Review: Alice: Madness Returns

American McGee's Alice first graced the PC in October 2000, and was not available on any console. The game itself looked quite good, but the game play left something to be desired. Flash forward 11 years to Alice: Madness Returns, and we see a drastically improved game with drastically improved control. True it could have been even better, and there were times when finer-tuned control would have helped, but overall the control response is more than adequate. The story and dialogue, while not yet ready for a prime-time mini-series, is also interesting enough to hold the gamer's interest. The graphics are pure eye-candy, with grotesque caricatures of every character and extra. The only "pretty" character in the game is Alice herself, who finds herself in several different dresses throughout the game. The worlds and backgrounds are hideous abominations carrying a paradox of being so damned beautiful.

So what a world to play in. The action is straight-forward 3D hop-and-bop and hack-and-slash brawling. At times it is necessary to defeat enemies using a certain rhythm, like beating the Eye-Pot (love that name) by shooting it in the eye, waiting for the eye to open, and then slashing the open eye several times before retreating. There are plenty of long jumps, dizzying heights, moving platforms, and shrinking to fit into smaller doors that appear here and there. There is an ample amount of combat, and the combat increases in difficulty as newer, stronger enemies are introduced. Bosses aren't really bosses, rather more powerful enemies being introduced for the first time. You run into them again throughout the game after they make that first appearance.

There are 6 chapters in the game, but chapter 6 is quite short, more of an ending. Chapter 5 should be considered the last real chapter, and the boss in chapter 6 should be considered the only real boss. This last boss is the first of my dislikes of the game, he is too easy. That being said, I also found camera glitches that did affect my game play and as I mentioned before, there were those times that finer-tuned control would have been in order.

Will I spoil the story? Trust me, it can get downright gruesome at times, like when a shaved-bald, straight-jacketed and drooling Alice wanders through the Asylum remembering some of her "treatments", like a hole being drilled in her head, being covered in leeches to suck out the bad blood, and the like. And that's all I will say about that, it really has to be seen in it's full grotesque glory.

I give Alice: Madness Returns an 8/10.