Heaven Dust

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Escape a zombie-filled mansion that hid a secret research centre.

Platforms: PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (91% of 696 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: One Gruel Studio
Released: 2020

Get it on Steam Nintendo eShop Xbox PlayStation Store (PS4)

What frightens You wake in a mansion that hid a secret research centre, now a maze of horrible zombies and deadly traps. A virus called Heaven Dust, taken from a New Guinea tribe in 1970 in the hope of immortality, turned out to open the gate to hell, and you must collect items and solve puzzles to escape and learn the cruel truth.
Content: violence, blood.

Heaven Dust is a top-down survival horror game by One Gruel Studio, made as a love letter to 90s Resident Evil. You wake in a mansion over a secret lab, now full of zombies and traps, and must gather items and solve puzzles to get out.

About Heaven Dust

Heaven Dust is a small survival horror game by One Gruel Studio, published by indienova and released on Steam and Nintendo Switch on 27 February 2020, then on Xbox in 2021 and PlayStation 4 in 2024. Its makers call it a love letter to the classic survival horror games of the 90s, the Resident Evil series above all.

You wake in a mansion that once hid a secret research centre. In 1970 scientists found a new virus in blood samples from a tribe in New Guinea and named it Heaven Dust, believing it might hold the secret of immortality. It did not: after an accident destroyed the research centre there, the work moved to the USA under a subsidiary company, and now the mansion is a maze of zombies and deadly traps.

The game is seen from above, with rounded, chibi-style characters, but its rooms are dark and blood-spattered. You explore room by room, carry a handgun and a few items in a small inventory, read what was left behind and solve puzzles tied to the story to open the way forward. The store promises a hopeless story with different endings, and hints that one of them may be good.

It suits players who want the old mansion formula of keys, puzzles and scarce supplies in a short, cheap game. Its sequel, Heaven Dust 2, is longer and set in a research base.

How to play Heaven Dust

Explore the mansion room by room from the top-down view.
Pick up keys, ammunition and items and keep your small inventory in order.
Shoot or avoid the zombies, and watch for deadly traps in the rooms.
Read the notes and files you find to learn what happened to the research centre.
Solve the story puzzles to open new parts of the mansion and find a way out.

Screenshots

Top-down view of the hero shooting a zombie in an orange jumpsuit beside machines, with fires burning nearby

A zombie in striped pyjamas lurching at the hero in a lab with a checkered floor and old computers

Zombies closing in on the hero in a narrow wooden corridor next to a hedge garden, the screen edged in red

Tips

Do not fight every zombie; save ammunition for the ones that block your path.
Look carefully at rooms before walking through them, since traps can kill you.
Keep notes of codes and clues; the puzzles draw on what you read.
Leave items you do not need yet where you can find them again, so your inventory stays free.

Questions

Is Heaven Dust like Resident Evil?

Its makers call it a love letter to 90s survival horror like the Resident Evil series: a mansion, zombies, keys, puzzles and scarce supplies, seen from above.

What platforms is Heaven Dust on?

PC on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4.

Does Heaven Dust have more than one ending?

Yes, the store says the story has different endings.

Is there a sequel?

Yes. Heaven Dust 2, by the same studio, came out in 2022.