For the sake of transparency, I want to say that I did work on Heartworm, so of course I am going to recommend that you play it! I was a co-writer, and did a tiny bit of early concept art, and voiced Sam. I won't recommend the game based on parts of the game that I worked on lol.

First, I think that the team nailed the aesthetic style of the game. Whether you prefer to play with retro filters or not, I think you're in for a visual treat. There is enough variance in environments that every area you enter feels fresh, but nostalgic. Michael and Vincent were able to throw in occasional visual callbacks to the classic RE and SH games that they love so much, but bring something new to them.

To go with the aesthetic style of the game, the music really completes the ambiance. Carlos helped Vincent with sound design, and Michael assisted with the end credits song, and the majority of the soundtrack was created by Vincent. While some areas have a dread-inducing score, you will find brevity in places you would not expect with more low-key, dramatic and melancholy tracks.

I also really admire how well the puzzles were integrated into the world of the game. When you need to back-track in certain areas to complete a puzzle, you can find shortcuts, and the map is super useful too. The variety of the puzzle types is something I really appreciate. There's plenty of classic puzzle stuff, but I think there are a few really cleverly designed puzzles that will feel like a breath of fresh air to survival horror fans.

Combat for me is tough to review, because it is why I generally avoid playing survival horror games. I will say that all the enemies have interesting designs and mechanics, and fit well in the aesthetic of the game, and thank goodness you can run from most of them, because that's what I did while I was playing hahaha. I was tense as heck when playing. Also, in terms of the boss fights, the spider one is my favorite by far.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Heartworm over the years. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to work on the game, and I really hope you enjoy your playthroughs.

An easy rec for classic survival horror fans.
I played the game with modern controls and it has an over the shoulder aiming option. You can also play with full on tank controls if you enjoy that. It might honestly fit the game better but I had no issues either way.

The game is almost cozy tbh, as your character 'Sam' finds herself going through her old home and other places of her life. Some of these are quite colorful, like a pretty forest her grandfather would take her for walks. But overall the game looks beautiful and charming. I often found myself going into aim mode just to look at things up close. Music is also always very fitting and pretty. Although the audio mixing with the game compared to the cutscenes can be a bit weird sometimes, I changed and lowered some of my sound settings for the gameplay, I just think these did not apply to the cutscenes which made them loud.

The game is...not really challenging.
You find an inventory upgrade pretty early on and I was never out of healing items or ammo. It was very rare when I couldn't pick up more items and this was usually only because my bag was full of healing and I only found more healing lol
Most enemies pose no threat at all and usually just get stunlocked for a bit when you flash them with your camera.

The puzzles are fun and well designed, they require some logical thinking and I had some "ah-ha" moments while wandering around sometimes. Quite rewarding. Do be prepared to have a notepad around because quite a few puzzles just have you remembering words or placements. I had to take photos of my screen sometimes to know the order of things. This can be good or bad depending on what you are into.

I will say there is a sliding block puzzle in 1 of the final areas. I despise these and I wish it wasn't in the game. You go around an area to put certain words to numbers. Like moon = 1 , book = 2 etc. A total of 11. So you need to have your notebook to note these down, then you have to put them in order in a randomized sliding puzzle. I put mine in one of those puzzle solvers and the fastest solution was 88 moves at some point if you did everything perfect. Really????? I just went alt f4 here to come back later and have it generate me a different one. Skill issue perhaps.

The writing was good and Sam is a cool character, I enjoyed reading the journals and notes of different people scattered around the place and Sam having thoughts about the areas we found ourselves in. I liked learning more about her.

Overall a fun 5-7 hour experience with lots of heart(worm). A little more relaxing than a lot of other survival horror games with combat and enemies not having that much focus. Fantastic atmosphere, interesting story, decent puzzles.
Just check it out if you're into the genre.

Fast track the transference of grief and loss to nostalgia with classic survival horror gameplay and the haunted vibes of a borrowed familiarity from forgotten ‘90s tv shows you’ve never seen.