Alice: Madness Returns

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

On the cult success of American McGee’s Alice it isn’t surprising that a sequel was spawned, but no one seemed to be asking for it. Most who I have talked to wanted the original to be updated on consoles, where the controls were far smoother and allowed the game to be played... well, just played rather than endured. And so we get Alice: Madness Returns.

The title doesn’t help the game in selling. The name of American McGee is tucked into the bottom of the case so anyone who played the original game might not be able to see it very well and twig that this is a sequel. In fact, the game never seemed to get that much coverage.

But this is all nit-picky. How does the game itself hold up as a sequel?

Well, in playing the game you might be surprised that it is, in fact, a sequel, as all the characters that died in the first game are alive again and have shifted allegiance, such as the Duchess, who now shows you how to acquire one of the many collectibles in the game (but that’s a story for another paragraph). Not only this, but there is little to no mention of the events of the first game.

The story involves Alice now living in an orphanage where a doctor is attempting to assist her in overcoming her troubles after her family died in a house fire, which we assumed Alice had overcome by the ending of the first game. It then transpires that the horrors of industrial England bring her back into her Wonderland, which now has an Infernal Train riding through it, destroying everything in its wake to leave perfect platforms for jumping from one end of Wonderland to the other. Through her travels through Wonderland Alice discovers what truly happened at her house the night of the fire and, yet again, grows as a person.

As the game continues the story seems to devolve into a mess of ambiguity and plot points seem extremely rushed or impossible to get a hold of. By the end of the game things start to make a bit more sense, but this ending makes the rest of the game feel pointless as very little of the plot throughout the game has any bearing on the ending.

The story is shown through simple cutscenes that show cut-outs of the characters moving in a basic animation style that perfectly suits the world and the story, though may seem lazy to some. There are some cutscenes shown through the in-game engine, but these are not as eye catching as the cut-out cutscenes.

The actual gameplay is similar in a way to the first game. It involves platforming sections as well as some places requiring fighting. The fighting mechanics in this sequel are far superior to the fighting in the first game, but this just makes the game feel overly easy. All enemies attack in the same patterns that are quickly picked up on and so they can be dispersed in seconds.

Platforming in this game feels fun at first, but as it progresses it feels more like a chore. Platforms are placed an exact distance from each other to easily do a triple jump and float to safety. This makes the game feel even less challenging and when you don’t reach the desired platform it feels less like there is a difficulty and skill to platforming and more that the game is badly designed. Not to say that the levels ARE badly designed. Levels are extremely complex looking (well, some of the levels such as the East Asian level) and involve some forward thinking and trial and error. Furthermore, a mechanic in the game revolving around invisible platforms requires a keen eye and skilful platforming.

However, these platforming sections are, overall, extremely linear and don’t have the feeling of being in a large area that the first game did. You often feel as if you are simply being guided to the end of the game rather than figuring the game out for yourself. Not only this but the levels seem overly long and, again, seem like a chore rather than fun.

Puzzles within these levels seem useless, as they mostly revolve around finding a specific clock to shoot or using pressure pads to open a door. The world of Wonderland should revolve around maths and word puzzles, like the first game, as this was what Lewis Carroll dabbled in.  They play a very major part of the game, but come across as an inconvenience as these are stopping you from advancing yet require no logic to solve.

This brings me onto something else that is useless, and that would be the collectibles. My word. How many types of collectibles do most games have? Usually it is either none or one. Sometimes two at a stretch. But this game has three different types of collectibles: bottles, which do nothing; pig snouts, which give teeth and other collectibles, and memories, which show a bit of back story (which usually amounts to nothing). I’m not even mentioning the teeth (used for upgrades) or rose paint (used for getting extra health), which I’m not quite sure class as collectibles. There might be more, but I probably didn’t find them.

There’s not much else to say about this game. At its core it should be a fun game, and at times it is, but there are too many problems with it to have complete fun. The game does look beautiful, the platforming can be entertaining and the story and characters can be intriguing at times, but the flaws hold it back from being as good as the original game. I personally feel the game is just above average, but not quite good enough.

Oh, and the game teases you with boss battles, but doesn't actually give you any (well, one... kinda). Just saying.

Final Verdict: 6/10