Alice: Madness Returns Review

It’s been 10 years since American McGee graced us with his spin on Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland. The gameplay left something to be desired, but Alice was more known for its fantastic atmosphere and environments, it’s just a shame that Madness Returns doesn’t bring the amount of improvement we’d expect after McGee learned what not to do in the first title. 

Alice: Madness Returns
Developer: Spicy Horse
Price: $60.00
Platform: PS3 (reviewed), PC, Xbox 360

Alice: Madness Returns starts out assuming you played the last title, but if you didn’t don’t freak since you’re not missing much. Alice was sent to an asylum after her family died in a fire, Wonderland got corrupted, you killed the Red Queen, credits. This time around Alice is out of the asylum and in the care of a doctor. The story unfolds bit by bit in an infuriating way: each cutscene revolves around the character you spent an entire chapter looking for telling you to go find another person somewhere else who will then tell you to go find somebody else, all without giving you any insight into the plot. The only time it goes forward is when you reach a door in each chapter (5 total) where Alice slowly remembers the night of the fire.

The build-up to the final boss in the last chapter was pretty well done and had some fantastic dialog between the characters, but giving us plot development in the final chapter doesn’t make up for no plot development for the last 10+ hours. It also doesn’t help that Alice is a mute during gameplay when it really would’ve helped to have her say something while exploring Wonderland. Anything would’ve been good, random banter or her commenting on the enemies while she fights could’ve seriously helped us care more about her instead of reminding me that I’m playing as a rock. One detail I did thoroughly enjoy was that each memory you picked up revealed why Alice imagined that certain part of Wonderland.

I’d consider Alice first and foremost a platformer. That’s not because it’s good at what it’s attempting, but because you’re forced to deal with so much of it’s shit. The fact that the game gives you a quadruple jump, a glide after each jump, and a dash just goes to show that they’re either using that as an excuse to claim their platforming is complex or that you’re going to need everything you can to deal with the shit design. I never once really felt like I was sure I was going to make a jump and would either fall too short, go too far, or land it. It really doesn’t help that the camera does a close-up on Alice who completely blocks your view and then proceeds to do some swivel cam effect to further distract you. These segments are just full with bad level design with invisible walls and unsure jumps. Thankfully the game doesn’t punish you for falling off a platform and will reset you back to the last place you jumped from. Dying from enemies will result in a game over however.

Oh yea, and every once in a while there’s a part where you go down a huge slide with branching paths. Replacing most of the platforming sections with more of those slides would’ve honestly been a way better idea.

I’d describe the platforming as half of a pie, except that half is something horrid like cabbage, while the combat half is glorious pumpkin. If I could use one word to describe the combat it would be smooth. The animations are top-notch with all the enemies (and Alice) animating in their own way that helped bring out some character to who you were fighting. My only *minor* gripe was that the dodge move felt a bit odd since I could never tell when I was going to dodge to the side or dodge behind enemy like how I wanted to. You are given just four weapons, but they do make up for it by having each weapon feel useful instead of relying on the one overpowered weapon like many hack and slash games do. The Vorpal Blade is the knife Alice will use to fiercely slice at her enemies with, the Pepper Grinder is her long range rapid-fire gun which is useful for picking at enemies from afar, the Hobby Horse is basically a hammer in the shape of a horse head that combos fantastically with the Vorpal Blade, and finally is the Teapot Cannon (easily my favorite) which is a cannon you can charge up and deals massive amounts of damage in an area.

It’s just such a shame that everything really starts to get repetitive once you hit the third chapter in the game. You’ll fight with the camera with floaty platforming sections, fight the same damn mini-bosses, pull levers to lower a target to shoot that will allow you to reach more levers to pull, and more enemies to fight. You’ll fight with the camera with floaty platforming sections, fight the same damn mini-bosses, pull levers to lower a target to shoot that will allow you to reach more levers to pull, and more enemies to fight.

The final little bit to mention about the gameplay is the shrink feature. Early on Alice will gain the ability to shrink down which will allow her to fit in keyholes to find hidden collectibles or secret challenge rooms. Shrinking will also reveal hidden clues scribbled on walls or invisible parts of platforming sections. It’s a neat idea, but I loathed having to shrink down to view a platform I needed to jump to, go back to normal size, and then hope the highlight didn’t fade away before I landed or else I’d be greeting my good friend the bottomless pit once again.

The graphics are pretty sub-par to say the least, but then again the original wasn’t that much of a looker either. It’s the art-style where the game shines with each environment rich in details from a sea of frozen dodo birds to the dreary streets of London. The only other issue is that the London areas have some odd tearing effect where pieces of buildings will have ‘tears’ in them and you’ll see white in the inside. At first I gave Spicy Horse the benefit of the doubt and thought it was part of the design, but then I realized it’s just shitty coding/design. They do end each chapter with a fantastically drawn cutscene though. The soundtrack itself is fantastic with haunting tunes sprinkled with a bit of innocence. I know that description is a bit weird, but I can’t describe it better than that without getting incredibly pretentious, just know that fans of the original game’s soundtrack will not be disappointed.

The Final Word
In the end of the day Alice: Madness Returns starts out strong but ultimately starts to wear out its welcome with some iffy platforming and repetitive combat. It does come with a digital download for the original Alice so I guess that’s a plus.

– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average