Heartworm Review – Survival Horror and Survival Grief

Heartworm Review

Heartworm is a classic PSX-style survival horror game from DreadXP, complete with optional tank controls. It makes up for its short length with an absolutely incredible atmosphere. This title is as achingly sad as it is tense and spooky.

From the chunky polygons to the slightly crunchy audio to the thick, dread-inducing mood, it’s a blast from the past. Fans of retro survival horror are in for a treat. It even opens with a classic PSX-style fully-animated cutscene.

In this game, you take on the role of Sam, a young woman still mourning the loss of her grandfather. After falling down an internet rabbit hole concerning a house that can take you to the ‘other side’, she’s determined to go there. One way or another, she intends to find out the truth: either about the house or about death itself.

But after she stumbles through a mysterious door, Sam becomes stuck on the other side. Now, she must explore a series of haunting vistas, avoiding ghosts and gathering clues, in order to find the truth. Will she get what she came here for? Will she even make it out alive?

Despair and Dread

Heartworm is a game that knows what its themes are. Right from the beginning, it is clear that this is a story about grief. Sam is haunted by her grandfather’s death. The abandoned house is desolate and rotting. The themes of trauma, loss, and mortality are clear everywhere you look. Throughout this title’s stirring narrative, it examines grief and loss from every angle.

The title screen immediately immersed me in the feeling of playing a 90s PSX game. From the grainy filter to the delightfully dated 3D FMV cutscene that plays if you linger, it’s a blast from the past. Once I started playing, I found the game drenched with a thick atmosphere of unease. I was creeping around corners and leaving the lights off to avoid notice long before any actual threats appeared.

The game’s atmosphere is incredibly thick. The first time I caught a shadowy figure moving in the distance, I froze in my seat. I went from confidently exploring a presumed-safe area to spooked and sneaking around in seconds. Many of the environments are so dark you can barely see. Sam needs to use her camera flash–which thankfully doesn’t consume film–to light up these areas, which risks exposing her location.

For a horror fan, I scare easily, and I kept having to pause the game when the dread got too intense. People who crave blood, gore, and jump scares might not be as affected. But if you enjoy slow-building fear and thick, dense atmosphere, this game is a treat.

Great Exploration of Vulnerability

Heartworm is very good at making the player feel small and vulnerable. The camera often peers down at Sam from above. Extreme zooms make her look tiny compared to the decaying grandeur around her. And the enemies are surrounded by glows or shadows that make them appear far larger. It makes for a very intense feeling of vulnerability, even when you’re just walking around.

The mechanics also feed into this. At the beginning of the game, you can choose between classic Tank controls or modern controls. You can also turn third person aiming off or on. However, you always have a limited inventory, resources are scarce, and Save Rooms are few and far between.

The game’s fixed camera angles allow enemies to sneak up on you and can conceal items. You must use visual and audio cues to calculate their position, or use third person aiming to look around. That said, it’s not hard to outrun most foes. And given how limited Sam’s resources are, it’s usually a good idea to run and hide rather than fight.

When you must fight, you hit the aim button and then take a photo when Sam has an enemy in her sights. Camera mods can affect the way the camera works. You can only equip one at a time, and removing a mod puts it back in your inventory. Other types of enemies, including the game’s bosses, are much trickier to evade and hit harder.

Sam is faced with a ton of puzzles throughout the game. Some are trickier to find than others, but they all tie back to the overriding theme of grief. Keep in mind what Sam came here for, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding your next step.

Classic PSX Survival Horror

Heartworm is designed to look and feel like a PSX game with a few modern quality of life improvements. You can set the graphics to a slicker, more modern look, but why would you want to? The appeal of faux-retro horror games like Heartworm is the retro feel. Updating the controls can enhance the experience, but tweaking the visuals unless you have to only damages it.

As I mentioned earlier, Heartworm uses fixed camera angles like an old-school survival horror title. This means the game can set up nightmarish scripted sequences, mercilessly abuse camera angles to hide monsters, and generally wreak hell on your nerves. Retro graphics and slightly stilted voice acting add a nice level of charm to the cutscenes. The environment design is very good, and the chase scenes are nerve-wracking. Especially in the dark.

The sound design of Heartworm is, in a word, gorgeous. Its melancholy simplicity meshes well with the retro graphics and overall air of grief. The sharp whine of the camera flash set me on edge every time I used it. This game features some really uncanny soundscapes that make it hard to tell where a threat is coming from.

There are a few things I disliked about this title – I found some small typos, and the volume is set low by default – but its biggest issue is length. At about 4-6 hours of playtime, it’s a very short game. But it’s great while it lasts.

All in all, Heartworm is a lovely journey into classic survival horror fun. Just be prepared for your heart to ache as well as freeze in fear.

***Steam code provided by the publisher***