Heartworm Preview - Authentic Survival Horror

If you long for the days when Resident Evil had fixed camera angles and low polygon counts, Heartworm is just the game for you. Heartworm is authentic to the era it takes inspiration from and creates a nostalgic blast to the past with this survival horror title.

We checked out the PAX West 2024 demo of Heartworm, the upcoming game from developer Vincent Adinolfi and published by the horror fanatics at DreadXP. As they say, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so read on for our thoughts on what could be a strong spiritual successor to early Resident Evil games.

Heartworm - is it Picture Perfect?

I've made it clear thus far Heartworm takes inspiration from games like Resident Evil, so let's also emphasize the fact that it's a game with fixed camera angels, tank controls, puzzles, and door animations all. If you love that kind of stuff, Heartworm will no doubt strike a chord with you.

Though, it does enough to distinguish itself from its clear inspirations. Instead of guns, you have a camera. Back when cameras had film, y'know. So clearly, Heartworm takes place within or around the 90s and it's a great setting when combined with the dark and dreary horror this game portrays. This brings home that nostalgic feel.

Enemies are not zombies in Heartworm, insofar as I can tell; rather, they're these specters akin to static on an old CRT TV. They do bumble around like lethargic zombies before combat, but become a bit more tricky when they teleport around trying to take advantage of the player character, Sam.

One notable difference between this and other survival horror games, it feels like these ghosts require a lot more ammunition (or rather, film). The camera's almost assured to hit the target if you point in its general direction, but the trade-off is less damage. As a result, Heartworm emphasizes even more caution over which enemies you should kill, and which you should skip.

I'm cautiously optimistic with this concept. An old-school camera as a weapon is neat, but I worry it'll feel flat over time. Will there be other weapons, for instance? Or is the camera your sole tool in this spooky adventure? Regardless, my patience was put to the test when I fought a spider boss, which took far too many hits from the camera and felt too repetitive in terms of attack patterns.

But if it's environmental puzzles you're after, Heartworm does provide. Finding which key opens which door and exploring the entirety of a map is half the fun of survival horror, and that's apparent here. I started out in a dark neighborhood with these ghosts wandering around, but the horror takes a turn for the surreal.

I enter an apartment and the hallway is filled with snow. Opening a door in the apartment's hallway leads to an entirely new neighborhood, now filled with mounds of snow and new buildings. Heartworm's level design looks to defy logic (in a good way) and surprise players rather than have it grounded in reality. Even Resident Evil, for all its body horror and zombies, was a bit more grounded.

All of this takes place within what is an absolutely stunning game. From an artistic standpoint, the old-school, 90s aesthetic of the graphics is replicated to damn near perfection. Every scene is like its own painting. I'm biased since I'm an absolute sucker for retro graphics in modern games, but this does not disappoint in the least.

Heartworm is one of the most intriguing indie horror games in development right now, if anything for how true it feels to other old-school survival horror titles. It only needs to refine the combat a bit and make it a tad more exciting, chomping at the bit to play it when it comes out next year.

Heartworm was previewed via the PAX West demo on Steam.

Disclaimer: Our reviews editor, Sam Guglielmo, works at publisher Dread XP but did not edit or view this piece prior to publication.