Opening with a pregnant female hero, Tasi, whose plane crashes into a scorching desert, it's clear that Amnesia: Rebirth is a step away from its Gothic predecessors. It is still a more faithful sequel than A Machine For Pigs in terms of its return to anxiety-inducing nyctaphobia in tight spaces, now with the aid of the world's shittiest matches. Much like the original Dark Descent, Rebirth is most terrifying when you're stuck in these shadows with ancient monsters, but eventually tips slightly overboard into Lovecraftian cosmic horror towards the third act, which even evokes the art of HR Giger - not a bad thing really.

I actually found Rebirth's greatest strength to be the empathy felt with Tasi, who couldn't be any more vulnerable in her nightmare situation. I felt an equal amount of desperation in getting this poor unborn baby to safety, and was incredibly tense with every unfortunate plunge into deeper horrors - some of those chase sequences left me gasping. There's also some fun puzzle gameplay, involving assembling a cannon and making ammo for a tank; all of this absolutely necessary in punctuating those more terrifying moments typical of an Amnesia game.
The only thing that bummed me out was 'dying' only to regain consciousness back at a checkpoint with an easier or even totally absent foe, taking away the reward of beating something on a repeated attempt. This is especially frustrating when all you did was go 'the wrong way' in a desperate chase.
In these moments however, at least it felt like the stakes were high, unlike much of Machine For Pigs, which plays like a spooky walking simulator.

Whilst the Dark Descent undoubtedly has it's legacy and influence backing it, I can't help but find Rebirth's balance of horror, adventure, puzzles and character driven narrative greater refined and all the more satisfying as a package. It's really all can ask for from a survival horror sequel.