Monsters shouldn't have distinctive sounds

[Mjarr]

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).

It doesn't need to be completely random, but in areas in which you are aware that there are supposed to be enemies around (the prison being one example) having some small random factor when simply wandering around could work, or adding small delay with the scripts so that sometimes when you do X it takes few additional seconds before something happens. The lack of 'life' around certain events to some degree is what slightly hurts the atmosphere, as even if you try very hard to not pay attension to small details you can tell what's ambience and what's not after one hour or two, so you know you are safe even if you just heard someone getting butchered couple of rooms away as there is no trademark BLEARGH sound anywhere, until you wander to some set piece and for me it was like this: wander around carefully, look at the enviroment, take a 'guess' something happesn the moment I touch this door and "BLE..." and I'm already hiding at the next room and wondering could he wander away already because it was way too obvious BLERGABOO scene. I am referring to the cellar in the back hall which was pitch black and that one specific door, now imagine if my only warning would've been ingame idle growls, footsteps and the music. It would've been startling to say the least and resulted into brief, tense run Luke run- sequence.

Sure it's difficult problem from design point of view how to handle, but by no means impossible.