New Horror Sport is Resident Evil Meets Parasite Eve, and You Can Play It Quickly

Survival horror video games have seen a resurgence within the late 2010s and all through the 2020s due to remakes and sequels of beforehand widespread survival horror titles corresponding to Resident Evil, Useless House, and Silent Hill. The monetary success and widespread attraction of those survival horror titles moreover led to builders producing new entries in celebrated sequence corresponding to Resident Evil’s upcoming Resident Evil Requiem and builders producing totally new survival horror video games. Whereas video games corresponding to ILL and Cronos: The New Daybreak are constructing off of contemporary survival horror parts, one upcoming recreation is striving to return to the roots of the survival horror style: Dread XP’s Heartworm.

Heartworm’s Route and Nostalgic Growth

Initially unveiled in early 2020 via a demo included within the digital Haunted PS1 Demo Disk, Heartworm is a single-player, third-person, survival horror recreation that makes use of mounted digital camera angles, pre-rendered backgrounds, and in-game cutscenes akin to the unique Resident Evil 1 and 2. Much like different titles discovered within the Haunted PS1 Demo Disk, corresponding to Useless Warmth and Fatum Betula, Heartworm is an indie recreation constructed to reflect the traditional low-polygon, pixelated fashion of PlayStation 1-era video games like Resident Evil and Parasite Eve. In line with Heartworm’s creator and sole developer, Vincent Adinolfi, Heartworm will probably be a “… nostalgia-charged love letter to late 90s [survival horror] style progenitors Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dino Disaster.”

In an interview with Heartworm’s writer, Dread XP, Adinolfi described Heartworm as being a “suburban horror” recreation akin to the unique Silent Hill, versus the generalized survival horror video games seen in fashionable gaming. This is because of Heartworm’s setting of a supernatural home positioned in a mountain vary that’s meant to create a way of familiarity and unease, as many individuals dwell in suburban areas. Whereas Heartworm is meant to be a love letter to traditional PS1-era survival horror video games, its themes surrounding psychological sickness and trauma are semi-auto-biographical with Adinolfi’s personal struggles. A few of these autobiographical parts had been toned down a bit following Heartworm’s authentic demo, however they will nonetheless be felt via Heartworm’s protagonist, Sam.

Heartworm’s Narrative and Gameplay Defined

Heartworm follows Sam, a younger photographer who’s struggling to return to phrases with the deaths of family members, notably her grandfather. Finally, Sam, after looking for methods to contact those that have died, stumbles upon a mysterious message board discussing a home that supposedly has a room that may join folks with the afterlife and deceased family members. Regardless of nobody beforehand visiting the home ever returning, Sam makes her technique to the supernatural home and “enter[s] a world born of reminiscences.” In Heartworm’s 2025 IGN Fan Fest trailer, Sam writes to somebody detailing her intent to go to the home and claims that this individual will now not have to fret about her, however the identification of this particular person is at the moment unknown.

When it comes to gameplay, Heartworm is much less action-packed than its Resident Evil influences. As a substitute of wielding a wide range of firearms or melee weapons, Sam’s solely protection is her digital camera, which she will use to pacify roaming static monsters and their variants, much like the gameplay seen in Deadly Body. On prime of combating static monsters, which Adinolfi described as functioning much like Resident Evil’s widespread zombies, gamers will moreover encounter large spiders, a mysterious cloaked determine, and extra as bosses. Fight isn’t Heartworm’s sole gameplay mechanic, nonetheless, as gamers may also have to resolve a number of puzzles and preserve merchandise administration with Sam’s restricted stock, identical to the traditional Resident Evil video games.

Heartworm’s Traditional Attraction and Launch

Whereas Resident Evil and Silent Hill video games have seen newfound recognition with their fashionable remakes and sequels, their authentic Fifth and Sixth Console Era titles nonetheless retain a horrifying appeal that has seldom been recaptured or recreated in fashionable video games. Remakes might have made some gameplay mechanics and story parts simpler to digest and perceive, however there’s nonetheless an immense attract to the unique video games’ presentation. This attraction of traditional survival horror titles has led to main gaming firms re-releasing classics for contemporary platforms, corresponding to PlayStation asserting the unique Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis coming to PlayStation Plus Premium’s Classics vary through the June 2025 State of Play.

New video games and mods corresponding to Heartworm and Fallout: Bakersfield might show that older types of video games can nonetheless discover a place within the hyperrealistic fashionable gaming world, due to their charming but enjoyable shows and well-intended narrative path. On the very least, Heartworm can remind folks of what made traditional survival horror video games corresponding to Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dino Disaster nice within the first place. Heartworm will take about 4 to 6 hours to finish, however there are a number of endings, identical to the unique Resident Evil and Silent Hill, that can make repeat playthroughs all of the extra intriguing. Heartworm’s demo can at the moment be downloaded and performed without spending a dime completely on PC, with the whole recreation later launching on Thursday, July 31.