My main problem with AMFP: Observer vs. Participator

[JohnDoe]

I agree with your premise, but have to differ on the writing. Mandus' love of purple prose is period-appropriate, and the reliance on ambiguity provokes the player to try and make sense of a fractured narrative. The actual story of an industrialist driven mad is rather basic - the writing embellishes it, however, so that we get a sense for the fractured state of the man's psyche.

Different strokes for diff'rent folks, perhaps.

I discussed this with a friend who has a double major in English and History.
Turns out it's wrong. Period literature was quite flowery, it's true. Personal writing was not. Since these are supposed to be things written by Mandus for Mandus, there's no reason that it would even begin to reach the levels of purple prose it hit.

I am not entirely sold on the story, but I do agree that the presentation was the real problem here. By the end of the game, I was annoyed when journal entries appeared because it meant that I had to jump out of the game again and see what 'brilliant' notes Mandus had written now.