Alice: Madness Returns Review

The long awaited sequel to the dark twisted version of Alice in Wonderland -‘American McGee’s Alice’ was released in 2011, and Alice: Madness Returns was one that did not disappoint.  I was beyond excited when I found out that there was a sequel. Having first experienced the wonderful American McGee’s Alice on PC when I was at the tender age of 10 (And after I begged and pleaded with my Mother to buy it for me! I mean, Cheshire and Alice weren’t that bloody on the cover, were they?) I was hooked. The story, the environment, the characters, everything was so enthralling. And knowing that there was to be another game that showcased all of the sinfully demented inhabitants of this Wonderland was drool worthy.

The game follows Alice once again, who is now living in London. Alice is having horrible memories and deals with her broken mind as she tries to piece together her shattered memories of what happened that fateful night that led to her family’s demise, while also trying to stop the Infernal Train that is hell bent on destroying Alice’s Wonderland, and with that her mind and sanity.

One of the most positive features in the game is the fact that you can finally play as Alice outside of Wonderland. It allows the player to have a much better look into how Alice functions outside of her mind, and the effects her madness has had on the people around her and how others react to her with passing commentary by both parties, mostly ending with a witty and sharp comment by Alice. Cut scenes in this game where fun to watch, yet I wished some of them were longer, though the ones that were, were stunning in my eyes. The art style and voice over’s where such a nice addition to the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed the small sections where you walk around various locations in London; from the back alleys to the pub and wish the game had incorporated a lot more of those levels in to it. It really gives you a sense of closeness to Alice and allows you to see the real her, rather than her Wonderland vision of what she might wish to be or how she thinks she looks.  The attention and design on Alice was beautiful, and it was obvious they were aiming on making everything about Alice flow, but it just lacked and having Alice’s hair fly in and out of her face became annoying it cut scenes. In London, most of features on the towns people are highly exaggerated, one which I find humorous to the point where I have spent a shameless amount of time staring at them. An addition to the game is that on each new level, Alice’s dress will change to correspond to it. It is incredibly fun and interesting while allowing a much more atheistic appeal to the game than her normal blue dress. Of course, the dresses themselves have either positive (Dropping more teeth) or negative effects (Reduces health) that add a nice element and a new strategic approach to fighting enemies. Other than the dresses the game has a new feature that allows Alice to truly express her madness and it’s called – Hysteria. This allows the player – when low on health – to use the ability to deal out double the damage to enemies and leaving Alice free from being hurt while active.

Different areas of Alice’s Wonderland each express their own place in Alice’s damaged mind, whether it be the fine mechanics of the Mad Hatters Domain, the gorgeous watery sceneries of the Deluded Depth, or the twisted Dollhouse. Each level has there own real world connection to Alice, which has of course become corrupted like the rest of her mind. Twisting and contorting once nice inhabitants into fiends. If you enjoyed the characters in American McGee’s Alice, rejoice because they each make an appearance in this game!  McGee manages to incorporate and flawlessly transition beloved and well known characters from Lewis Carroll’s book into Madness returns with such ease, while also keeping their personalities while adding much more depth that Lewis left to be explored.  Cheshire cat is a favourite of mine in McGee’s version, but he seemed to lack the brilliant cryptic aura he had in the original game, a trait that seemed to be replaced with forced humour.

Weapons in this game come in many shapes and sizes, and give a new idea on how to use everyday objects. 

Alice has her choice of the Hobby horse, a heavy set melee weapon, the teapot cannon - a ranged weapon that shoots out hot balls of tea that can hit multiple targets when fired, the pepper grinder - a winded up ranged weapon that shoots peppercorn, the clockwork bob - an item that can be blown up or placed on objects, the Umbrella - acts as a shield while also deflecting ranged attacks, and of course, the one and only Vorpal Blade. The hobby horse, Vorpal Blade, Pepper Grinder and Teapot cannon can be upgraded in exchange for teeth, allowing a much more powerful attack rate while also changing the appearance of the weapons. Each weapon can be unlocked in certain areas of the game and help with overcoming obstacles. 

Alice also can see hidden pathways with her shrink sense.

A problem I had was it didn’t rely heavily on the story or plot. It focused a lot more on the levels and how you would get from point A to point B. I would have loved to have seen more cut scenes in certain areas like The Rutridge Asylum. That level had a lot of potential as it was one of the most memorable levels in the game that had close to an inch the incredibly creepy feeling that the original game had.  Madness Returns also had glitches that were unavoidable and downright annoying. Nobody likes to have a game lag while performing a jump over a deadly ledge. There were also other reported glitches on console versions, and a friend of mine sent her’s back because she found the graphics and how the game worked overall to be atrocious. Tread lightly

SUMMARY:

Be daring and take a fall down the rabbit hole, whether it is to save Wonderland or experience the game for your own. Make sure you’re prepared though! Almost everyone is mad there

RATE:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

7/10