What the story needed [SPOILER]

[Harry]

Well, it sounds like they die, but then again, the grunts do kind of look like parts of them 'exploded' which might fit.

I know they use people to steal others, but In my mind, the grunts originally were used to steal humans but replaced because Alexander felt men such as Wilhelm would do a better job.

I'm guessing mindless zombies ask a lot fewer questions of Alexander, what with him being hundreds of years old and all. Not being questioned like Wilhelm does would have its benefits I'm sure.

I'm happy if the origin of the monsters isn't explained, as you can read as much or as little into it as you like.

[Jinix]

Well congrats on such a deep analysis of the game. you are a good writer.
I won't pick out the points, but I basically like the game as it is
Other than more "optional" books laying around to read stories that may or not relate to the various locales Egypt, London, Prussia etc., I can find no fault as a gamer worth pointing out.
The only game to scare the daylights outta me before Amnesia are Hammerite related adventures with Garrett in the Thief games.

[superluser]

What is the Kaernk water beast?
None of the storylines foreshadow the beast and only one of them, the DIARY storyline, even references the creature, near the very end of the game and well after you are in any danger from it anymore.

Personally, I think it's worse not knowing what it is when it attacks you. It heightens the fear.

GAME-storyline complaints:
1) The first area is too difficult of an introduction to the Kaernk with the boxes being so unevenly spaced and the monster being able to attack the player even on boxes. Compare this to the second encounter in the Cistern where you can easily get away. It doesn't make any sense to have the harder encounter first.
2) There is no "rest" space between the first and second beast in the first encounter. Having a spot to rest and perhaps a DIARY storyline bit would provide the player with a chance to refresh and give the story a sense of pacing that it otherwise lacks in this part.

I think it's better having the first encounter being tougher, since it heightens the tension in the second one. From a gameplay perspective, the first one is very easy to solve, provided you die often enough. I don't know about the other one.

In regards to item 2, the second area of the encounter is actually much easier than the first. I didn't realize this until the commentary, but when you go through the doors, listen to see how far away the monster is before you get to the door, and then once you get t the door, listen to see how far away it is now. They spawn new monsters when you get to the door. You're never in any real danger.

What is the Servant Grunt?
We never get any idea that Alexander needed non-human servants for anything. In fact, there doesn't seem to be a real purpose. I seemed to think, at the start of the game, that they were the "shadow" chasing me. Then, after learning they were not the shadow, I figured that these creatures somehow "escaped" from whatever lay below the castle. But then even that seemed to be in question, as they were clearly part of Alexander's control at the end of the game.

Why does Alexander need servants? Alexander has many people in his cells. I suppose he could personally guard each of them by placing their cells inside his inner sanctum and never sleeping, but he might prefer to let someone else guard them. Hence his servants. As to what they are, that was explained in the notes ``Local Folklore'' (where they are described as gatherers) and ``Regarding the closure of the wine cellar.''

Additionally, at some point prior to the Guest room, Storage, or Study, they need to be introduced as part of Alexander's control, even if we have already seen them before, it is highly likely the player has not yet had to run or hide from them at this point.

This is a good idea.

What is the Brute Grunt?
We are never told why these exist. The assumption seems to be that they police the Servant Grunts, and possibly even kill them. That being said, I'm not sure what Fractional was wanting to do with the story, but these suffer the same problem as the Servant Grunts in the story, there is no introduction (though with these in particular, I'm not sure there needs to be).

A good observation.

Who is Agrippa? Who is Weyer?
The DIARY storyline could have referred much earlier on to Agrippa and Weyer. In fact, there could have been introductions to the Three referring to Alexander, Agrippa, and Weyer since the very beginning. Doing this, even if only once, would have given the player the idea that Alexander maybe had equals somewhere, even if Daniel himself didn't know of them.

Well, we needed something more on Agrippa. Your idea isn't bad, but there may be other ways of doing it, too.

GAME storyline complaints:
Agrippa could show goodwill toward the player by pointing out the machine doesn't work and the player needs to get on the torture table and move a gear. As it stands, the player really has no reason to trust him.
Agrippa needs to say over and over after the player uses Weyer's Tonic:
AGRIPPA: "Great! Now, cut off my head and throw it in the portal once it opens! Throw me in the portal!"

I thought this was actually pretty good, since it made me wonder if I really was helping him to live on or if he had simply convinced me to kill him and put him out of his misery.

[xiao]

some decent points in the original post but explaining the water monster, especially mentioning it before it appears, would absolutely and completely ruin everything about the tension and fear during that part.

i really think the game would have benefited from some more scary-ass encounters with unknown horrifying things like this, after the water monster it was all pretty much doors flying open and grunts and brutes - very scary, but there was something about the unexpected, unexplained fear of the water monster encounter that was absolutely brilliant. more moments like this, if only one or two more, would be great.