Routine review

Routine spent more than a decade in development before Lunar Software and Raw Fury finally launched it in December 2025. It’s a first-person horror game set on an abandoned lunar base designed around an ’80s vision of the future. Your only real tool is the C.A.T., a multi-tool with a tiny screen that you use to interact with the base and, sparingly, fight back against its hostile robots. It joined Game Pass Premium on Sept 16.

Critics are split on the balance of mood and mechanics. The OpenCritic Top Critic Average is 79, with 74% recommending it. IGN (7/10) found it “stylish, subtle, and unsettling in equal measure”, TheSixthAxis (8/10) called it one of the year’s best linear narrative games, and GamesRadar+ singled out the superbly designed, creepy robots.

The dissent is loud, though. Game Rant (5/10) said it wasn’t worth the 13-year wait, and PC Gamer (77/100) loved the monsters and locations but felt the story was “sadly lost in space”. Digital Chumps, playing on Series X, praised the ’90s-style narrative but found aiming the C.A.T. frustrating: the aim-down-sights view deliberately runs its screen at a choppy frame rate, and you only get three shots before swapping batteries.

PCGamesN put an average playthrough at around seven hours, much of it spent on puzzles and hiding. If you’re patient and love Alien: Isolation-style dread, it’s a striking, compact night in.