80s sci-fi stealth horror game Routine slated for a release in March
After originally targeting an "early 2013" launch.
Retro sci-fi horror game Routine was announced way back in 2012 and now it's finally coming out. Well, soon anyway, as developer Lunar Software has released a new trailer teasing a March 2017 launch for PC on Steam.
This is Routine's first trailer in over three years, as its alpha gameplay teaser was released way back in June 2013. The game's initial reveal was so long ago that the similarly styled Alien: Isolation hadn't even released a screenshot or its novel premise at that time.
Back when Routine was first revealed I spoke to its designer and artist, Aaron Foster, who explained that it would be rather minimalist with no "HUD, health bars, hit points or extra lives" and that the core of the game would be about sneaking rather than shooting, though there will be some combat.
"If you shoot and miss, more enemies will be alerted to your presence, and trust me, that is not a good thing when you may only have one more shot left!" Foster said at the time.
Routine will also include permadeath and some level of procedural generation, so you'll never know what's around the corner.
Somewhere along the line the four-person team behind Routine decided to ditch Oculus Rift support as the dev kits made them dizzy. Based on the new trailer, Routine looks plenty spooky even without the benefit of VR, so we'll have to see how it compares to its first-person horror competitor Resident Evil 7 in Q1 2017.