890B

 Xbox One
Metascore
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No score yet - based on 1 Critic Review

Critic score distribution:
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  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 1 out of 1
  1. TheXboxHub
    Dec 1, 2021
    40
    890B is a very short experience, with an average playtime of an hour, but that alone isn’t the issue. The problem is, you’ll spend a large chunk of it mindlessly visiting the same parts of the facility and engaging in boring conversation.

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  1. SenorKoquonfaes
    Mar 13, 2022
    2
    I suppose I can’t be too critical of a game that cost me about $5 CAD, but overall, 890B doesn’t even get the basics right. It’s just anI suppose I can’t be too critical of a game that cost me about $5 CAD, but overall, 890B doesn’t even get the basics right. It’s just an incredibly dull game that barely offers up anything that resembles an engaging gameplay loop and is surrounded by an equally dull, clichéd and poorly written story.

    890B is set in the near future where the planet has become borderline uninhabitable and research is being conducted on trying to find a new home planet. You play as Noah, a scientist working at the research lab along with Luna, the only other character in this game. The game starts you off in the middle of a power outage and you need to reboot the system in order for work to continue. Luna supposedly has the knowledge to continue with this research and can’t continue her work until the power is restored. When it comes to creating a story, I tend to emphasis that it’s not the “what”, but the “how” and the “why” that matters in terms of making a good story. 890B doesn’t do any of that: the “what” is overly clichéd and done-to-death and the “how” and the “why” are neither creative nor engaging enough to overcome it.

    The primary gameplay loop is mostly just that of a “walking simulator”. You wander around this rather small and dull looking area, collecting white cubes that are the game’s way of saying “interest with this”, as oppose to using, say, button prompts or subtle object highlights like almost any other game. Occasionally, you’ll get to play some mini games that are required to progress through the game. The first one places you in front of a terminal window and you need to enter phrases into the command line. The list is more-or-less given to you, you just to enter them in the right order. The second mini game is a series of Snake-like challenges where you need to navigate the snake through a circuit board to reach a connection point without touching the edges or else you’ll need to start that level again. It was marginally nostalgic, but trying to guess where the chunky white line is going to break when you need to turn a corner was more troublesome than it probably should be. The third and final mini game is just a box pushing puzzle where you need to move a number of blocks on to green, highlighted sections without pushing any of them off the edge or you’ll need to start that level again. this is the only remotely challenging and engaging aspect of 890B and it only lasts for 5 levels, albeit of increasing difficulty.

    There’s no voice acting or spoken dialogue in this game, it’s all delivered through text. The writing comes across as incredibly stilted and unnatural. It kind of made me wonder as to whether or not English is the developer’s native language, given that there seemed to be a number of awkward translations such as “Why there isn’t any book here?” when interacting with an empty bookshelf or “Lot’s of books in my room. Maybe I can get some of the Harry Potter’s one.”. It’s unclear as to whether or not the publisher or the developer had access to any sort of localization team, so maybe it was just a case of “it is what it is”.

    Like the rest of game, 890B’s graphics are pretty rudimentary and unremarkable. It’s kind of funny how we’re supposed to be in a research lab capable of interplanetary research, but resembles more of a half-empty, open concept office space with some random crates and other stuff lying around.

    Overall, 890B fits the motif of virtually all other Eastasiasoft games: a title that you buy on sale, keep chambered for a quick and easy 1000G and then purge from your hard drive the moment you’re done with it.    … Full Review »