[REVIEW] Alice: Madness Returns

Brittney Olshaski

(PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [REVIEWED], PC)

In this second instalment to American McGee’s Alice—a platformer-based PC game that demands precision that only a controller can emulate—we fall right back into Alice Liddell’s Wonderland of broken memories and conflicted emotions.

With the back story of a tragic house fire, her entire family’s death (resulting in a lengthy stay in an ill-mannered asylum), and her slow recovery with the help of a therapist, Alice: Madness Returns promises to be a psychological work out with fantastic symbolism and unrelenting imagination.

We follow Alice back down the rabbit hole with one true purpose: Search step by step through her subconscious to uncover the truth about her family’s tragic, and somewhat suspicious deaths. The game has 5 chapters (5 very different realms of Wonderland) and roughly 3 hours of gameplay dedicated to each chapter. From something as obvious as the mock turtle character, to the more subtle pig snouts strewn across Wonderland, all chapters — unique and incredibly creative — are lined and sewn together with undertones of Lewis Carroll’s original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The weapons the player is equipped with, albeit creative, are lackluster in nature. Your weapon selection consists of; the vorpal blade, a pepper-grinder gate gun, a teapot canon, a hobby horse, and an umbrella shield. Collecting teeth from slain enemies helps upgrade your weapon including its damage. All weapons, each with different techniques for slaying enemies, are introduced relatively early in the game, and may become tiresome if your creativity with the weapon fails.

Hidden throughout Alice’s Wonderland are small items to collect such as memory fragments and small “Drink Me” vials. Using your trusty “Drink Me” potion with a touch of a button, the sometimes hidden paths and portals to finding items suddenly become clear as you travel through keyholes and invisible chalk-drawn platforms.

The freedom of exploring Wonderland in detail is somewhat limited, however. The game’s storyline is, much of the time, vague, but the path is clear and linear, and there’s not much chance of getting lost in keyhole mazes or distracted by side quests. Compulsive collectors will be pleasantly tickled at the amount of effort needed to find certain hidden items. Unfortunately, these can be a bit distracting, and at times are unrelated to the current objective, or the overall storyline.

Occasionally you’ll snap back to real time where the physically-present Alice is in search of her rabbit doll — a childhood treasure. On the small journey to find her rabbit, she encounters a few characters from her past and unlocks memories that shed light on their true nature. Slipping in and out of consciousness, she will encounter foes of all kinds both in and out of Wonderland. Although Alice’s actions in real time are limited to, well, running, the storyline and characters truly shine in these small fragments of gameplay. They also serve as a reminder that the events in Wonderland are parallel to the events unfolding in the present with Alice uncovering the forgotten horrific events of her past. This small addition to the game gives it a bit more depth than it already possesses.

For those searching for a lasting and dark adventure, this game is unquestionably for you. Each chapter introduces new characters plucked straight from the pages of Carroll’s tales. As the story progresses and memories are found, Alice’s Wonderland starts to crumble and turn sour, meaning much more interesting and testing fight sequences occur. Enemies vary from demonic tea pots, to a tar-based creature with a shattered doll-face named “Drifting Ruin”. Soon Alice realizes that saving Wonderland means saving herself from — what is strongly implied — a psychotic break. The game takes you on a wild ride of slaughterhouse operas (literally), deranged foes, and cryptic memory sequences that slowly, but surely tie everything together with a nice red bow.

From beginning to end, Alice: Madness Returns has creative fights, skill testing mini-game features, and an evolving map that steadily increases the difficulty of each chapter. Primarily catering to RPG fans, the world of Wonderland is worth looking into, and most definitely not lacking in storyline twists. Although creativity and symbolism are its strongest suits, the game does suffer from technical and some small gameplay issues.

At first new and exciting, the combat sequences can end up being repetitive, and leave you feeling underwhelmed about encountering enemies. Without actively trying to get creative with the limited weapons, you’ll find yourself questioning the purpose of encountering foes at all. With that in mind, the lengthy chapters seem even more time consuming while fighting the same enemies, with the same weapons, the same way. Unfortunately, or luckily depending on your take of it, you’re left to get experimental with weapon usage. Seeing as there are only 4 weapons that inflict any damage, experimenting with them can be tiresome.

A point that also needs to be mentioned is the technical detail of each land’s layout. Standing in Alice’s poisoned Wonderland’s landscape is astonishingly beautiful, and pleasantly shocking at times, but the game does suffer from texture issues. This takes away from the experience that the game tries so hard to pull you into. While some platforms are truly meant to spin into focus, these small problems throughout the “levels” leave the game in need of some fine tuning. Not to mention that most landscapes’ backgrounds being sewn together in an obvious manner leaving some corners looking lazily thrown together, and somewhat embarrassing to see.

In spite of some tediously repetitive action sequences, and somewhat drawn-out lengthy chapters, my trip to Wonderland was quite enjoyable. The game’s sharp, gruesome twist left me with my mouth gaping and stammering for words. Fans of the original Alice stories will find plenty of shock and nostalgia here. Rich with symbolism and eerie tones, this game truly gave its predecessor a run for its money. However, considering its roughly 15 hours of gameplay, others may choose to avoid the games’ somewhat monotonous action sequences, and sometimes vague and forgotten storyline altogether.