When a Fake Horror Game Is Actually Real

After being announced in 2012 and vanishing for over a decade, Routine, the first-person cosmic horror game from Lunar Software set on an abandoned lunar base, was written off as vaporware until it finally released in 2025, and it turned out to be one of the most unsettling horror games in years. In this full story explainer and analysis, I break down Routine's entire plot: the ASN, the Type-05 robots, Entity A, the EL9 infection, the Canal, and the ending that reveals what the game's title truly means. If you love atmospheric horror game video essays and deep-dive lore breakdowns of games like SOMA, Dead Space, and SIGNALIS, this one's for you. -- Chapters 00:00 - The Game That Didn't Exist 01:30 - Welcome to Union Plaza 05:27 - The Mall & the IC 06:55 - The Type-05 Robots 10:17 - The Living Quarters 11:31 - What Happened to John 13:25 - Shutting Down the ASN 14:59 - The Secret Second Half 17:03 - The Ward (1978) 20:04 - Entity A 21:51 - The Annex & the EL9 Infection 25:02 - Entity B & the Founder's Office 26:27 - Preparing the Canal 28:30 - Entity A's Goodbye 29:43 - Into the Canal 31:19 - 1978. 1999. 2025. 32:18 - Outro -- ★ Music - Tracks are licensed from Epidemic Sound. ★ Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary. I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners. ★ Patreon full research doc & script for this video: https://www.patreon.com/cw/CosmicHorrorLore ★ Twitter: https://x.com/CosmicLoreYT ★ Shorts: https://www.youtube.com/@CosmicHorrorShort ★ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/cosmicloreyt ★ Discord https://discord.gg/XZCx9tNdPm