RETRY.EXE

Inside the long and gruelling journey of Lunar Software's sinister sci-fi horror

- BY ED SMITH

The Cosmonaut Assistance Tool, or CAT, is a multifunctional electronic device, housed within a large, rectangular, white plastic casing. Its battery life is short; using the CAT for even its most rudimentary applications will quickly drain its power supply. The viewfinder screen, which is mounted on the rear, is roughly the same size as – and has a similar image resolution to – Casio’s 470 portable television, released in 1991. If you aim the CAT and move it from side to side, it produces a delay effect on the monitor, as the device’s sluggish internal processor struggles to quickly convey images from the lens to the display. Any environmental magnetism will also significantly disrupt the device’s capabilities, meaning it has to be manually degaussed regularly.

Slow, hard to work and evocative of a particular technological era, the CAT is an encompassing metaphor for not only the world and style of Routine but the story of its long and arduous creation. The first trailer for the game was released in 2012, with the full launch originally scheduled for the following year. After 2013 came and went, Routine was pushed back to 2017, but again, that date passed by. For five years afterwards, the sci-fi horror game and its creator, Lunar Software, went almost totally silent. At Gamescom 2022, Routine reemerged – but then, for a third time, it sunk back into obscurity. It wasn’t until this August, at the same convention in Cologne, Germany, that the game broke cover once more.