There are spoilers ahead, but only for the first part of the game.
Anyway, Alice: Madness Returns is the continuation of the storyline started with American McGee's Alice. She's a bit older, she's a bit more sane, but as it was back in those days, 'a bit more sane' isn't saying much. Therapy wasn't exactly fantastic, so Alice is a pretty amazing reflection of that.
The gameplay is alright. This is my first action game on the computer since Doom 2, almost two decades ago. I play Minecraft, but I play on peaceful because I lack skillz. I don't really have a frame of reference to say if the controls are bad or good, but I do like how you switch weapons. Your left mouse button controls your melee weapon, while your right mouse button controls your projectile weapon. Pressing R allows you to switch your melee weapon around.
The game itself run pretty good, though I'm not a fan of Alice's hair animation when she's in Wonderland. I'm a little obsessive about hair to begin with, so seeing this animated hair that's stringy and looks ill-levels thin, it's distracting. But her design otherwise is amazing.
I especially love her last-minute safeguard. Called Hysteria mode, this thing is amazing.
Taken from gamingshogun.com.
When Alice's health becomes dangerously low, you have the option to activate Hysteria (on the PC, this is done hitting Enter). During Hysteria, Alice's attacks increase their damaging potential and she cannot sustain damage any further. However, enemies don't drop items they normally do, and Hysteria only lasts for so long, so it's important to go after the enemies in that area like a maniac to eliminate the chances of dying before Hysteria runs out.This design is just amazing to me. I especially like the fact that when you activate this mode, it sends a ring of force to surrounding enemies, knocking them back even further from you. Not only is this function useful, it's wonderful to look at.
You've probably noticed by now that I spend a lot of time talking about the physical appearance of characters. If I have to stare at this person for hours to complete the story, I'm going to have things to say. I generally don't have a problem with characters though! I like more than I hate. With Alice, seriously her hair is my only problem. The fact that her outfit changed during Chapter One was really interesting.
Taken from gamerinvestments.com.
The above is Alice's default attire. You can't see it, but if you've seen any images/played the game/demo/played the first installment, you know she's wearing knee-high lace boots a la goth stylez. It's not a bad look! I like the Omega necklace, too. On the back, on her bow, is a skull. However, at the end of Chapter One, she is wearing a full bondage-inspired outfit. It's dark, with straps, a corset, and is so hardcore and amazing.During Chapter One and the start of Chapter Two, we're introduced to Whitechapel Alice's life. That's right: Whitechapel, London. It's gritty, derelict, and full of creepy men. When she awakes, after being fished out of (presumably) the River Thames, two men are discussing all the things they want to do with her. She walks off after basically doing a PG-13 version of FUCK YOU, and eventually ends up at a shoddy pub/brothel area.
Apparently, Alice has taken to knowing the wretches of society. Whether this is due to her status as a lunatic, or just by choice, I'm unsure. I think it'd be the former, given the time period. I mean, at the beginning of the game, we find out an old woman with a disturbing baseball bat for a nose has been blackmailing her. Since Alice feels guilty for the deaths of her family when she was a child, this woman--a former nurse at the asylum she was in--promises frequently that she won't tell anyone, so long as Alice gives her money for booze. Nice grandma.
Alice also seems to have a... we'll call her a 'friend', from what I've seen so far. Alice also seems to have a 'friend' who is also a prostitute. After being beckoned up to see her (the 'friend' basically telling her she's a sweet piece of ass and to come up and make money), Alice walks in on the woman's boss beating the hell out of her. When Alice goes to defend her, the man punches her flat out and that's how you're launched into Chapter Two.
Charming, right?
But I also like this. I like seeing what Alice has been doing with her life, and who she knows, and how this environment serves to feed her own insanity, not help it. Alice has no one, it seems, who cares for her. Her doctor gives me creep vibes, but in the end, he seems like the only person who's nice to her and tries to help her (perceivably, I don't trust him). Everyone else is 'mad' there, only in their different, often degenerative, ways. It's a sick system, and thus far handled pretty well.
As far as story and execution, I like it, but I do have one complaint. During the first part of the game, when they walk through a flashback of Alice's story from when her family is murdered, it's done in an artistic way. Illustrations reminescent of the original Alice illustrations dance across the screen. It's an effective, dark way to flash back.
My complaint comes with the fact that after this, Chapter One goes by with normal cutscenes, as I think it should. But then at the end of Chapter One, it breaks into that style used for the above flashbacks, but for current events. This may sound odd, but... why? It was a powerful display tool for the flashback, but using it for a scene that wasn't even that great to begin with ruined the intent that was set with the player at the beginning. This is something I just was sad about.
Either way, a couple hours in, this game is fun enough to continue. Hopefully I'll soon be able to write about the game post-completion soon!
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