Xbox Game Pass Ends 2025 With Another Day One Horror Game

Xbox Game Pass is closing out 2025 with a bang and a scream. Horror fans have had a strong year already thanks to Cronos: The New Dawn and Silent Hill f, but Microsoft seems determined to deliver one final jolt before the year ends. With day-one releases becoming a defining part of the Game Pass experience, it’s no surprise that the platform is ending the year by adding yet another atmospheric, first-day horror title. And this time, it’s a game that carries more than a decade of anticipation behind it.

What makes Routine so special isn’t just the timing; it’s the legacy behind the game. After years of silence, reworks, delays, and genuine uncertainty, the long-awaited sci-fi horror experience Routine is finally here, and it’s launching straight into Xbox Game Pass. It’s rare for a game with a 13-year development history to get a fresh spotlight, but somehow Routine has landed in the perfect era for retro-futuristic, slow-burn horror. As Game Pass subscribers get ready to descend into its eerie lunar corridors, the genre is undoubtedly experiencing one of its strongest years on the service.

What Is Routine?

Routine is a first-person sci-fi horror game set on an abandoned lunar research facility, blending atmospheric exploration with retro-futuristic technology inspired by 1980s hardware. From its earliest reveal more than a decade ago, it captured attention with a look and tone that felt deeply unique: cold, analog, and isolating in the best ways.

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Gameplay revolves around stealth, tension, and survival. You’re navigating malfunctioning robotics, flickering CRT interfaces, and claustrophobic spaces where sound matters more than speed. Every corner feels dangerous, every shadow hides uncertainty, and every broken machine feels like it might spark to life at the worst possible moment.

First revealed in 2012, the project seemed to disappear for years at a time, with sporadic updates that left fans unsure if it would ever be completed. With support from publisher Raw Fury, the game returned, rebuilt, and reimagined for modern hardware while preserving the eerie analog aesthetic that made it memorable in the first place.

Now, after more than 13 years, Routine is here, delivering the type of slow-burn sci-fi horror that fans of Alien: Isolation and Signalis will immediately appreciate. It’s atmospheric, nerve-wracking, and refreshingly distinct from the cinematic, action-heavy horror games dominating the industry. For Game Pass, it’s a massive win and a perfect way to end the year.

Other Great Horror Games on Xbox Game Pass

Game Pass offers many other titles for horror game fans. If you’re jumping into Routine and craving more scares afterward, these standout horror experiences are already waiting for you.

Still Wakes the Deep is leaving soon, and is worth checking out before it does. This first-person psychological horror game places you on a collapsing offshore oil rig in 1970s Scotland. With no weapons and no easy escape, you’re forced to survive a rising nightmare as the rig descends into chaos. The game blends immersive storytelling with suffocating environmental tension.

Few horror series define sci-fi terror like Dead Space. From the claustrophobic corridors of the USG Ishimura to the escalating cosmic dread of its sequels, the trilogy balances survival-horror roots with increasingly ambitious world-building. Whether you’re revisiting Isaac Clarke’s journey or discovering it for the first time, the trilogy remains a benchmark in atmospheric horror design.

Arkane’s Prey is a masterpiece of psychological sci-fi horror, blending immersive sim elements with shape-shifting alien threats aboard the Talos I space station. Its mix of exploration, paranoia, and emergent gameplay makes it one of the most compelling horror-adjacent experiences on Xbox.

Two of the strongest modern remakes in gaming history, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, deliver cinematic, polished takes on the classics while preserving the iconic survival-horror tension Capcom is known for. The modernized controls, revamped environments, and reimagined set pieces make them essential for anyone who loves high-production horror.

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