Earlier this week, Frictional Games released a trailer for a new title called Amnesia: Rebirth. Now, anyone who knew me back when I was a full-time video game journalist knows I couldn’t let this moment pass me by without both (a) screaming in raw, primal, fangirlish joy and (2) writing about it.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the original Amnesia: The Dark Descent played a pretty significant role in shaping who I am today as a gamer, writer, and narrative designer.

My first experience of the game was secondhand. Too new to the world of horror games (and too chicken) to play it myself at first, I watched a commentary-free walkthrough on YouTube (sadly, I no longer know whose, or I would credit them here). Even from the safety of the spectator’s seat, I was thoroughly spooked—and irretrievably hooked.

I played it myself, eventually, with the lights out and the headphones on. I won’t lie; I had to take pretty frequent breaks to keep my sanity. But I was in love, and I was in deep. When I started writing about games, it was one of the main reasons that I chose to specialize in horror—despite being totally terrified of horror games. I am still utterly thrilled to have had the privilege of reviewing Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs when it was released in 2013.

So yes, even now, my blood still quickens at the thought of a new Frictional Games title—especially a new entry in the bloody, beloved Amnesia series. Why? Because even a decade later, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is still insanely scary.

Why is ‘Amnesia: The Dark Descent’ Scary?

As a low-budget indie game release, the original Amnesia did not suffer from lower-quality graphics so much as use them to its advantage. Low-to-no-lighting throughout the game not only compensated for the graphics but actually contributed to the overall dread-inducing ambience, in much the same way Team Silent used fog in the original Silent Hill. And, taking a cue from another horror classic (Eternal Darkness), the game also played on the audience’s primal fear of darkness by including a sanity mechanic tied to the main character’s nyctophobia. Spending too long in the shadows wasn’t simply unnerving in Amnesia—it was dangerous.

And then, of course, there were the monsters. Ranging from humanoid gatherers and brutes to the more Lovecraftian Shadow and Kaernk (A.K.A. the infamous “water monster”), the creatures of Brennenburg Castle were the stuff of nightmares. All nightmares, however, lose their power if they become too familiar—and so, in addition to clever pacing, the sanity mechanic once again came into play here by keeping players from looking directly at monsters for too long. In so doing, it was left up to players to imagine the grisly details of each creature’s existence on their own. In other words, players weren’t just being scared by the developers—the developers were tricking them into scaring themselves.

Amnesia was not a cheap jump-scare fest. It was a study in vulnerability—your only defense from the claws that bit and jaws that caught was to run, hide, and pray you wouldn’t get found. It was densely atmospheric, and the story (if you were patient enough to unravel it) touched on some of the greatest atrocities humans can (and, all too often, do) commit. The point of Amnesia was never to “beat” it. The point was to experience it, in all its nightmarish glory.

Is ‘Amnesia’ Still Scary?

Not all games hold up a decade after release thanks to constant innovations in technology, especially in terms of graphics. This is doubly true if you’re trying to play something for the first time—with no nostalgia to bolster the experience, trying to play a clunky old game from 10 or more years ago can be a nightmare of the worst kind. I know—I experienced this myself when I played the first Witcher game in anticipation of Wild Hunt. The story kept me going, but much of the gameplay itself made me want to drown myself in the old swamp cemetery in Vizima.

And it’s true that, at first glance, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is looking a bit dated these days. Even the version included in Amnesia: Collection, polished up for PS4, has all the tell-tale signs of a game developed in days long gone by. Even so, it’s still scary as hell—because the graphics were never the true source of the terror anyway.

The real horror of Amnesia always lay in the story, the sound design, and the inescapable dread of being constantly hunted by monstrous things that can’t be killed—and all of those elements are every bit as impactful now as they were back in 2010. (I still get jumpy whenever there’s a flooded level in a video game—even if it’s not a horror game!)

So if, like me, you’re dying to see what new terrors Amnesia: Rebirth has in store for us, maybe consider revisiting the castle where it all began, and saying hello to a few old friends…

Amnesia: The Dark Descent taught me a lot about the business of crafting spooky stories, and especially what makes places and monsters truly scary rather than simply grotesque. If you’re feeling brave, you can check out my own contribution to the horror game genre—The Harbinger’s Head—on your browser now, or download it from your app service of choice.