For a number of years now, we’ve seen a surge within the variety of video games designed to feel and appear like retro horror video games. The PS1 period appears to garner essentially the most consideration, with many titles emulating its distinctive 32-bit polygonal aesthetic. Whereas nearly all of these video games don’t go previous bite-sized proof-of-concept initiatives, Heartworm is a sport that vowed to turn out to be a fully-developed sport of an analogous size to a few of the classics of yesteryear.
Developed by solo indie sport developer Vincent Adinolfi and printed by DreadXP, Heartworm immerses gamers within the story of the protagonist, Sam, as she searches for solutions and closure relating to her previous and the deaths of her beloved members of the family. Does the sport succeed by itself deserves, or fall into the frequent pitfalls that usually have an effect on video games aiming to evoke nostalgia?
When first leaping into Heartworm, you’re thrust right into a low-poly world the place the exploration and puzzle-solving begin in a short time. You’re additionally met with a showcase of some attractive visuals and artwork design that calls again to a previous period, whereas additionally making sure enhancements that have been not often seen on the gaming {hardware} of the previous. Sweeping, dynamic digicam angles transfer round to construct awe, rigidity, and dread, and many of the sport’s environments showcase some attractive texture work and 3D modeling that the consoles of the Nineties would’ve had a tough time producing, whereas nonetheless feeling genuine and never breaking the immersion or type in any respect.
Some spectacular lighting results spherical out the visible package deal, creating an expertise that’s fairly spectacular to have a look at regardless of being made by such a small workforce. It goes an extended technique to maintain you engaged with the sport, as you begin easing your means into its varied challenges and obstacles.
So far as obstacles go, you’ll find yourself going through a wide range of puzzles and enemy encounters all through the expertise, with a fairly stable steadiness in encounter problem that forces you to be good about which enemies you evade versus those you select to fight. Sources for preventing enemies seem within the type of well being refills and movie on your digicam, and each are fairly restricted all through the sport, making you select correctly which of the tougher enemies to make use of your provides on.
There are a couple of sport mechanics which can be launched early on, however then appear to be underused or simply forgotten about after a sure level within the sport, like utilizing the digicam’s flash to lighten darkish areas or putting in digicam mods. Although this doesn’t essentially act as a detriment to the sport, it simply looks like extra might have been performed with these mechanics.
There’s additionally a handful of boss encounters all through Heartworm, the place the problem can spike a bit of bit, however the number of enemy sorts is good and the enemy designs of all sorts are well-designed to be creepy and intimidating throughout the board. This continually provides rigidity and hazard to most of your time spent on this world.
As for the puzzles, most of them are a bit of on the simpler aspect, however nonetheless complicated sufficient the place some thought is required and even some note-taking now and again. This makes for a satisfying puzzle expertise, even when there’s some backtracking that can are inclined to occur as you make your selections of what to discover and in what order. Total, the exploration felt well-handled and by no means fairly obtuse sufficient to actually get caught for very lengthy, which is a fragile factor to sort out in this kind of sport.
The map system is pretty glorious, feeling akin to a Silent Hill map, the place issues of curiosity are marked as you discover, and it helps offer you a greater format of the sport’s environments for higher navigation by means of its collection of principally fastened digicam angles. Nevertheless, because it lacks any icon or avatar to indicate the place your character is and what course they’re going through, this may be extra disorienting than you may anticipate generally. Whereas the environments all through the sport are attractive to have a look at and well-designed usually, a few of the digicam angles could make for some awkward moments of getting misplaced or going off-screen with out the digicam altering to observe you rapidly sufficient.
Transferring on to the audio facet of the aesthetics, whereas there’s some very good (however precisely crunchy) sound design all through the sport, there’s just one or two music tracks within the sport that added any rigidity or dread to your journey, with most of it falling on the calm or “chill” aspect of issues. This appears to work in opposition to the intention of the sport being a horror expertise now and again. There are definitely nonetheless occasions the place the dread and rigidity are there, but it surely’s not usually, notably due to the music.
Whereas with reference to music, this brings us to a different level of dialogue that left a tiny little bit of a bitter style for me, which can seemingly be divisive amongst many gamers. That’s in the way in which that Heartworm goals to pay homage to its influences, which felt prefer it crossed a couple of strains for me to the place awkwardness set in.
One of many first issues that tipped off this notion in my head was that a number of of the music tracks within the sport are practically note-for-note copies of a memorable music from a preferred horror sport from the previous. The likeness of those tracks is so shut that it practically looks like plagiarism, and whereas it’s not price being fairly that excessive concerning the thought, it does pose the query of how shut is just too shut, and when does the homage flip into copycatting as a substitute of showcasing extra unique concepts.
Other than the music having a number of lifeless ringers for themes from traditional horror titles, a number of rooms or hallways are nearly 100% replicas of areas from a few of these traditional video games as nicely, lending extra to the concept that possibly the intention to set off nostalgia went a bit of too far. If these have been remoted issues that solely occurred in some type of easter egg or secret space, they wouldn’t really feel as misplaced, however since they’re areas you’re required to discover on a traditional playthrough, they simply land a bit of uncomfortably, even when they’re enjoyable on the floor.
The narrative writing and the principle character’s voice performing are surprisingly nicely performed for a title of this caliber and finances, even when there’s nothing notably profound concerning the story beats or overarching narrative construction. It nonetheless feels prefer it resonates emotionally, even when it is likely to be in a considerably imprecise sense of resonance general. It could really feel considerably aimless at occasions, however having a couple of totally different separated chapters, every with its personal contained narrative about an occasion or specific time and place from Sam’s life, makes for some comparatively memorable tales. The items that contact on psychological well being and self-doubt with reference to inventive individuals have been a pleasant contact, although it wasn’t entrance and heart all through the entire sport.
The conclusion of the story leaves one thing to be desired, because it doesn’t really feel prefer it notably wraps all of the earlier threads collectively in a significant means. Despite the fact that three totally different endings barely change the result, all of them really feel considerably uneventful or nebulous.
So far as the controls and efficiency, Heartworm felt superb taking part in with a controller, with full customization of the way you’d wish to play or reassigning buttons, even when a few of the unusual digicam angles could make you’re feeling a bit disoriented at occasions. As for the efficiency, it ran very nicely throughout the board with nearly no technical points to talk of. The flexibility to enter an over-the-shoulder digicam for aiming provides an additional diploma of precision to the fight and a pleasant alternate perspective to the sport, so it’s a fantastic extra choice to the management scheme.
The expertise ought to final someplace between 4-6 hours for many gamers, relying on how lengthy sure sections or puzzles may take you.
It falls someplace in between feeling prefer it has a satisfying sense of brevity in pacing, but in addition feeling like there might have been a bit of bit extra to flesh out the expertise and wrap issues up in direction of the tip. Most individuals will most likely really feel glad with the sport’s size, particularly if they’ve cheap expectations about retro horror video games, although some could also be left wanting a bit of extra.
As an entire, Heartworm is a deal with for retro horror sport followers that’s well worth the worth of entry. Simply maintain your expectations in test, and possibly don’t suppose an excessive amount of concerning the blurred strains between nostalgia and distinctive concepts. Simply let your self sink into the story it has to inform.
(8 / 10)
(8 / 10)Nice
Depend on Horror Assessment Rating Information
A evaluation code was supplied by the writer for PC.
