With THRESHOLD and Dead Letter Dept., I’ve discovered a love for indie horror games. They’ve just been overall more interesting to me. Enter Heartworm. A horror game that sounds like there’s way more to it than meets the eye.
‘Heartworm’S TITLE FEELS LIKE IT’S GOING TO HAVE A LOT TO DO WITH THE STORY
Heartworm‘s story involves a woman named Sam who lost her grandfather. She then ” falls down an internet rabbit hole chasing the promise of reuniting with him. Following the lead of a mysterious forum, she finds herself at a supposedly supernatural house in the mountain, hoping to make contact with the other side.”
Sam is armed with a camera to defend herself. So, Heartworm is a combination of Fatal Frame, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill. The trailer showcases a number of puzzles and action sequences. And for you arachnophobes, I spot spiders. Have fun with that. The game really does lean on its influences as Sam appears to control like a tank. Graphically, Heartworm is a perfect recreation of the games of that era, right down to the (now) eerily smooth character models in cutscenes. The game is about 4-6 hours long, and it boasts multiple endings.
Those multiple endings make me very interested in where this story goes. Sam is obviously overcome with grief and takes extreme measures for the slightest chance to see her grandfather again. After all, a heartworm is a parasite that works its way to an animal’s heart before eventually killing it. And grief, in some sense, works the same way. The online rabbit holes Sam finds herself going down are the initial infection, and things progress from there. There’s real potential for this story to hit pretty hard. I’ll be keeping an eye on this when it releases July 31st, 2025.
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