How do you guys handle it?

[Mjarr]

play in the dark, lock the door and turn off chat (these do make a huge difference -- its easy to say the game should scare you despite distractions, but the trick is "fooling" yourself into thinking you're somewhere you're not)-- focus on the game: the sounds, the sights, the interaction, and let your imagination run wild -- you might be surprised . Maybe have a couple of glasses of wine (if you're old enough).

I did focus on the game quite alot, mostly played it in dark room during evening\nights, I re-read some of the memos and such to focus on the story and paid alot of attension to some things to form up some speculative thoughts and motivations for certain things, I spent quite some time looking decorations, sights, enviroments, paying attension to lightning and it certainly is genuine, authentic castle, I paid keen attension to the whole enviroment, I used steam chat probably twice during the 11h it took finishing the game (even though probably 2-3h total was spent on simply admiring the enviroments and taking things slowly rather than rush from point A to point B) but then comes the observation problem, once in a while the ambient sounds were distracting but most of the time you could tell it was ambient rather than genuine sound from something, and I could easily hear the enemies walking 20m+ away still before the sound truly faded among other things. The problem still is (unfortunately) I am not just the type to get scared (or startled) easily, and that is one reason why I like to play horror games in general: to find something that would actually scare me to the point that I - as a player - would basically weep IRL. Amnesia (and Penumbra series) atleast have got the balls to give me some genuine startles once in a while and maybe scare once or twice per game, even if it was just a very brief effect. So, any other thoughts how to do things 'right' besides making VI interface? x)

While I appreciate your 'concern' and points I don't see a reason why people try to tell me how to play the game, I did my part about that, I enjoyed Amnesia (despite the fact I didn't shit a brickhouse or mostly had things under control) and also I enjoyed the Penumbra series.

However, that "bleargh" comment was mostly about that somewhat silly (IMO) design issue that basically everytime there is an enemy around you can hear when it spawns and I could hear them walking most of the time if they were under 20-25m from my location, occasionally even further if the music or ambience wasn't being that loud. While occasionally it does give you good idea to consider what you should do (like that huge hall at the end with those chambers), they should be more subtle about their 'dramatic entrance' as while in certain moments it does add alot to the atmosphere, in many cases it's just really lame way to say "hello I am here please throw subtletly out of the window", also applies with some of the more 'obvious' (once you think the whole encounter after the enemy's gone) hiding places