If you happen to lengthy for the times when Resident Evil had mounted digicam angles and low polygon counts, Heartworm is simply the sport for you. Heartworm is genuine to the period it takes inspiration from and creates a nostalgic blast to the previous with this survival horror title.
We checked out the PAX West 2024 demo of Heartworm, the upcoming sport from developer Vincent Adinolfi and revealed by the horror fanatics at DreadXP. As they are saying, imitation is the best type of flattery, so learn on for our ideas on what could possibly be a robust religious successor to early Resident Evil video games.
Heartworm – is it Image Excellent?
I’ve made it clear to date Heartworm takes inspiration from video games like Resident Evil, so let’s additionally emphasize the truth that it is a sport with mounted digicam angels, tank controls, puzzles, and door animations all. If you happen to love that form of stuff, Heartworm will little doubt ring a bell with you.
Although, it does sufficient to tell apart itself from its clear inspirations. As a substitute of weapons, you will have a digicam. Again when cameras had movie, y’know. So clearly, Heartworm takes place inside or across the 90s and it is an important setting when mixed with the darkish and dreary horror this sport portrays. This brings dwelling that nostalgic really feel.
Enemies usually are not zombies in Heartworm, insofar as I can inform; quite, they’re these specters akin to static on an outdated CRT TV. They do bumble round like torpid zombies earlier than fight, however turn out to be a bit extra tough once they teleport round making an attempt to benefit from the participant character, Sam.
One notable distinction between this and different survival horror video games, it seems like these ghosts require much more ammunition (or quite, movie). The digicam’s nearly assured to hit the goal in case you level in its normal route, however the trade-off is much less injury. Consequently, Heartworm emphasizes much more warning over which enemies you must kill, and which you must skip.
I am cautiously optimistic with this idea. An old-school digicam as a weapon is neat, however I fear it’s going to really feel flat over time. Will there be different weapons, as an illustration? Or is the digicam your sole device on this spooky journey? Regardless, my endurance was put to the check after I fought a spider boss, which took far too many hits from the digicam and felt too repetitive by way of assault patterns.
But when it is environmental puzzles you are after, Heartworm does present. Discovering which key opens which door and exploring the whole lot of a map is half the enjoyable of survival horror, and that is obvious right here. I began out in a darkish neighborhood with these ghosts wandering round, however the horror takes a flip for the surreal.
I enter an house and the hallway is full of snow. Opening a door within the house’s hallway results in a wholly new neighborhood, now full of mounds of snow and new buildings. Heartworm‘s degree design appears to defy logic (in a great way) and shock gamers quite than have it grounded in actuality. Even Resident Evil, for all its physique horror and zombies, was a bit extra grounded.
All of this takes place inside what’s a completely beautiful sport. From an inventive standpoint, the old-school, 90s aesthetic of the graphics is replicated to rattling close to perfection. Each scene is like its personal portray. I am biased since I am an absolute sucker for retro graphics in trendy video games, however this doesn’t disappoint within the least.
Heartworm is among the most intriguing indie horror video games in growth proper now, if something for the way true it feels to different old-school survival horror titles. It solely must refine the fight a bit and make it a tad extra thrilling, chomping on the bit to play it when it comes out subsequent 12 months.
Heartworm was previewed by way of the PAX West demo on Steam.
Disclaimer: Our evaluations editor, Sam Guglielmo, works at writer Dread XP however didn’t edit or view this piece previous to publication.