Developer Vincent Adinolfi has landed some extra help with his upcoming retro Survival Horror game Heartworm. After running into difficulties with the original publisher, DreadXP has stepped in to fill the publishing void for the survival horror game, which pays tribute to the low-fidelity look and feel of 90s genre classics Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dino Crisis.
Aiming for a 2025 release on PC via Steam, Heartworm is described as “a nostalgia-wrapped nightmare” about one girl’s battle with grief and the otherworldly manifestations that may hold the key to the afterlife. Players assume the role of Sam, who driven by her obsession the deaths of those closest to her, spends her days crawling the internet looking for something to alleviate her pain. Sam’s morbid research takes her deep into the dark web, where she stumbles upon an internet message board that talks about a mysterious house in the mountains that supposedly has a connection to the afterlife. The board states that no one who has visited the house has ever returned. Consumed by her grief, Sam seeks out the house in desperation.
Heartworm is a game about the memories we keep and the ones we wish we could forget. These themes are expressed through the title’s narrative and its use of old-school Survival Horror aesthetics, including cinematic fixed camera angles, low-resolution retro 3D graphics (with optional pixelation and retro effects), and optional tank-style controls. It all takes place in a surreal suburban setting, where players will face various enemies with a weaponized camera (with over-the-shoulder aiming) and puzzle-solving. The game also features in-game and classically-styled pre-rendered cutscenes, and multiple endings.
If you’re keen on checking things out before the game’s release, Adinolfi has a demo available on Heartworm‘s Steam page.