Games worth discovering

Check out Heaven Dust’s loving chibi homage to Resident Evil - Pocket Playfest

4K View2023-06-07

I’ve been playing Resident Evil games since the series really hit its stride with 1998’s Resident Evil 2, so when a game comes along that clearly loves and manages to capture what made that series special, it’s automatically on my radar. Based on my time with the demo version of Heaven Dust, it manages to do just that, with a mobile-friendly spin on survival horror that’s clearly deeply in debt to the first Resident Evil.

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Welcome to TapTap’s Pocket Playfest - An Indie Celebration! Beginning on June 16 and running through June 28, we will be showcasing demos for ten brand-new, unpublished mobile games. These ten games are all from indie developers and represent some of the most exciting upcoming mobile games on the horizon. You’ll only be able to download those demos for Android right here on TapTap, so stay tuned!

In addition to checking out some exciting new games, you’ll also be able to vote for your favorites. The developers whose games get the most votes will get a big cash prize from TapTap, and that’s not all: You can win too! Just by playing these games and voting for your favorites, you’ll earn points and get entered into a giveaway! You could win a Steam Deck, an Xbox Elite controller, or even a $1000 gift card.

Heaven Dust is one of the ten games TapTap will be featuring as part of our Pocket Playfest. Enjoy the rest of our thoughts, and be sure to come back on June 16 so you can download it and try it for yourself. Play and vote for your chance to win!

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The love letter to the survival horror classic is clear from the beginning. I played as a generic zombie movie protagonist who has woken up in a strange mansion. With nothing but my wits and whatever weapons and healing herbs I could find scattered around, I had to puzzle my way through this massive, maze-like setting, solving bizarre puzzles and unlocking hidden passageways as I went.

It didn’t take long, of course, for the undead to show up. In true old-school survival horror fashion, combat in Heaven Dust is more akin to terrified fumbling and desperation than anything resembling fun. I had to tap a button to raise my gun and then tap on the shambling zombie to shoot, which was easy enough. But when the gun was up and my character was in aim mode, I couldn’t move, and the act of lowering or raising my weapon took precious time during which I was likely to get bit and severely injured.

To a modern gamer raised on more recent, action-heavy horror titles like this year’s fantastic remake of Resident Evil 4, that last paragraph may sound like complaining, but it’s honestly not. From the awkward combat to the isometric perspective that purposefully blocks some of the player’s vision, the elements that make Heaven Dust an occasionally frustrating experience are all throwbacks evoking the limitations of PlayStation 1-era game design and hardware. For anyone with nostalgia for that time period, it’s easy to get past the mechanical annoyances and find yourself remembering the awe and terror of mastering the first Resident Evil’s clunky control scheme.

I mean, really all you need to do is open up the game’s inventory. I was given a mere six slots in my backpack to work with, and I had to juggle my pistol, ammunition, healing herbs, and tons of random items need for puzzle solutions, such as a battery and paintings. I’m sure the full game will allow me to expand the inventory some later on, but needing to do that delicate inventory management dance brought back so many wonderful memories.

I’m curious to see how gamers who didn’t grow up on old, unpolished, often frustrating survival horror games react to something like Heaven Dust. For me, though, this really is heavenly, and I’m eager to jump into the full mobile version when it launches.