Should you lengthy for the times when Resident Evil had mounted digital camera 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 may very well be a powerful religious successor to early Resident Evil video games.
Heartworm – is it Image Excellent?
I’ve made it clear so far Heartworm takes inspiration from video games like Resident Evil, so let’s additionally emphasize the truth that it is a sport with mounted digital camera angels, tank controls, puzzles, and door animations all. Should you 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 an alternative of weapons, you might have a digital camera. Again when cameras had movie, y’know. So clearly, Heartworm takes place inside or across the 90s and it is an incredible setting when mixed with the darkish and dreary horror this sport portrays. This brings house 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usually are not zombies in Heartworm, insofar as I can inform; quite, they’re these specters akin to static on an outdated CRT TV.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 change into 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 digital camera’s virtually assured to hit the goal if you happen to level in its common path, however the trade-off is much less harm. Consequently, Heartworm emphasizes much more warning over which enemies you need to kill, and which you need to skip.
I am cautiously optimistic with this idea. An old-school digital camera as a weapon is neat, however I fear it will really feel flat over time. Will there be different weapons, as an illustration? Or is the digital camera your sole software on this spooky journey? Regardless, my persistence was put to the check after I fought a spider boss, which took far too many hits from the digital camera and felt too repetitive when it comes to assault patterns.
But when it is environmental puzzles you are after, Heartworm does present. Discovering which key opens which door and exploring everything 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 stuffed with snow. Opening a door within the house’s hallway results in a completely new neighborhood, now stuffed with mounds of snow and new buildings. Heartworm‘s degree design appears to be like 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 gorgeous 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 fashionable video games, however this doesn’t disappoint within the least.
Heartworm is likely one of the most intriguing indie horror video games in growth proper now, if something for a 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 through 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.
