Norman Jayden and the ARI interface and the Psychiatrist's equipment

Did anyone else find ARI so completely unnecessary? I'm playing this game at the moment for the hundredth time and it just annoys me that Norman has to resort to using the ARI.

The rest of the game (other than the scene in the Psychiatrist's office) is set in a pretty much grounded reality that's basically realistic. I don't see the need to have ARI in use at all.

Lets face it, Norman Jayden is a trained FBI agent, he's supposedly an exceptional profiler so why would he even need glasses to show him where evidence is hiding or to tell him basically what he could have looked up in any actual physical computer (that's in a realistic world). I'd have much rather had Normal be using cocaine due to his highly stressful job and requirements to be constantly alert and able to process information rather than his drug dependency being linked to a pair of sunglasses that do his job for him. It'd have been more gritty and much more realistic.

The Psychiatrist scene also bugged me, as his room is decked out with some ridiculous technology that again, took me right out of the otherwise grounded reality the game was supposed to be set in. Technology like this probably exists in our reality in the best hospitals in the world, but would it be in your average psychologist's office? Would it buggery!

I understand Ethan was a wealthy man at one point, due to his profession as a successful (as far as we're aware) architect but it seems his circumstances have left him in a situation where he is almost penniless by the looks of his current lifestyle. Even if your average or more highly qualified and sought after Psychiatrist were able to afford that kind of equipment in a private practice, it seems very unlikely to me that Ethan could afford to be paying for that kind of treatment when he's driving an old car and living in a two bedroom terraced house in a much less affluent area.

I found the addition of all these technologies/features completely unnecessary and distracting from the story. Why couldn't the Psychiatrist just show him cards of the inkblots? Why couldn't Norman just use good old fashioned WORK (which would mean the gamer actually had to work harder to find clues and figure out things).

Hopefully they omit these features from the film (if it ever gets made). These things added nothing to the storyline which was already great (despite some disjointedness due scenes being cut out and plot holes).



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We've become a race of peeping toms.