Heaven Dust 2 (Switch)

When a press release lands in our inbox and touts it’s game as “Heavily influenced by Resident Evil and original survival horror” we listen. While we weren’t able to sit down with the original we haven’t made that same mistake again, ladies and gents Heaven Dust 2.

Following on from the events of the original game you’ve given a brief cutscene explaining what went down before your character wakes up from a cryo-chamber. 

You play as Steve, a somewhat resourceful but confused military dude with perfect hair, the ideal survival horror mix. 

Steve wakes up in a laboratory, not much of a clue what is going on and has to piece together the mystery of Heaven Dust and why it turns people into zombies from notes and emails on computers.

The narrative isn’t in your face and like classic horror games you get the jist from the game but note reading is essential if you want to get into the nitty gritty of the lore, good stuff and an often forgotten narrative style.

It’s not the most groundbreaking and life changing story but it’ll do, presents some twists and can be played on its own really without prior knowledge of the original. 

Graphically Heaven Dust 2 is a good looking isometric game, while the character models seem a little too chibi for my personal preference but it doesn’t really affect the atmosphere negatively which shows how strong that aspect is. 

There is still a great amount of tension within the lab setting, copious amounts of gore and grotesque boss designs, despite its cutesy look Heaven Dust knows it’s horror roots well.

The gameplay in Heaven Dust 2 manages to hit every note of its genre in such a way it’s hard to find anything wrong with. 

Exploration is hand in hand with puzzle solving and will have you running backwards and forwards trying to solve sometimes quite obscure puzzles. Item collecting is the flavour of the day and you’ll find yourself pressing interact on everything just in case you miss out on anything. 

Combat is slow and methodical, you need to take aim and wait for your crosshair to shrink, if you’re lucky enough you can take the Zombies out with a headshot and save on ammo. 

This is a survival horror so ammo is short and relies on frugal use rather than pray and spray techniques, same applies to the health items. 

Gunpowder makes an appearance here, much like in the classic horror Resident Evil 3 you can mix it with different items to produce ammo for different weapons which you might need.

There are several different monster types all with different attacks and weaknesses which keep you on your toes and some deliciously old school boss fights have been added too to block your path to escape.

The game runs at around 8/10 hours on your first go, it has 2 endings and 3 difficulties to run through meaning you’ll more than likely get enough playtime through several replays. It’s a well paced campaign and an enjoyable experience that doesn’t burn out before it’s time. 

Heaven Dust 2 provides some classic horror survival action in an art style that isn’t quite for everybody. 

For those of you that can overlook that you’re presented with a damn good time for a nice price, a few puzzles are a bit out there but all in all I don’t regret spending anytime down at the lab with Heaven Dust 2.