice and the world building is interesting. The problem is everything else. This game tries to copy the Alien Isolation formula, but it doesn't really advertise this so I didn't realize I was buying a stealth game. It's also trying to copy the idea of discovering game mechanics on your own but that just makes the stealth aspects annoying. You're given a tool that can maybe disable the robots, but it requires precise shooting in a terrible interface, so no you can't disable robots. However, you can hide from them and they aren't very fast, so just run away, hide somewhere (usually crouching down and waiting for them to go away because they can't crouch down too =( ) and then stare at their feet because it takes 5 - 10 minutes for them to go away. The game doesn't pause while you read notes so maybe you're reading a note because you like to learn about the world the developers created, BUT ROBOTS DON'T WAIT AROUND FOR YOU TO READ NOTES BECAUSE THIS IS A GRITTY REAL GAME FOR REAL PEOPLE, NERD! So the robot grabs you and punches you out for your curiosity. The game also doesn't really explain its mechanics to you, meaning that you have to discover things for yourself. You have to discover that the robots can't crouch, you have to discover that the fingerprints can be seen on the terminals (and why that's useful), you have to discover that when robots are just standing there for a bit it's because they're inactive during that time so you can just walk by them, you have to discover that you forgot to put on your helmet in the intro! This can make for some tedium as you'll get stuck easily, there aren't many hints and if you're like me you'll just go and read a walkthrough because the game will just stop and you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing. The game is fighting with itself to be a puzzler, an atmospheric, an exploration, or a predetor/pray/stealth type situation and these genre's don't really go well together, or maybe they could but it's not done well here. Maybe if you like Alien Isolation you'll like this too, although in that you get a proper gun, a flashlight (This is a dark game and you don't get something resembling a flash light for a bit, except for a bit in the vents where your helmet light turns on for some inexplicable reason, meaning you've had a flash light the WHOLE TIME BUT NO WAY TO TURN IT ON!), you can beat up the robots, a radar (There's a part in this game where an invisible alien hunts you, sure would have been nice to have that.) and the game is more explicit about where you need to go and what you need to be doing.

Very cool game. The athmosphere is beyond cool with its 70-80s retro sci-fi theme.. and there is a decent amount of jumpscares and some tricky "puzzles" to solve.. Just a cool game to spend some hours in. Buy it and have fun!

ROUTINE: an ongoing cycle of natural actions and patterns.

Masterful

All i have to say is this is probably one of the best horror games iv ever played and i have played tons of them over the years. I hope someone out there reads this if your scrolling through endless horror games looking for something to play i would highly suggest this.

Amazing horror game but unfortunately I am mentally challanged after watching too many tiktoks youtube shorts and instagram reels so I had to bang my head against the wall until an ember sparked up a region in my brain that let me solve some of these puzzles which werent inherently difficult but just confusing to a humonculi like myself but overall give this game a try it really does get better later on and it takes some turns you wont expect unless you watched the game theory video that matpat will be releasing eventually.

Если вам понравилась SOMA или Mouthwashing - рекомендую

Great environment / atmosphere and got a few good jumps along the way.