Monsters shouldn't have distinctive sounds

[Macil]

I disagree with the OP. In fact, I couldn't disagree more.

I think attaching a distinctive growl and music is perfect. I think for a lot of people this results is a "oh sh--" moment (because you know exactly what it means), followed by panic and scrambling to find cover. If the meetings were random, I think this would become more frustrating -- and not to mention, harder to pace from a design/story standpoint (since you won't know when your players are going to encounter something).

I think its a requirement that the player has moments where they feel "safe" -- because they are aware of when a monster is around via the growl/music. This lets them muster some courage to continue and balances out the experience (highs and lows).

This ties into the fact that the game is fairly "easy" -- in that, monsters have poor vision and its not difficult to hide from them. If they were smarter and killed you frequently, I think you'd get desensitized and lose all sense of terror ("oh great, another monster -- whatever") The moment the player gets frustrated is the moment they get "brought out" of the game -- you want to keep them immersed and make them forget they're in front of a computer screen.

The story/atmosphere crafted by Frictional is a fragile beast and adding random encounters I think would require a major shift in design philosophy. I read their blog and its clear their focus is more on creating an "experience" using video games as a medium, rather than creating a traditional "game".

I understand the point, though -- that the "known" factor of the growl/chase music gets old after awhile. However, I think its quite effective for at least the first play-through, since the triggers are unknown (and I would argue subsequent play-throughs if you keep "meta-thinking" to a minimal).

I'd rather see new venues/modules/levels/whatever than replay the same old stuff with "random" monsters.