Heaven’s Dust 2 is an isometric survival horror game that feels a bit too flawed to be worth its asking price. ($15 USD at the time of this review.) While I’m not willing to give it a thumbs-down, I’d definitely advise you to wait for a sale, unless this game specifically appeals to you. Let’s dig in, shall we?
The game feels very much like a modern homage to the more classic Resident Evil titles, to the point that it sits right on the border of intellectual theft. Granted, RE has essentially created many of the tropes of the survival horror genre, so I’m willing to give it a pass, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more originality here. Rather than giving you a third person view, the dev has opted to go with a ¾ isometric view, which really leads to the first issue: walls don’t always show up. This has led to multiple times where I tried to go through a passageway only to discover that there actually was a wall there..just not visible. On the bright side, the game DOES have full controller support, and it’s mapped in a very intuitive way, so you don’t have to suffer through WASD movement which doesn’t work in a ¾ perspective, as you’re never almost moving on the x and y access in straight lines.
The art is overly cartoony and chunky, as far as your character and the enemies are concerned, and while it gives the game a distinctive look, I’m not sure that I really like it. Another issue I have is that there’s no way to change the camera angle, which led to more than a few unfair moments where I literally couldn’t see an enemy directly ahead but offscreen. My CHARACTER would have, however. This is my issue with this isometric view: traditionally games that use this will allow you to change the camera angle at will. When you couple it with walls that aren’t displayed, this becomes a potential issue when fleeing from an enemy you would otherwise have seen in a game with a more traditional view.
A bigger issue that I have is the game breaking its own rules pretty much right out of the gate. It directly says that a single headshot will kill the basic zombies. On multiple occasions, I needed multiple headshots to take down a single zombie, even from point blank range. Puzzles often offer you very little in the way of context, and switches on the wall are often hard to spot unless you know precisely to look for them. It has moments of fun and frustration in equal measure. It’s not an awful game by any means, but there’s a lot of reasons to pass, unless this game really sounds appealing to you.
There’s value and fun here, but not at this price point. Get it on sale.
CLICK HERE TO BUY HEAVEN’S DUST 2
The Chuck is a lifelong gamer who was born in Ohio, but now lives in much closer proximity to Mickey Mouse.
The Chuck has found his life to be a series of improbable and almost unbelievable events, starting when he was twenty and caught the bubonic plague from a prairie dog. He was as surprised as anyone when he found out that's something that can happen.
When he isn't gaming, The Chuck can be found enjoying baseball, (American) football, pro wrestling, and horror movies. He is most commonly seen in the company of one or more cats.
Reclusive by nature, The Chuck is (like most semi-feral creatures) reward-driven. Approach with caution and some form of treat.
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