The sound-based approach is particularly unique, but I would've wished that the game had communicated to me the monster was deaf (I didn't see the note until much later because I went through the flooded cave first); I spent a good couple of minutes running around like a headless chicken.
A very fun game, though, once you get the hang of it. In my opinion, the weapon kills some part of the horror, knowing you can stop it at any time, so removing it would be a good idea to increase the horror!