In 2000, designer American McGee treated PC gamers to his dark, twisted vision of Wonderland, the imaginary world created by esteemed author Lewis Carroll in his legendary Alice works. Nearly a decade before Tim Burton's soulless film attempted to do the same, McGee created a mature, disturbing, and engrossing sequel to Carroll's fiction that paid homage to the source material, while simultaneously branching off on its own.
After a far-too-long wait, McGee and his new team at Spicy Horse return with the oft-requested sequel, Alice: Madness Returns. But is this the sequel fans of the original were waiting for, or is it more like Alice in Blunderland?
Before I go into greater detail, let it be known that the original Alice has been installed on every computer I've owned since its original release in October 2000. I've gone back to the game dozens of times and had nearly a decade to romanticize it, so making a sequel that lives up to those expectations is practically impossible. What McGee and his team have done this time around doesn't seem to have the same level of imagination, or adherence to the source material, but it's still a crazy enough ride that most fans will want to take.
The game actually begins in the real world where Alice Liddell is finishing another session with her therapist. After sending her on an errand to pick up some medicine, Alice is sidetracked when she sees a white cat and begins following. This portion of the game is admittedly slow, but it's actually kind of refreshing to see the seedy underbelly of London's Whitechapel district, the same area stalked by the notorious Jack the Ripper in the 1880s. The world definitely feels harsh and its inhabitants are most unwelcoming.
When a traumatic event causes Alice's psyche to shatter, she falls through the proverbial rabbit hole once more and ends up in a lush, pastel-colored forest - a far cry from the original Alice game's moodier visuals. However, as she traverses the realm, things become curiouser and curiouser (as Alice herself would say). The game's first real "WOW" moment comes when Alice sees the Hatter's Domain in the distance, as gears and cogs float around it in space. It's moments like these that make Madness Returns a treat for fans.
Gameplay consists largely of platforming and light puzzle solving. Most of the puzzles involve fetching something for a character from the Alice mythos - the Mad Hatter, the Duchess, the Carpenter - or finding a lever to make an impassable pathway passable. The scenery is often breathtaking, but the downside is that the game is rather linear, like its predecessor. Aside from the occasional and optional hidden passageway, you'll never stray too far from the beaten path, leaving most of the world inaccessible.
Of all the things platforming games require, precise control is a must. Sadly, Madness Returns is a mixed bag. Alice's analog controls are a welcome change from the original's fully digital control (you were either running, or you were not moving at all), but the jumping mechanics are a little problematic. Alice can double- and triple-jump and use her skirt to float in order to reach far-off platforms, but numerous times I found myself either sailing past them - a result of the floaty mechanics - or coming up just short - a result of the somewhat sticky jump button, which doesn't always register when you want it to. It should be noted that, though I say "numerous times," what I mean is that most of my deaths are the result of these issues. By and large, the running and jumping isn't frustrating, but once in a while you'll miss a jump because the button didn't react when you wanted it to and those moments can lead to irritation.
Thankfully, there is no penalty for dying in Madness Returns. Missed jumps simply see Alice respawn nearby, and deaths in combat bring you to a continue screen, where you're often set back a bit further. This is somewhat puzzling, and frustrating. One particular death in the Hatter's Realm sent me back quite a distance, forcing me to make a series of complicated jumps all over again instead of putting me just past them and near the platform I had died.
Also puzzling is that the game doesn't seem to keep track of which collectibles you've obtained, or at least it doesn't reflect that in the game world. Several times I've loaded up my save to see "Drink Me" bottles or fragmented memories - two of the game's collectibles - floating nearby, even though I had already gotten them on my previous playthrough.
Combat is a bit more fluid this time around, but the lock-on ability often makes things needlessly frustrating as well. Alice's dodge ability comes in quite handy - not to mention it looks cool as she evaporates into a poof of butterflies - but if you're locked onto an enemy it will often send you directly INTO them regardless of which direction you're pointing the analog stick in.
Alice's arsenal is as unique as the first game's, and capable of doling out plenty of damage. The vorpal blade returns, though this time it's limited to a melee-only weapon, while the pepper grinder functions as a machine gun of sorts and is often used in shooting distant switches as well as enemies. The umbrella is a strictly defensive item, used to reflect enemy projectiles back at them, while the hobby horse is a slow but powerful bludgeoning tool that can shatter enemy defenses as well as weak walls concealing secret passages. It's a shame the croquet mallet or the razor-sharp playing cards don't seem to make a return, but each weapon is utilized well and mapped to a button on the 360 controller for instant access whenever they're needed.
The game's enemies are one of my biggest complaints. Many simply lack the personality of the original game's. The Ruin enemies are the biggest offenders. With no real basis in Carroll's works, they seem out of place. Little more than viscous black blobs with baby heads, I suppose they're meant to be creepy and disturbing, but they seem utterly generic. On the other hand, enemies such as the madcaps - the Hatter's stalwart guards that look like miniature versions of him and use silverware and teacups as weapons and armor - are quite fitting.
Alice: Madness Returns isn't as technologically solid as it could be as well. Clipping problems mean you will get hung up on doorframes often, and the graphics aren't as good as they could have been. In general, the world itself seems less inspired than in the original game, and some of the textures - especially the heaping piles of junk machinery in the Hatter's Realm - are muddy and lack fidelity.
The art direction still impresses, however. Characters have exaggerated features - extraordinarily bulbous noses, for instance - that give them a storybook-drawing-come-to-life feel, and some of the scenic vistas are simply breathtaking. The Cheshire Cat returns once more to offer advice, looking as emaciated and menacing as he did in American McGee's Alice.
In the audio department, Alice is relatively strong. Voice acting is serviceable, if somewhat unremarkable, and most the dialogue has a very Carroll-esque nonsensical, manic cadence. Like most other aspects of the game, the soundtrack isn't as good as the original, but more than adequate with Nine Inch Nails member Chris Vrenna returning to score several tracks, along with a host of other composers.
How much you enjoy Alice: Madness Returns will be influenced by your own bias. In many ways, it reminds me of Dragon's Lair 3D, a game that by all objective viewpoints was mediocre at best, yet I enjoyed immensely as a longtime fan and outright sucker for anything Dragon's Lair. Those who've been craving an Alice sequel like myself will most likely find ways to look past the faults and enjoy the platforming, level design, and the whacked-out story, but professional reviewers will more than likely trash its myriad problems. Alice: Madness Returns is by no means a horrible game, but it fails to capture the magic of the original and will appeal mostly to diehard fans looking to take another trip down the rabbit hole.
Comments