Alice Madness Returns Game Review

Alice Madness Returns is a sequel to the 2000 American Mcgee's Alice game. The first Alice game took a twist on the Lewis Carrol story. Now Alice is back in the sequel Alice Madness Returns.

The game starts off in the normal and bland city of London. The game developers made the city colorless to give it this sort of feel. After having some weird hallucinations Alice finally makes her way back into her Wonderland. But when she arrives Chesire Cat is there to greet her with the news that Wonderland isn't the same.

This is where the real game begins. I'm going to flat out tell you that this is a platformer/action game and not an action/platformer. It has a lot of platforming and quite a bit of action. Throughout the game the developers throw hidden collectibles and items at you to keep you looking around for the secret keyholes to shrink into. The platforming is simple jump from point A to point B sort of stuff like in the classic platformers. So the platforming does get a bit repetitive but they throw a  few challenging puzzles at you along the way. While the platforming is quite a bit of the game, we can't forget about the action.



The combat in this game is nice. Nice meaning it's not clunky or anything like that. You can hold down the Left trigger to focus on certain enemies and you use all of the face buttons for each of your weapons. It works out pretty nicely. The only downfall to the combat in this game is again the repetitiveness. The combat gets a tad repetitive at times. They do try to mix up the type of enemies you fight at certain times but its essentially the same thing again. Although it is a bit repetitive it gives the player a nice break from the platforming. Alice acquires quite a few weapons along her way in Wonderland. She starts off the the infamous Vorpal blade from the first Alice game. The weapons are all unique and can be used in interesting ways.



The story of the game is great. I mean the story of Alice in Wonderland itself is one of the best American stories to date. This twisted take on Wonderland where everyone has become Mad is just awesome. The game developers really put you into a Wonderland that is unique. Although the graphics in some areas of Wonderland are a bit dated, Alice is not. The way her dress and hair movies when jumping and fighting are just ridiculously nice. And every new chapter brings you a new dress!



So overall the game is a whopping 12-15 hours long! It has great mechanics and tons of platforming and exploring to do. The action can be a bit repetitive but it is a nice sidestep from the platforming. The story is awesome. Alice is awesome. And Alice Madness Returns is an awesome game I recommend to players looking to get away from all the damn shooters of today!


Alice Madness Returns gets a 9/10