Routine: An Indie Survival Horror Game

Lunar Software, an Indie game developer debuted the first trailer for their survival horror game Routine earlier this week at Gamescom.

Routine is a first person horror experience that tasks players as a cosmonaut to explore an abandoned moon base from which everyone has disappeared. The game is non-linear allowing players to explore any part of the base to uncover clues that will reveal the truth behind the strange disappearances. What adds to Routine's terrifying experience is that there is no HUD, no health packs, no lives and the game utilizes a perma death system which means when you die in the game, you're dead for good and must start all over. Routine's website states that you may even have to resort to running and hiding to survive.

Don't worry though, you will be able to defend yourself with a weapon known as a CAT or a Cosmonaut Assistance Tool. The tool was designed to perform maitnence work but doubles as a weapon. You can upgrade the CAT using a floppy drive and a 3.5 inch screen on the gun will assist you with aiming. I can already see upgrades for the screen ranging from night vision to Infrared.

Routine seems like an awesome Indie title and the trailer below shows the teams amazing work so far. The chilling gameplay is exemplified perfectly in the video. The design looks like a throwback to old science fiction horror movies like Alien with some modern influence from games like Dead Space. The perma death system is very likely to keep players on edge and the clue searching reminds me of another very popular and successful indie horror title; Slender.

So far release is scheduled for the PC sometime in 2013 and there is currently no price listed either. You can follow the Routine website here and visit the website of Lunar Software here. Keep on eye out for more updates on Routine as I will make sure to update my blog with anything new on the game.

Sony Announces Until Dawn

Today at Gamescom, Sony announced Until Dawn, a survival horror title being developed by Supermassive Games exclusively for the PS Move. Additionally, Sony revealed a chilling trailer showing some tense gameplay. Until Dawn is based on cliche teen horror movies such as Friday the 13th, Scream and Halloween, so you can expect a lot of dead phone lines, sudden power outages and a hot, ditzy cheerleader.

The plot will follow a group of classmates (presumably High School) who on the anniversary of a former friends disappearance, decide to visit the last place he was seen. Strangely enough, it was a log cabin in the woods on a mountain side; it doesn't get much more isolated than that. After people in the group start turning up dead though, the teens suddenly regret digging up the past.

You'll be able to play as different characters in the party throughout the game. Sometimes you will be alone and sometimes you will have a partner as you fight to stay alive and frantically search for clues to investigate who is killing your friends. Executive Creative Director Will Byles [expects] that Until Dawn will draw you in with its characters, chilling setting and shocking, twisted story. He also suggests in his statements about the game that as you play, you will make choices which will determine which of your friends survive and what kind of ending you get.

Since Until Dawn is being developed exclusively for the PS Move, players will utilize the move controller to aim a flashlight in the darkness, examine clues and activate things such as levers. Sony promises the move controller will reflect natural movements of players in the game which will even further immerse them in the horror experience of Until Dawn.

So what do you think? Does the prospect of a survival horror title engineered for the PS Move sound intriguing or is it too soon to tell? The last motion based survival horror game, Rise of Nightmares for the Kinect definitely came up short but Until Dawn already looks like it has much more potential. The survival horror genre has been a little weak recently with very few titles or games that don't live up to the survival horror experience; so it is nice to see an original title being developed. Check out the trailer and keep an eye out here for more news on Until Dawn.