Alice: Madness Returns Review

Alice: Madness Returns

Initial Rating: Instant Fav

Themes/Genres:    Action-Adventure Platformer, Psychological

Main Characters:   Alice Liddell

Developer/Publisher: American McGee/Spicy Horse; EA

Overview:

Everyone remembers the Disney movie ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and it’s cute, bright colors and carefree tones.  Based a novel by Lewis Carroll, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, it follows a young girl named Alice through her dreams in a world called Wonderland, where she meets a whole cast of colorful characters and has to deal with the world of riddles and rhymes that have no real answers.  Alice is a uniquely creative young girl with an imagination that just doesn’t stop… but what happens when an overactive imagination meets a horrifying incident and a world so grey and bleak even the most dull and mundane of businessmen would be diving through the nearest rabbit hole?  That’s exactly what we’re facing down with American McGee’s beautifully morbid creation – ‘Alice: Madness Returns.’

(Alice's first weapon, the Vorpal Blade, pre-bloodied, of course)

Summary:

The sequel to the 2000 game ‘American McGee’s Alice’, Madness Returns does just what the name suggests.  Even after defeating the Queen of Hearts and supposedly saving Wonderland, and herself, from the suffering and decay caused by her family’s death in the first game, Alice faces no easier a time upon her release from Rutledge Asylum.  Over time Wonderland becomes corrupted again and Alice must once more traverse the terrifying landscapes of her mind to discover the truth about the fire and face her guilt about surviving.

(I do love the Hatter's Domain)

Along the way she meets many familiar, though warped, faces, discovering lost memories and battling the twisted creations of her own damaged mind.  Just like the first game, the Cheshire Cat is back as the witty, grinning clue-giver that more or less accompanies Alice amongst her journey, though only appears when he deems it necessary.

Gameplay:

• Gameplay is both lightweight but still fun and involved
• Movement is smooth and efficient, switching between weapons is fast, which is essential for some enemies and bosses
• Dodging is equally smooth, though it can sometimes make you take off in the wrong direction
• Platforming is efficient and rarely gets difficult, it does, however, get creative
• Overall gameplay gives a challenge without getting too difficult, keeping the momentum going and the focus on the storytelling
• Relatively straight-forward pathways, with frequent opportunities to explore and find secrets in hidden areas

(The world is there, but it also keeps it obvious where you actually need to go)

While sometimes I prefer a more open-world style game where I can explore and dawdle around, with such a plot-heavy game like this one I much more appreciate the simpler gameplay.  The world past the invisible walls are just as detailed as the path your walking in so it still feels like the world is there, but you can keep the story going without getting lost or getting stuck in an area for too long.  There are still plenty of challenging moments and bosses, but nothing that’s going to make you rage quit and wait three months to finally finish the game, completely forgetting whatever parts of the story you had gotten through before.  It stays focused on the story, letting you therapeutically hack and slash your way through all manner of terrifying yet intriguing enemies, ease your way through disappearing platforms, all while uncovering the secrets and details of Alice’s life given to you by the world around you.

(Whether it's a bridge, a platform, or a pathway, you're not likely to get lost, but there's still plenty of scenery to look at)

Level Designs/Visuals:

• Unique, details levels
• Environment builds past reachable parts, keeping immersion relatively consistent despite invisible walls
• Areas are equally as disturbing as they are beautiful, even when subtly so
• Each level explores a new area of Wonderland while telling a different part of the story
• Different dresses for each new area, starting each of them in the basic dress so it's kept in the limelight (my personal favorite is the Siren dress)
• There's a stark contrast between the dreary real world and the vibrant (even when violently so) Wonderland, keeping the two worlds so very far apart, despite their inherent, sometimes ot-so-subtle connections

The level designs and overall visuals are easily one of my favorite parts about the American McGee Alice games and this one takes it so over-the-top that it’s hard not to adore, as a horror fan.  It’s disturbing, it’s brilliant, it does a wonderful job of ‘disturbing the comfortable and comforting the disturbed.’  The cinematography during important moments and the styles of the drawn cut scenes are amazing.  I can’t sing its praises enough on visuals.

(The Red Queen in one of the drawn cut-out style cutscenes, looking as batshit as always)

Music/Sound Effects:

• Music can get repetitive
• Does have some nice tracks, the opening theme is easily the strongest, anything with prominent violin is great
• Atmospheric music does fit each area
• Most satisfying sounds are probably the weapon noises, they're just nice
• Enemy noises are fittingly terrifying

(You can almost already hear the terrifying screech that comes from this thing)

While the music is easily the weakest point of this very strong game, it isn’t inherently bad.  Each area has fitting music and it does build the environment, a lot of tracks just get a bit repetitive.  Sound effects and background noises, however, are great.  It’s a soundtrack that mostly works in the game, but not one you’d go look up to listen to later, with the exception of maybe the theme.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, Alice: Madness Returns is a great game.  It’s got a strong sense of pacing and story-telling, the gameplay is smooth and relatively simple, the enemies are brilliantly designed, the bosses are goddamn terrifying, and the environments are some of the most creatively horrifying I’ve seen in a game.  The overarching story is intriguing, the happenings in Wonderland just get curiouser and curiouser, and the minor plots within each level keep the player desperate to know more.  It’s hard to believe EA had anything to do with this game, despite publishing it.

I can’t recommend this game more, if you haven’t played it.  If you haven’t played the first, either… well, good luck.