Analog horror at its base, but psychological thriller through and through; Heartworm delivers a story centered around grief and the purpose of existence through its horror-homage locales, musical arrangements and gameplay elements that creates a vibe all its own.

The story of Heartworm is about a grief-stricken girl, Sam, who recently lost her grandfather, the only person left in her life. Trying to reconnect with him, she becomes obsessed with death and hears of a strange door that can seemingly connect you with the other side. Finding it, she steps inside and finds herself in a world based loosely around her memories and she must solve puzzles and fight monsters to find her way back to the real world. A basic premise, but serves as decent motivation for the character to explore the rumors of a bridge to the afterlife. There are other elements of grief that are explored through some notes and puzzles, saying things that most people already know, and some might need to hear. It doesn’t go too far into this, except for the endings, but the surface-level examination did leave me wanting more as I was unsatisfied with how it failed to go any deeper. Still, that’s not all there is to this game.

The gameplay centers around puzzles and taking pictures. Enemies are sparse for the most part and not very threatening overall. Their presence is mostly a minor annoyance and their designs aren’t anything too crazy. Static silhouettes, mannequins and crawling carcasses covered in chains… actually that last one was quite freaky. In addition to the normal enemies, there are a couple bossfights, the first being a giant spider, which I found to be the most challenging of them in all honesty. Though it wasn’t very difficult, there were mobs of exploding little spiders that added some franticness to the fight, but I didn’t die. I never died, throughout the whole game. It was pretty easy and I had multiple medkits left over when the credits rolled. So if the combat and enemies aren’t challenging, what about the puzzles? For the most part, they’re well-made. I definitely scratched my head at the piano one for longer than I should have, but if you have a decent memory of where things are and experience in the genre, you’ll probably be able to intuit where to go and what to do when you find certain objects. I wished there were more items to combine through the inventory as I can’t recall many instances when I used it other than medkits, reloading and installing camera mods. These mods serve as a way to change how the camera works, and can only be procured by completing optional chess puzzles throughout the game. I only found two, but I essentially used the burst mod for the entire game and it felt great to use.

The area where this game shines is in its atmosphere. Though some areas and concepts are definitely more homage than anything (rusted steel walkway area, mannequin enemies, clock tower level, developing a photo in a dark room) it still felt cohesive because of the art direction and music/ sound design. Every single song in the game was a masterpiece. I’m not a big game music guy, but there are some serious bangers here. The music, coupled with the environments and their sounds gives each area such depth that I felt like I was lost in them. The first area being a rainy neighborhood with a lo-fi beat really made me want to just stand on one of the porches and record it for a wallpaper. Seriously, the music here is so good and the ambience mixed with it is all-encompassing. It creates such vibes that it almost feels cozy, despite the subject matter. Not sure if they really wanted their horror game to be described as much but c'est la vie.

I really enjoyed immersing myself in this world. The art design and the music alone were enough to pull me along. Though there’s not much to say about the straightforward story, combat and puzzles, all were functional aspects of the experience. The fixed camera angles could have been used more interestingly and the enemies more threatening, but I think the current package is still worth your time. It’s a unique little game that wormed itself into my heart pretty quickly and I believe most people can enjoy it, even non-horror fans.