For Alice: Madness Returns on the PlayStation 3, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'New Game+'.
The original Alice title was a PC exclusive, and remains a collector's item for fans of the darker take on an already dark story. We now have a sequel to that game that continues the story of Alice while also exploring her past. The game features solid platforming and some inspired aesthetic choices, but that doesn't save the game from repetition and a lack of ambition.
You'll be floating from platform to platform throughout the game, but the core mechanics have not changed or matured in any meaningful way in the sections I played. The problem is that each chapter seems to go on forever, long past the point of tedium.
Alice: Madness Returns
ps3*, xbox, pc
- Release Date: now
- MSRP: $59.99
* = platform reviewed
Alice Liddell is the youngest daughter of Arthur Liddell and Mrs. Liddell, and the younger sister of Lizzie Liddell.Alice is the sole survivor of a house fire that killed her family and caused her to have immense trauma when she was a child, affecting her reality, as well as her imaginary world, Wonderland, and its citizens. Aug 24, 2019 Alice: Madness Returns (Part 1) This game is AWESOME - Duration: 43:20. Katieplaysstuff 277,996 views.
The game adds many beautiful touches to the classical play. When you dodge attacks you briefly break apart into a fluttering group of butterflies. You block projectiles by spinning a parasol. You'll see wonderful patterns in the motion blur of your Vorpal blade. At its best, this is game that looks like a painting, and the interstitial chapters that take place in a Dickensian London are appropriately dark and dreary, making Wonderland seem even more beautiful in comparison.
The enemies are also well crafted, and require a series of different strategies to take down. Alice will gain four weapons in the game, and you'll need to use them all in different ways to excel in combat and exploration. Each of the weapons can be upgraded by spending the teeth you collect by killing enemies and exploring the nooks and crannies of the levels. My personal favorite is the pepper grinder, which operates like a machine gun when Alice turns the crank. It's these subtle subversions of expected gaming mechanics that makes the game so much fun for the first few hours.
The problem is the platforming rarely changes, and the whole game begins to feel like an item quest. You'll be chasing teeth, bottles, memories, and trying to pepper pig snouts—because that's what you do—while trying to keep an eye open for all the different kinds of collectibles, and it can all grow tiresome. While the graphics and look of each world may change, you'll also be floating from platform to platform and solving light puzzles. There are a few neat moments when the gameplay changes somewhat, but those moments are wildly uneven.
It's fun to explore each world for a bit, but then it seems to drag on and on as you continually do the same thing. There were many sessions where I was just wishing for a section to end already so I could leave the game at a good point for the night. That should never be a feeling you get from a platformer. When I was in the middle of a long quest in a world, only to meet a character who gave me another repetitive task featuring multiple steps before he would give me what I needed to finish the original quest, I wanted to throw the controller down in disgust.
The graphical quality of the game is also problematic. While the art direction is superb, you'll often find muddy textures, characters lacking detail, or graphical glitches. The voices likewise alternate between magical and hard to sit through. In some sections it seems like quality was controlled and kept high, only to come crashing down in the next segment of the game.
When the game clicks, and the story and setting and action all work together, it's a wonderful time. The problem is this rarely happens, and a stronger hand was needed to work on the pace of the levels. I found myself wishing the game would grow as I progressed, or at least give the action more than a new look in a new world. This is a game that would have benefited greatly from being shorter and tighter; the extra length doesn't add anything to the game but tedium.
I did not finish this game due to time constraints, but I did want to share my thoughts. I was also to the point where if I wasn't being paid to play the game, I would quit, which is a good place to stick a fork in it and explain my frustrations. This is a game fans of the character need to try, but I think most will be comfortable with a taste. Only the die-hards are going to be happy with a $60 purchase.
Verdict: Rent
There's a method to the madness
This is the sequel to the first game in the series of American McGee's Alice. The series is developed by EA, yes, you read that right. EA has made an out of the box game in the past, crazy right. Alice: Madness Returns is a game idea I thought I would never see, taking a beloved animated kids’ film like Alice in Wonderland and changed it into a very dark psychological hack and slashhorror game. The studio owned by EA; Spicy House is actually meant to be in the process of making a sequel to this game.
More games should do this!
Alice: Madness Returns is set after the original game but is still set in the Wonderland. It starts with Alice having a hallucination because of the traumatic death of her family due to a fire. The hallucination gets worse until she wakes up back in a familiar world to her wonderland. Although it’s not as she remembers. Wonderland has been corrupted by something, not of Wonderland called Infernal Train which has been destroying the land. After finding this out she sets out on a journey to stop the corruption of Wonderland and find out more about her patchy past.
Darker but still Alice
The graphics are from the Unreal Engine but are the Unreal 3 before 4 was a thing. The game doesn’t look as good as some modern games, most likely due to the engine being behind modern games but that’s more to the date of release of the game than a problem. The way the game has been converted from a 2D kids cartoon movie to a fully animated 3D hack and slash, the horror-inspired video game had to be a hard thing to do and they’ve managed to pull it off pretty well. I hope that they get their hands on maybe more kids cartoons and turn them into 18+ nightmare versions of themselves as to its just a concept that hasn’t been explored in video games except for this game. Also, they do all-time in films so why not make kids' stories into horror games...
How could it possibly get any madder?
The gameplay of Alice: Madness Returns is a classic hack and slash reminds me a bit of Lollipop chainsaw but without the humour element to it and focusing more on the horror aspect in this game. As it dives into the madness of Alice through the game, you fight different enemies like the Lost Souls’ and the Drowned Sailor. If the name of the enemies doesn’t tell that this game isn’t a horror game and your main weapon is a kitchen knife. That’s probably one of the scariest things in the kitchen people! Even the shrinking potion has been used from the film, making it into a mechanic which grants you an ability to sneak. The game takes everything from the cartoon movie and turns into something dark and mad.
It’s still Alice but for a darker generation
This game is such a simple idea taking what is originally there and making it a darker experience. It's been done so much in films, it's time for it to start in gaming and with this game. This game proves that it’s possible as the experience of playing as Alice through a darker version of the original story was really enjoyable.