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After a harrowing few months without a publisher, the Silent Hill and Resident Evil-inspired retro horror game Heartworm is back and better than ever, and it has a fresh 2025 release window.
For some background, Heartworm first shot to the top of my list of most anticipated upcoming horror games when its demo launched as part of the 2020 edition of the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc compilation of love letters to late-90s horror. It's blatantly inspired by classics of the genre, with tank controls, a fixed-camera perspective, and a tragedy-stricken protagonist, but it's just such an authentic and well-made amalgam of horror greats from my childhood that I just couldn't help falling in love.
It was to my great dismay, then, when in October solo developer Vincent Adinolfi shared a rather dour update on Steam, revealing that the game's original publisher had backed out entirely due to its struggling finances. At the time, Adinolfi pledged to "do whatever I have to to release this game" and launched a Kickstarter.
Thankfully, there's been a new and much more encouraging update on the game's development and release. It's been announced that DreadXP is picking up publishing duties for Heartworm and the project is now due to launch in 2025, sans Kickstarter funding.
"They're a perfect match for our game, and will be supporting us to bring Heartworm to PC," Adinolfi says.
In this latest update, Adinolfi reveals that the loss of publisher funding was enough to throw the fate of Heartworm into question at one point, but with DreadXP on board, things are looking up again.
"There was a while there where I thought I might never finish this game - but that's not a concern at all anymore. Now I can get back to focusing on creating the best ode to survival horror that I possibly can."
Heartworm's story follows Sam, who recently lost some people she really cared about and has since fallen victim to an internet rabbit hole promising a reunion with her dead loved ones. She ends up at a house deep in the forested mountains where there's said to be a portal to the other side, and well, I think we've all seen enough horror movies to know this probably isn't going to end well for poor ol' Sam.
The dev promises 6-8 hours of gameplay with multiple endings in the full release. You'll fight off a variety of monsters using gloriously tanky melee combat as well as third-person over-the-shoulder shooting, and when you aren't actively fighting for your life, you'll need to navigate "numerous bespoke puzzles" to proceed.
"These features combine with an emotional and psychologically-focused narrative to compose a nostalgia-charged love letter to late 90s genre progenitors Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dino Crisis," reads a bit from the Steam description.
For more chilling thrills to play with the lights off, head over to our list of the best horror games.
