I think Minamu meant more from a gameplay perspective. Aside from some puzzles, you could probably go through the entire game without sound and not worry about dying, but that would be missing the point.
The game was intentionally designed to limit deaths. And the point of the sounds was to make the player uneasy. It just so happens some people aren't affected by ambient sounds. And I think it's an area where Fictional Games could improve and make an even scarier game. For instance, actually have some of the ambient noise a real threat or immediate scare factor, not cheap boo scares, but just something other than ambient background noise once in a while.
For me, Amnesia "worked" so I'm curious about people, like Minamu, that don't get affected by ambient noise. Is it something you catch on to after getting familiar with the sounds and the game not ever following through with them or is it immediate from playing lots of games and having a good feel for how most games work, or perhaps a little of both?
As for myself, I was always thinking the developers were more devious than they actually were. And in a way, now that I think about it more, the sounds do follow through but more in a subtle and mysterious kind of way. For example the footsteps of the creaking wood. You hear them, you look around and nothing is there, you feel a bit uneasy. You hear them again and realize they are coming from above. Sometime later you see a hole above and when you get close some rocks fall. In that same room, out of fear, you go the opposite direction of where the rocks fell and when you get to the end of the hallway the monster appears at the opposite end just standing there. I believe this was the intention of how the developers wanted the mindset of the player to be in and how to play.
Some people just don't make those connections of the above example, or they don't notice the sounds or navigate out of order.
There is another part similar in the Archives I think it was, and I think a lot of people miss, myself included, where you see the monster walk towards your only exit out. The intended path I think was to go the opposite direction until you reach the fallen rumble and can't go any further. When you get there the monster appears right behind you and disappears a foot in front of you.
It's interesting to watch various people play through this game and see what they react to what they don't react to and what they miss or find. Fictional Games could probably benefit a lot from watching those.
