FEARLESS

AMNESIA: REBIRTH is an unforgettable follow-up to a horror classic.

Leana Hafer

This direct follow-up Amnesia: The Dark Descent had enormous expectations to meet. Judging by the number of times my housemates heard me shout at it, I’d say that Amnesia: Rebirth succeeded. Navigating cramped corridors with no way to directly combat the abominations pursuing you may not be as novel today as it was a decade ago, but it’s as terrifying as ever, and Rebirth takes the series to even more disturbing places.

It’s almost impossible to say anything specific about the plot, characters, or locations without spoiling the expertly-crafted story. Here are just the basic details, then: the beleaguered protagonist Tasi Trianon, brought to life with a superb performance by Alix Wilton Regan, finds herself marooned in the Algerian desert in 1937 with, appropriately enough, amnesia. Trekking through a huge variety of dark and foreboding locales, finding notes and photographs to piece together her past, while evading nightmare horrors using stealth and speed, all feel very familiar. But the stakes are higher and the journey is weirder. If The Dark Descent scratched the surface of the Amnesia mythos and A Machine for Pigs gave us a glimpse below the skin, Rebirth takes us all the way into its eldritch heart.