American McGee's Alice

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

American McGee’s Alice was originally a game from 2000 on the PC that was to be ported to the PS2, however, this never happened. Personally, I think this is a shame. I once found myself trying out a little bit of Alice on the PC and I found there to be problems with the controls, which seemed far too complex and not allowing for a perfect platforming experience. A port to a console would have been extremely useful, as the entire game had a style that would have better suited a console as opposed to a PC.

It would not be until 11 years later that we would be able to play Alice on consoles. With the release of Alice: Madness Returns, EA also distributed, as a download on consoles, the cult classic from 2000. As someone who has wanted their hands on this game for quite a while I found this extremely welcoming. So, how does American McGee’s Alice hold up as a console port?

The visuals in Alice definitely look dated compared to today’s standards. Yet somehow this does not matter. The world is very angular and the character models are not perfect, yet the player still feels as if they are connected to this world. The dark tones of Wonderland as opposed to the imagined Wonderland from Disney films definitely show the player that Wonderland has hit hard times.

The story of Alice is that of Alice after her second adventure (Through the Looking Glass) falling into madness after her house has burned to the ground, with all of her family dying inside. This initially sets the tone of the game as one of depression and dismay, especially as she is now living in an insane asylum.

Throughout the game Alice travels through her Wonderland, each area and character displaying some part of her broken psyche. The characters from the story, such as the Rabbit and the Mock Turtle appear, displaying different parts of her personality. Her guide is the Cheshire Cat, who appears to be another side of Alice’s ego. As the story continues some of these characters die, some survive, showing the player the extent to which Alice is breaking down, as well as curing herself.

The game’s goal is to find and kill the Queen of Hearts, the cause of all of Alice’s woes and troubles. The threat of the Queen of Hearts is built up throughout the game, as well as the threat of the Jabberwock. Both of these characters, as well as many others, appear in the game as bosses for Alice to defeat in order to advance. Some are easy to defeat, whilst some are extremely difficult.

As well as these bosses there are the normal enemies in the game. These sometimes vary depending on the area, such as red chess pieces appearing as enemies in Looking Glass Land or soldier ants in the Wonderland Woods. Some of these enemies are annoying to fight whilst some are too easy. Either way, this increases the challenge in the combat, which is somewhat slow and flawed but still engaging.

The actual platforming of this game is somewhat hard to get used to at first, but it is easy to get used to later on and is far superior to that on the PC. Not always is it necessary to have precise platforming as there are not as many jumps from one surface to another, as the main focus is exploration and puzzle solving, both of which are excellent. The exploration truly comes into its own during the endgame stages when attempting to navigate mazes. Puzzles are very much based on Lewis Carroll’, mostly being base on words and at times mathematics.

The game lasts for quite a long time, but not so long that one might get bored. All the way it is interesting, engaging and, most of all, fun. It is also surprisingly a bit too logical at times (for Wonderland) though not too logical as to not get a feel for the world.

I recommend buying Alice: Madness Returns almost purely for this game, but who knows, you might enjoy that game too. But that’s another review...

Final Verdict: 9/10