Heaven Dust 2 (Nintendo Switch) - Le test - Nintendo-Town.fr

Lovers of the survival horror genre and more particularly of the famous game Resident Evil, you have certainly heard of Heaven Dust. Nope ? Nay, at NT we take care of making you discover this title before it gets lost in the flood of games coming out on the eShop. Released in 2020 on the eShop, Heaven Dust made its small impression in the world of survival horror by paying a vibrant tribute to Capcom's cult title. Given that the latter seem to have lost the recipe for their first titles, Heaven Dust was a real little surprise, not without flaws of course. We are in 2022 and a sequel is finally coming. Let's not wait any longer and let's discover this title.

Story worthy of a survival

Let's not cut corners and let's say Heaven Dust 2 is a vibrant tribute to Capcom's cult title. Let's go even further, it's a real love letter to the famous game that popularized zombies. These dear animals that we find everywhere today, surely because of the immense success of Walking Dead. But let's stop procrastinating and move on to exploring Raccoon City, uh no sorry bad game.

At the same time we are not far from it. Well, like in any good survival horror, we have a good story. Simply put, a strange virus has spread, turning every human or living being into infamous brain-eating critters. It is in this apocalyptic atmosphere that our dear hero Steve wakes up from a kind of cryogenization in a relatively high-tech lab. It will then be our role to discover a little more about this strange infection which is spreading and causing appalling damage. It will be through a few rather rare dialogues and various documents that the scenario will be revealed.

Although all this is followed with real pleasure, it is however a pity that everything is entirely in English. Well this is only a detail and will not really interfere with our adventure. Although it will still be necessary to be vigilant to these famous documents that we find because it is by reading them that we will discover the codes and other secrets allowing to unlock various doors and mechanisms.

Degumming of zombies and puzzles on the program

If the story is present, what about the rest of the adventure, and more particularly the gameplay? Well, the latter is not to be outdone: he offers us a very pleasant character to move around and the various actions to be performed, such as picking up or pushing an object, are simply done using the A button. It's very simple, when something is usable a small white dot with the mention A is visible, very practical. Although in fact, you will still have to use your gray matter. Because yes, although the mechanisms and objects are quite easily visible in our decor, it will still be necessary from time to time to enter codes, move objects or even place them. Does this remind you of anything? Yes, exactly like in a good old Resident Evil, keys, passes and whatnot will be collected in this zombie hell.

Moreover, even if it means talking about zombies, let's rush into the pile. Well not literally, because like in any good survival game, we have to be careful with our ammunition. Because yes, of course these will not be unlimited, we must use them sparingly and not go all out, otherwise we will quickly find ourselves lacking these precious little murderous pearls. Because as much to say it immediately, we will need it. If at the beginning we will be faced with ordinary zombies and therefore relatively easy to circumvent, it will not be the same for the next ones. Quite quickly in the game we will meet new critters, most of them bipedal. More resistant, faster and deadlier, these “victims” of the virus will be more and more present during our adventure. Well, if all that wasn't enough, we'll also have various little critters, more or less large and very deformed, which will try to nibble on us.

Although our ammunition is limited in number, it is still possible to eliminate some recalcitrant critters. The use of our firearms will also be very pleasant, the aim being automatic, we will just have to keep the enemy in our firing angle for the viewfinder to shrink and aim for the head. This feature is very valuable since it saves ammunition by avoiding firing ten bullets into the belly of a critter before it explodes into sheaves of blood. However, while this auto-aim feature is very useful, it doesn't make the game easy. As we wander through our environment, more and more formidable enemies will appear, not hesitating for a moment to attack us mortally.

Moreover, it is worth remembering that our inventory is not unlimited. Every small item, be it ammunition, keys or herbs, will take up space. Fortunately for us, on the one hand we will have a chest, on the other hand the possibility of combining certain objects. Yes yes, we did talk about herbs, chests and item combinations. Once again, exactly as in RE, we will have the possibility of healing ourselves through herbs that we can combine with each other. We stay in the great classic here with the traditional green and red herbs to mix together. On the other hand where it is a bit new, it will be on the mixture of powder and ammunition. This alchemy will be used to make us, via certain combinations, ammunition, whether pistol, shotgun or machine gun. This is enough to make a good little reserve of balls. Because we will have to make room for it in our inventory. For that, we will have at our disposal superb chests that will allow us to store all our merry mess. Of course, these famous chests will be interconnected, and who says chest also says save rooms. Here no need for an ink roller or other gizmos, backups will be unlimited and that's a good thing. Other elements that complete our inventory: the pieces of equipment that we will have to find in order to improve the range of our weapon, its charger or even the damage.

The exploration of the place will be done with pleasure and will take at least five to six hours of your time. But beware, this time can very easily be doubled or even tripled, thanks to its difficulty modes ranging from easy to difficult, its different endings to unlock, as well as the various end-of-game bonuses to unlock. All this for the modest sum of 14€99 on the eShop.

Good old Resident Evil

Graphically, the game is far above the 1st opus. Refined graphics, more realistic and still offering an aspect of the characters a bit chibi but while remaining very mature. The adventure will be done in a fixed top view camera mode. Once again, it can easily be seen as an undisguised homage to the very first Resident Evil. However, this mode of view, although very pleasant, brings some disappointments, such as doors and rooms not really visible at first glance, as well as zombies which can appear suddenly.

In terms of the soundtrack, the latter is really very discreet: a few lyrical flights for big fights or in a save room, but otherwise not much to get your teeth into in terms of music. It's a shame, even if we are in a survival horror and it helps to reinforce our immersion, we would have liked a few additional musical notes. Finally, it is worth remembering that the game was developed by only two people, and for a game of this ilk it is to their credit.