There is a lot to love about Alice: Madness Returns, but unfortunately there are also a few things that holds it back from being a truly great game. Let's start with the good;
ADespite the game being nine years old, it still looks brilliant. The characters are all wonderfully designed in an interesting, unique way. The environments, too, are hugely inventive and it's a lot of fun to traverse through them. Both the characters and the environs are incredibly creepy and become more so as you get deeper into the game. The Doll House level in particular I found unsettling, giving me similar vibes to a Saw movie. People always reference Tim Burton when it comes to fantasy horror aesthetics, but for my money what American McGee's team have done here are surpasses any of Burton's films.
The story itself is an intriguing one. Initially I was completely lost as to what was going on and why Alice was going through all this turmoil. However, as the game went on I found that this was by design as you start to understand things along with Alice, and things begin to make sense as more of the truth behind her plight is revealed.
Alice has a wonderful set of abilities, all of which you get pretty early on. It's fun to mess around with them and see how they let you explore new areas of any given level that you wouldn't have had access to before.
*Combat is fast and fluid. Alice turns from a sweet, albeit somewhat haughty, girl into a madwoman brandishing a knife (or sledge hammer, or pepper grinder chain-gun, or teapot grenade launcher).
- Each level flows really well. They are each broken up into several parts and each is pretty big. Lots of places to explore and secrets to solve.
Now, for the not-so-great stuff;
The levels in this game are ridiculously long! While I do tend to explore every nook and cranny of a game, it took me 2-3 hours to complete ONE LEVEL! Every level, despite being beautiful to look at and initially enjoyable, overstayed its welcome. Easily, a third of each level could have been removed and the game would have been better for it. There were times where I just wanted to get out of the world I was in and on with the game.
To add to the problem on length, later levels introduce mini-games that feel kind of randomly chucked in there. Some of these you can skip after failing once, others, such as the horrible pinball-like sections of the aforementioned Doll House world, can not be. While initially these introduce variety and some, such as the brief shmup section or the 2D section of the Asian world, are a lot of fun, others are just tedious and sap all enjoyment from the proceedings. Honestly, I'd let out an audible groan when I'd come across them.
When fighting enemies, you need to lock Alice onto them, the camera circling around Alice to give you a good view of her and her adversary. In theory this is fine, buy when you've got a heap of enemies after you at once it creates a huge problem. You can't see where other enemies are, where they are coming from, or how many there are. You're constantly being pummeled by attacks from off screen and it can be a nightmare to try and figure out where everything is. Also, even if there is only one enemy, if you get to close to a wall the camera spazzes out and this can lead to further confusion.
For the most part I fond the voice acting in the game to be pretty solid...except for Alice herself. I felt her voice didn't really suite the look of the character, or what she's going through. Sure, this is very subjective, but I found it pulled me out of the game a lot.
This might sound strange to say, especially from someone whose favorite series is Sonic the Hedgehog, but there is SO much platforming in this game! Honestly, I don't think I've played another 3D adventure game that has you jumping this much. Often to get from one side of a room to another you have to perform a dozen crafty leaps and, for the first time I can remember, I found myself dreaming of a straight corridor.
And the rest;
You'd expect a game about madness to deal with some heavy themes, but Alice really gets into some dark territory. It is never stated outright that the game is dealing with themes of child prostitution and sexual abuse, but it's obvious enough for those paying attention to the story and the environments. I'm surprised there was no clamor about it from the media when it was released (at least, none that I recall).
I really liked the way in which Alice's dress would change with each new world. As all of this is happening in her head, it makes sense. Still, it's a nice touch that didn't have to be included and yet really adds to the game.
There are a lot of collectibles in the game. Apart from collecting enough teeth to upgrade your weapons and finding the small challenge rooms to extend your health I'm not sure any of it is truly worthwhile unless you're a completionist, but it is fun tracking the items down. However, given the extreme length of the levels, it would be one hell of a chore to go back through all that to find the one item you missed.
Alice: Madness Returns is one of those games that is brilliant when it's good, but the negatives really stain the polish of those good points. If the camera was better and the levels were a third of the length you'd have one absolutely amazing game. As it is, you I feel Alice is a very good game that is unfortunately marred by being over-lengthy and feeling like the developers threw in every idea they had, regardless of if it fit or not.
With that said though, if you're a fan of fantasy horror and/ or the Alice stories this is well worth checking out. Similarly, if you don't mind 3D platforming, some nice combat and buckets of style and can forgive a few rough patches you could do a lot worse than spend your time unraveling Alice's madness.
This review contains spoilers
