My main problem with AMFP: Observer vs. Participator

[Alardem]

Pinchbeck thinks game mechanics break immersion, kinda sad that he failed to understand a basic mechanic from the first Amnesia.
Also. The idea of defending this game's prose disturbs me so much that I can't even touch it. Nothing Pinchbeck writes has come off as natural to me.

Not to mention that [phonographs] were clearly meant to emulate Bioshock's audiologs, you could move far away from the box and you would still hear them.

He understood it perfectly well. The presence of collectible light resources often got exploited by having players stockpile them (similar to how an FPS player would save big guns for boss fights) and turned exploration of the castle into tinderbox hunts. While making the light source run on limitless batteries was overkill - one could easily justify dimming its beam or limiting the amount of time you could use a lamp by acknowledging the time period - it's preferable to the idea of running around with 50 tinderboxes on your character.

At the same time, however, AMFP does use notes to incentivize exploration. The secret note hidden near the elevator at the end of the Streets level is a good example. However, this at least furthers the story rather than merely functioning as a game mechanic.

And I doubt the writing was even going for naturalism in the first place. Personally, the writing is a convincing emulation of Gothic fiction and naturalistic prose would seem oddly anachronistic. I agree with the phonographs, though. On subsequent playthroughs it becomes quite amusing to activate a phonograph and still hear the recording from three rooms away. Not to mention the phone-calls...