Review--Alice: Madness Returns (sequel to American Mcgee's Alice)

"Don't struggle, Alice. Let the new Wonderland emerge."

"Destruction! Corruption! My Wonderland is destroyed! My mind is in ruins!"

-Alice: Madness Returns



"My memories make me vomit!"

Goodness me, Alice. What's happened to you?

A lot, actually, since the ending of Through the Looking Glass, the second in the Alice in Wonderland (hereafter shortened to AIW) series by Louis Carroll. Everyone is familiar with little Alice Liddell and her fantastical journey through the dreamland she calls Wonderland. Anyone can recognize the Mad Hatter's frenzy with tea parties, the Cheshire Cat's signature grin and of course, "Off with his head!" Many, many remakes have been made of the classic tale, including the very famous Disney movie (1951) or the darker and edgier Tim Burton version (2010). But not many are familiar with poor Alice's struggles after her adventures; watching one's own family perish in a fire, after all, isn't something shared easily.

Wait, what?

Cue American Mcgee's Alice (2000), a third-person action-adventure game developed by..well, American Mcgee (American is his first name, believe it or not) and Electronic Arts.



That cat. That horrid, nasty-looking, wonderful Cat.*shudder*



As the cover makes clear, this is not your little innocent Alice any more. Shortly after her venture through the looking glass, a house fire destroys Alice's life, taking her entire family along with it. The only survivor of the horrific incident, she lapses into madness surging from grief and survivor's guilt. She falls into a catatonic state, eventually gets confined into Rutledge Asylum, and does not respond to any attempts to communicate with her.



But this is only what goes on outside. Asylum workers have no idea what's inside her head; if they did, they would be surprised. In fact, she's been having a pleasant cruise through Wonderland of old, only that it's not quite what it used to be:

(Yes, that's screaming faces in the wallpaper. You're not going mad, although Alice is.)

It's not much of a surprise, though; since Wonderland is a fixture in Alice's mind, it's only natural that it go mad as well, along with Alice.

That was basically the premise for the entire first game. Manoeuver through a dark and twisted Wonderland, help Alice battle incarnations of her guilt (in the form of horrid monsters) and recover her sanity, all while disturbing the craplocks out of yourself.

Aaaaand that was a terribly long intro for my review, which is to be about the second game in the series, aptly named Alice: Madness Returns.

If you successfully finished the first game, then congrats: you've helped Alice out of the Asylum. (That's not much of a spoiler, I hope.) Back in London, Alice believes she's free from her delusions, but alas, they return to her in their full horror:



Although she does have her bouts of sanity (she comes back to London from time to time), most of her in-game time is spent in Wonderland and therefore in her delusions. Not that I mind it much though.

1. Story

The story of A:MR is closely related to the first game; so closely, in fact, that it's pretty lousy as a standalone game. Because the entire game revolves around Alice trying to find the responsible for her family's death, finding clues and symbolisms in the enemies she battles, it's nearly impossible to understand unless you've played the first game. Luckily the game is kind enough to include a summary of Alice's history in the Extra Content section of the main menu.

If you want something more haunting, however, you always have the Interactive Storybook on Facebook. It basically tells the same thing: Alice's story prior to the events of this game, which is what happened in the first game. I am personally a fan of games I can play without having played the entire series, so this was a major turn-off for me.

As for the story itself, it's pretty creative, I should say. The idea of Wonderland rotting away as Alice's mind corrupts is a fantastic idea for an action game like this one. Then again, there are incongruities between the first game and the second, making kinks in the story that aren't quite ruled out. For instance, in A:MR it is shown that the family that died in the fire consisted of Alice's mother, father, and older sister Elizabeth; however, in the first game there is no mention of a sister anywhere. Alice is merely quoted as saying, "My parents are....dead." Elizabeth is merely a plot element introduced in the second game. Thankfully, the first game mostly involved fighting with Alice's inner demons and the family didn't need too much attention.  

The second game plays out as a murder mystery, with Alice gradually recovering memories from within her Wonderland to find out if she really was the one to blame for her family's death...or if there was an outer culprit.

But the most brilliant part of it was how American Mcgee and the team managed to make everything from Louis Carroll's world 'click' together nearly seamlessly. The Walrus and the Carpenter in Louis Carroll's poem, for example, are reincarnated as villains; the flying pigs from the same poem are linked to the 'pig and pepper' episode in the first Alice book....those are just examples. There is a major 'warped Carroll' example in the later part of the game, which I cannot reveal since it is a major plot point as well. :)

Story: 4 out of 5 teeth

2. Gameplay

Before I begin anything, let me just get this out of the way: The. Scenery. Is. Gorgeous. To demonstrate:

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. While wandering in Wonderland I found myself constantly stopping to stare at the marvelous amount of effort poured into each level and every detail. The first game, though fantastically disturbing in its own right, does not hold a candle to this one.


A. Weaponry and combat

 That said, the first game does have more weapons than A:MR. That was one of the peeves for me as I played through; there was much less variety in the number of attacks you could bestow upon your enemies. But the second game has better weapons, in my opinion; whatever it lacks in quantity, it makes it up in quality.

There are four weapons in this Wonderland: the Vorpal blade, the Pepper Grinder, the Hobby Horse and the Teapot Cannon. The Vorpal blade and Hobby Horse are melee weapons (short-range) and the Pepper Grinder and Teapot Cannon are ranged weapons. Let me quickly outline them:



-The Vorpal Blade:



"The Vorpal Blade is keen...and always ready for service." -Cheshire Cat

The first weapon you encounter in Wonderland, it is a classic weapon iconic of the Alice franchise. It's exactly what it sounds like: a blade, used to slash down enemies at close range. It's the swiftest and lightest weapon to use, making it useful for weaker enemies with low defenses. Only works at a very short range, though, so enemies with a strong offense may be difficult to deal with.




-The Pepper Grinder:



Care for some pepper in your tea?



My second favorite weapon in the game (the Teapot Cannon is the best in my opinion, I just love ranged weapons), the Pepper Grinder is the Wonderland equivalent of a machine gun. Use it to shoot fatal shots of fiery pepper in your enemies' vulnerable spots. It is also very useful for toggling far-away switches (shoot it at the switch/lever, and it will activate). I particularly love the idea of a pepper grinder for a gun. Cranking the handle to shoot pepper--what a simple idea, yet so delightfully refreshing.

-The Hobby Horse:

In Wonderland, toys frequently double as weapons. In the first game, dice, jacks and cards were deadly ammo for the enemy. Now Alice is yet again armed with another not-so-innocent plaything, the Hobby Horse. The Hobby Horse hits like a truck and does about as much damage. Think of it as a giant, horse-shaped sledgehammer that neighs when you attack with it (no, seriously. It really does). It is also the most satisfying weapon to use, hands-down. During the attack, Alice is shown hovering in the air for a split second, Hobby Horse raised, right before the final, earth-shattering, mind-blowing smash that effectively 'stampedes' the enemy. I clench my fists in anticipation every time.

-The Teapot Cannon:

Take that, you uncouth scallywags! A true Victorian lady educates with a good dose of Earl Gray.



The Teapot Cannon is the one I found myself using the most during combat, and my favorite, too. Not only do most enemies perish in one shot of the Cannon, but it also makes a satsifying splash as the scalding hot tea hit the ground (or the unlucky enemy's face). Not to mention that you can fight Teapot Monsters with this weapon; fighting tea with tea, now that's got to be the biggest mindscrew I've seen since Inception. Because of this darned weapon, I find myself flinching and fighting the urge to grab a teapot and flee with it under my arm every time I see one.

Weapons can also be upgraded; throughout each landscape, there are 'teeth' scattered about. Enemies drop them once slain; teeth are also hidden in containers dispersed in each level. Using these teeth, you can upgrade each weapon up to three times:

(note: the Vorpal Blade does not change its appearance even when upgraded, although its damage skills rise.)

I thought that this as a nice way to make up for the lack of weapons, especially compared to the last game, but I still would have liked to see more than four.

Weapons: 4.5 out of 5 Teeth



B. Technicalities

To be perfectly honest, the gameplay was not at all up to par. Maybe it was because of the massive load of game graphics the engine had to load up, or just my crappy computer, but I was all but unable to play the game smoothly if I had other applications running in the background. In order to play, I had to turn off all programs, check for any 'invisible' programs that I might have missed,  fire up the game, curse as I saw Alice stop randomly in her tracks, turn off the game, find that ONE little measly music player I had neglected to turn off, then start the game again. This was enough to try the patience of an oyster.

The sound was glitchy; if I decided to turn off the game in the middle of a level, the main menu music would ofen overlap with the game music. And if I chose to return to the game screen, the three soundtracks overlapped again, which forced me to turn off the game and start over. (That might have something to do with the fact that I didn't pay good money for this game--but shhh, we don't need to get into that. I'm going to buy it as soon as I'm old enough to play it legally.)

There were all-too obvious visible "invisible walls", which is gamer jargon for clearly visible, platform-like areas that are impossible to jump on. That detracted from the overall gaming experience, as I couldn't find myself absorbed into the game fully.

Technicalities: 3 out of 5 Teeth

Overall I adored the game, despite the technical difficulties. The sheer quality of the graphics was enough for me to overlook pretty much everything, even the glitchy sound, and of course anything AIW themed is enough for me to go insane over.

General score: 8.8 out of 10 teeth