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Heaven Dust - At First Glance

2K View2023-06-23

Heaven Dust

8.1

SurvivalActionHorrorPuzzle

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Heaven Dust is a survival horror game that was originally released on Steam back in 2020. It really wears its inspiration, the original Resident Evil, on its sleeve as it takes place in a mansion that has been infested by a zombie virus. The PC version of this game actually gained enough attention to spawn a sequel two years after the first game.

Still, as part of the Pocket Playfest, we're here to talk about Heaven Dust on Android, at first glance.

Off-the-bat, I didn't expect this game to be in portrait. It kinda seemed like the time of game where you'd want to see beyond your immediate area so I guessed that a landscape orientation would have been a better fit.

I really have no complaint about the graphics. It really captures the creepy vibe that you'd want from a horror game.

You also get an inventory system that's similar to the original RE. It does its job well enough although I personally feel that it's kinda clunky.

The game also has vending machines that accept tokens. The things you could buy range from items to help you as you explore the mansion to hints and upgrades that can help ease the difficulty of gameplay. The tokens you use here are obtained, based on my experience, from killing zombies that are littered around the area.

This is where the portrait orientation betrays. The game is touch controlled. Each action you could do is signalled by an exclamation point that you can touch to interact with objects. Killing zombies works in practically the same way. You touch them to target and touch them again to shoot.

The problem is, portrait orientations can only give so much area on the sides. It kinda becomes hard to walk and then shoot since both controls take in the same input. And in an orientation where the sides are limited, it's difficult to strafe sideways to avoid incoming attacks.

There were also some typos within the notes of the games. A bit insignificant in the grand scheme of the game but still it could be tackled with a bit of game polishing.

To sum up, this game really nails the vibe of the original Resident Evil and other PS1 horror titles. The controls could use a bit more finesse and the orientation could be a bit better though in my opinion.

This game has potential to be a smash hit on mobile especially with horror fans so I'm still gonna be watching this title grow into a full-fledged game for Android.

PocketPlayfest