PSX-Inspired Survival Horror, Heartworm, Battles Grief And Ghosts With a Camera

Five years in the making, Heartworm is the debut 1990s-flavored survival horror game by indie dev Vincent Adinolfi, and published by DreadXP (The Mortuary Assistant, My Friendly Neighborhood). It’s available now on PC.

Players take control of Sam, a young woman still grieving the loss of her grandfather. After stumbling across a possible way to be reunited with him, Sam finds herself at a mountaintop mansion. However, the place isn’t as empty as it first appears, and soon she has to contend with wraiths and other malevolent entities. 

“It’s hard to know how I feel right now, but ahead of Heartworm’s release tomorrow I wanted to say I really hope you all can appreciate it for what it is,” Adinolfi posted on X (Twitter) a day ahead of the release. “We did our best and learned a lot. It was never trying to live up to the classics but hopefully pay a respectable homage.”

“Not only was I making a game for the first time ever, but it was my first time running a team, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them, so thank you Carlos, Goba, Jacob, Leo, Michael, Yves, and M. And thanks to everyone at DreadXP for their help and giving me a chance.”

Say Cheese

Heartworm follows news of other recent PSX-style titles, such as Labyrinth of The Demon King and Eclipsium. However, one of the main differences between Heartworm and modern interpretations of survival horror is that Sam has a camera which she can use to battle enemies, making Fatal Frame just as much a touchstone as Silent Hill and Resident Evil. 

Although there are boss fights, such as a giant spider, one of the main enemies is a wraith made of static; if it gets too close it can slow Sam down, although the camera can be used to destabilize it for a moment.

Heartworm features other things gamers might expect from a Playstation One inspired title, including low-res character models, fixed camera angles, and even tank controls. Heartworm also trusts its players with either having good memories or taking notes, as there’s a variety of puzzles that fall squarely into the old-school camp of remembering names, images, and numbers. Adinolfi has made sure to cater to modern gamers’ tastes, though, as the tank controls are optional, as are pixelation and retro effects, in case the graphical dithering gets a bit too much.

Somber Horror

Player reviews have already started rolling in, with one labelling it “melancholy horror,” which Adinolfi has admitted he wished he’d come up with. Other reviews echo this sentiment, with gamers praising the atmosphere and soundtrack in particular. The positive reviews put the capper on a five year development period that Adinolfi wasn’t sure he’d ever complete.

“This all started because I posted a few screenshots online, after years of wondering why I post anything online – but for some reason people really liked them,” he posted on the game’s Steam page, to accompany its launch. 

“If I had never done that, I never would have gotten the recommendation to submit the original demo to the Haunted PS1 demo disc, and if I hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have gotten messages from publishers…I want to thank everyone who has followed the game, wishlisted, subscribed to my Patreon, talked to their friends about it, and supported it in any way.”