Alice Madness Returns Review

So it took me two days after the release to finish it but I did, and here's my review if you guys really wanted to know my opinion.

Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to the 2000 game American McGee's Alice. While American McGee's Alice was a PC game the sequel is on Xbox, PS3 and PC. This series takes the familiar children's story by Lewis Carroll and twist it into a dark depiction of Alice (the protagonist mind), but more on that in a bit.

American McGee's Alice Screen Shot

I kinda have a slight history with this game. Nothing too special but I remember when I was 10 and walking around a computer store and seeing it on the shelf. I dunno, it just seemed really interesting. I played American McGee's Alice a few months ago to get ready for the sequel. The story in the first game follows Alice as she travels around a destroyed wonderland trying to free it from the tyranny of the Queen of Hearts. See Alice's family was killed in a fire and only she made it out and as the game is about Alice trying to get offer her survivors guilt for not helping her family out. Once she destroys the queen of hearts, the embodiment of her guilt she is set free from the asylum she was kept at.

Alice: Madness Returns

In Madness Returns Alice is older and has a psychiatrist that trying to help her repress her memories of the night her parents and sister died. Instead Alice goes back to wonderland to repair her shattered mind once again and find the truth about what caused the fire. The game switches between the real world and Wonderland but as the game progresses the two start to meld together it it's hard to find out what is real and what isn't. For those that are interested in the story it does a good job, characters don't have depth but are interesting non the less, and it's nice to finally find the truth out about the fire in the first game. This game is definitely made for fans of the first game, and if you haven't played the first game then you can download it if you buy Madness Returns.

Alice: Madness Returns has an amazing atmosphere. Seeing all the sights and characters changed into grotesque versions of themselves is a real treat. The places are imaginative and creative, and you can tell that the creative team had a lot of fun coming up with these concepts. Everything is creepy and gross, which is just the way it needs to be. Unfortunately that's about the only thing it does right.

First of the textures are horrendous. Just brutal in many places. I'm not one to complain about how things look in a game as long as it's fun to play but these were just bad. Seams everywhere, character's were kinda blocky, and Alices' hair just was weird. The gameplay was reminiscent of the old school platformers while fun, was repetitive and sometimes annoying. This is a game that should have come out in the first year of the Xbox 360s life, not in 2011. Even I'm sorry to say it but I was expecting more. The game has some replay value if you want to get all the collectibles which include memories, bottles (I still have no idea why I was collecting them) and pig snouts and there is the Nightmare difficulty but all in all once it's done, it's done.

I know that last paragraph made it seem like I hated Alice: Madness Returns but I didn't. It was kinda fun as long as you got yourself into the mindset of the game, and could ignore the technical and visual glitches. I only recommend it if you are interested in the atmosphere, cause that's its main selling point.