What I don't like about Amnesia

[Gagarin]

I'll start by saying that I'm a long time reader of this forum but this is the first time that I decided to write something. I'm a huge fan of the Penumbra series. These games really made me feel like no other game before... I loved the atmosphere, the storyline, the puzzles and the originality of the whole thing. I was starting to get really tired of all those clichéic american games where the only important things are big guns, superhero powers and special effects for 12 year olds. But then i got my hands on penumbra and I could go on for hours about how much I loved it, but this is not exactly the right place.

And now to get to Amnesia:
I must say that there are some things that I don't like about Amnesia after watching the trailer. Somebody already mentioned that the hand looks all wrong which is true; if I hold my hand in that position it doesn't look at all like that (and I'm not a zombie nor am I a tuurngait). Anyway this is actually pretty unimportant compared to the next thing.

You might find this weird but I really don't like the "being scared" sounds that the character makes when theres something scary going on. Let me explain; and I'll have to use some boring notions to explain this properly. In literature, there is this thing called "distancing effect" used by a german writer called Bertolt Brecht, which is a theatrical method "which prevents the audience from losing itself passively and completely in the character created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer."-wikipedia. This basically means that it prevents you from being one with the character; and thats probably the worst thing that can happen to a horror game. That's usually why the main character from a lot of games never talks; because the game is supposed to make you feel like you are that person but if the character starts talking(or in this case making strange noises), that feeling is gone. And thats exactly how I feel when the guy from amnesia gets scared; immersion is ruined. That was the same problem with Call of Cthulhu ... right-clicking on an object and the character started talking which ruined the whole atmosphere and more important it made me feel distant. I'm sure that this effect makes horror games less scary for alot of people but they just don't realize it. And yes, there was a similar effect in penumbra too but it was alot less pronounced and annoying.
I think that the feeling of fear should be left entirely to the the player and not simulated by the character. Maybe the player doesn't feel like that at particular moments which just creates an unnecessary conflict of sensations. It's like one of those sitcoms which feature a laugh track so that you know when it's supposed to be funny... I've always hated those.

Anyways, sorry for all the criticism; after all I'm really looking forward to this game. I can't wait to play it. Keep up the good work.