Heaven Does Not Respond [IMPRESSIONS] – Ctrl, Alt and Dread

There’s nothing quite like a good old-fashioned digital mystery to get you hooked, and Heaven Does Not Respond nails the setup right from the off. The narrative centres around a young man found dead under mysterious circumstances, with a digital camera left at the scene. The official autopsy report claims the victim has been dead for over a week, yet a statement from his mother and recent CCTV footage prove that simply isn’t true. It’s a bizarre contradiction that sees the case passed over to the National Intelligence Center to investigate, and with the digital camera’s footage completely corrupted, you’re given access to both the device and the victim’s PC to unravel exactly what happened. It’s a brilliant hook that brings plenty of intrigue as you start clicking around. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

The entire game takes place on the victim’s desktop, which is cleverly modelled to look and feel just like an old Windows 98-era machine. You’ll spend your time rummaging through personal documents, browsing a delightfully nostalgic early-2000s internet, using command prompts, and even chatting with others via a cheeky nod to MSN Messenger… everything you’d expect from a computer-savvy nerd from the 2000s, really. The main goal here is figuring out how to repair those corrupted video files, which is done through a variety of clever tasks: you might find yourself piecing together words in a wordsearch-style grid, hunting down missing DLL files, or trying to replace the metadata on a photograph, just to list a few early examples – the game introduces plenty of clever little ideas as you progress and there’s always something different to do. 

What makes Heaven Does Not Respond so engaging is how you actually go about solving these problems using everything that the PC has to offer. For instance, to replace that missing metadata, you need specific information about the camera used in the photo. You know the website it was bought from, but when you visit the page, the item is no longer listed. That means you have to log into the victim’s recent orders to find it… but how do you figure out his password? By looking at clues on his social media, of course. In fairness, it’s not overly complex, but the way everything is broken down into fun little steps that utilise the functions of the PC in varying ways makes for a very satisfying experience. In another early example, finding a missing DLL file means getting in touch with an indie game dev online, who flat out refuses to help unless you agree to playtest his game first. It adds a quirky but brilliantly engrossing layer of puzzle-solving that utilises the desktop setting in some truly fascinating (and varied) ways. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

Going hand-in-hand with the core mystery are the weird goings-on and strange pop-ups that constantly interrupt your snooping. There are some genuinely disturbing things lurking in the background of this operating system, and even after an hour or so of playing, I feel like I’m only scratching the surface at the moment. It’s made me want to play more, and after seeing what was on that first corrupt video file… well… I won’t spoil anything, but let’s just say I’m excited to see where the game goes.  

And believe me, I intend to. By the time I finally managed to fix the first corrupt video and watch the eerie memory unfold, I was totally sold on Heaven Does Not Respond. The desktop mystery grabbed me straight away, but the direction that the story is heading and those clever layers of investigative gameplay have got me completely invested. I want to see more, and if it can maintain this early momentum, I reckon it’s going to be something genuinely special.

Developer: Rise Studios  
Publisher: Rise Studios  
Platform(s): PC (Played)  
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3817240/Heaven_Does_Not_Respond/ 

What are our ‘Impressions’ features?
As a small part-time team with busy lives, we can’t always play every title to completion for a full review. Instead, our ‘Impressions’ features serve as a snapshot of our early experience with the full release of a game. We dive in for roughly 1 to 2 hours to get a feel for the mechanics, the presentation, the atmosphere, and the vibe of the game, all whilst offering our initial thoughts to answer the question: has it hooked us enough to want to keep playing?