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This chibi Resident Evil gets an impressive good-looking sequel | PC+Mobile (Cloud) - Heaven Dust 2

2K View2023-12-22

Heaven Dust 2

8.3

CartoonDungeon CrawlerSci-fiAction RPGZombiesActionRPGHorror

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✨Overview
I first learned about Heaven Dust via TapTap’s Pocket Playfest event, and it offered a mix of puzzle-solving, exploration, and classic zombie survival gameplay on Mobile, creating a well-rounded experience that we are all familiar with, thanks to the classic Resident Evil games. Now, that game has a sequel with Heaven Dust 2, already out on PC since last year. It features the same style of gameplay but with upgraded graphics, gameplay, and a new standalone story.

🟩Pros
+Chibi art style with decent graphics and impressive dynamic lightning effects
+Classic Resident Evil style gameplay with modern improvements in the mechanics
+Standalone narrative but with direction connections to the first game
+Good replay value with multiple difficulty levels, weapons, and New Game Plus.

🟥Cons
-Some of the puzzles can be overly ambiguous
-The camera and aiming can sometimes work against the player

⭐️Score: 8/10

Pocket Playfest: An Indie Celebration 2023 Winter Edition

In a recent hands-on exclusive experience this past weekend, I had the privilege of testing a handful of titles on TapTap's experimental cloud gaming service, setting the stage for this 16-day event where indie game developers show-off their creations exclusively on the TapTap mobile platform — fully playable PC games without the need for an actual PC, Android/iOS version, or the need to download the games and install them. Granted, you’d need to have a reliable internet service to be able to stream these games, and preferably are located in US and Canada for consistent play and latency, at least for now.

🔗Join the Playfest >>
https://www.taptap.io/events/playfest2023winter

📅 Schedule
Dates: December 23, 12 AM PT - January 7, 11:59 PM PT.
Playfest Winners & Player Rewards Announcement: January 8, 12 AM PT.

For my personal cloud gaming experience in this specific, please see further below in the review.

📖Story and Premise

Heaven Dust 2 serves as a stand-alone sequel to the first game, but with continuity and connection for those who have played it. The narrative unfolds after a virus outbreak in the mysterious First Research Center following a press conference. The protagonist, Steve, wakes up in a sleeping pod in a laboratory infested by zombies. As he fights to escape, a dreadful truth begins to unfold. The story isn't really a strong part of the game; there's no voice acting or cinematic cutscenes like in the Resident Evil games. However, I wouldn't say that it's weak. It serves more as a simple backdrop to the gameplay.

🎨Graphics and Art Style

Heaven Dust 2 features visually appealing chibi-style graphics design with dynamic lighting. The graphics have evolved alot compared to the first game, while still maintaining that unique Chibi arts style. The top-down angle horror game provides a unique perspective reminiscent of the Resident Evil series, but with a consistent 45 degree angle that follows the player and doesn’t transition to any other angles or view as you play. To provide clear visibility, walls and obstacles will get transparent as you move around the world – like in The Sims — although sometimes it could still block the player’s view and could become a source of frustration.

🎮Gameplay

The gameplay in Heaven Dust 2 draws inspiration from the original Resident Evil games, replicating controls, combat mechanics, puzzles, inventory management, and even the iconic zombie encounters. Players navigate a detailed world filled with secret areas, optional puzzles, and hidden items. The game offers three difficulty levels (Casual, Normal, and Expert), each influencing the campaign's progression and unlocking unique weapons upon completion.

There are multiple escape routes leading to different endings adds depth to the narrative, which is beatable in around five hours or so, with good replayabilty due to multiple endings and new weapon unlocks. The level design is showcased by a huge map that displays item locations, locked doors, save points, weapon upgrade points, and more.

⚔️Combat

Heaven Dust 2 introduces an evolved combat system with a variety of weapons, including a dagger, submachine gun, shotgun, and grenades. It’s still classic Resident Evil style of gunplay, but you can walk slowly while aiming. The aiming system adapts aim-assist mechanics while still adhering to Tank-style controls of the past era, with the option to land a critical headshot if you just take your time. The aim assist serves as a cool mechanic, although sometimes it works against the player, especially when multiple targets are bunched together. More often than not, you'll find yourself targeting the wrong enemy or explosive barrel to shoot.

Players can modify and upgrade their weapons, choosing the most effective tools to counter different enemies. The combat system extends beyond ordinary zombies, requiring the need to utilize multiple weaponry to effectively inflict damage to these different zombie types. For example, some zombies will have an exoskeleton of bones protecting them, and using a shotgun to blast them will effectively clear that bone armor easily.

🕹Puzzles

Heaven Dust 2 incorporates a variety of puzzles drawing inspiration from classic Resident Evil games, these puzzles challenge players' problem-solving skills and observational prowess. Logical puzzles, such as riddles and codes, require careful deduction to unlock doors and access hidden areas. The game also features inventory management puzzles, where players must strategically decide which items to carry, use, or combine to progress.

Mechanical puzzles involve manipulating in-game mechanisms, while pattern recognition puzzles require players to match symbols or decode visual clues. Environmental puzzles turn the game world itself into a puzzle, encouraging exploration and manipulation of things such as pushing statues or boxes to uncover hidden paths and triggers.

All these puzzles are doable, but sometimes they are too nonsense and fall outside the realm of logical thinking, I can’t say some examples as to not spoil the puzzles, but let’s just say that some puzzles may provide clues that are overly ambiguous or difficult to interpret; or require a level of familiarity with certain gaming or puzzle-solving conventions, which bodes badly to those who are new to the genre and haven’t played classic survival horror games with similar puzzles.

📊Technical Performance

While the graphics have been upgraded, they’re still not that demanding due to the chosen Chibi art style, this ensures a smooth experience without technical issues. Players can enjoy full controller support, making the game accessible to a wider audience. I bet this can even be ported to mobile phones too, following the first game’s direction.

⚖️Conclusion

Heaven Dust 2 successfully builds upon the foundation laid by its predecessor, offering a thrilling survival horror experience reminiscent of classic Resident Evil games. The game impresses with its chibi-style graphics, engaging story, and well-optimized gameplay. The inclusion of various difficulty levels, playthrough unlocks, and exploration elements contributes to its replay value. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome, and its a nice affordable game to pass the time, beatable in a single sitting.

☁️General Cloud Gaming Experience

This past weekend, I had the chance to be chosen as one of the testers for an experimental cloud gaming service by TapTap, and I must say, it holds a lot of promise. The quality is seriously impressive - we're talking sharp HD resolution, not like your typical streamed game. Looks and feels native and doesn’t feel like its streamed. The performance is also smooth (60FPS), with good frame timing (by visual observation only, as there was no tool to monitor this). There’s currently no way to play at a native 16:9 with black bars, as the screen is stretched out to the phone’s screen.

📶Cloud Latency

In my experience, my latency during the test phase was around 200ms --- only because the servers are currently located in United States for now and I'm connecting from asia. Even then, It’s still a bit playable, especially for games that are not latency sensitive like point and click games or those with simple controls. Having said that, it’s just a matter of server location and having lots of servers. It’s understandable since this is just a testing phase with limited servers. If a datacenter is nearby, I am positive that I’ll have a smooth and fluid experience, same with those living in the US or Canada. It works like a charm on 5GHz wifi, but the experience took a hit on 2.4GHz, so won’t recommend that.

🕹Cloud Touch Controls

Now, onto the user interface. I'm a fan of how each game has its own custom on-screen buttons, tailored to the specific control scheme. It works like a charm for simpler games, but things get a bit tricky with more complex ones.

🔃Cloud Accessibility

Accessing the service is a breeze - the Instant Play integration is right there on the game page, next to Download/Steam/Play buttons. Loading times are impressively fast, and I love that I can minimize the TapTap app and return to the game still streaming. Progress is not yet saved between streaming sessions, so it’s clearly just for testing purposes. Overall, it's been an interesting experience, and while there are some kinks, the potential here is exciting. Definitely surpassed my expectations.

🌩Specific Cloud Game Experience

Heaven Dust 2 offers a semi-playable experience on the cloud with challenging controls that do not mesh well with the on-screen touch layout, especially since the game displays keyboard and mouse prompts. Aiming proves difficult if not impossible due to non-existent implementation of touch controls to the game’s aiming mechanics, and the game is highly latency-dependent, requiring real-time reaction of evading zombies.