Alice: Madness Returns

Alice: Madness Returns – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to American Mcgee’s Alice that released back on December 6, 2000. Since i am a Playstation + member i often times get to play full games for one hour before you you buy. Alice: Madness Returns is an action game developed by Spicy Horse and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It released on June 14, 2011.

Lets start out at the menus. You have New Game, Memories, Extra Content, Configuration and Game Manual. The controls via the Duel Shock 3: LS-move, R3/R1-aiming mode, L2-shrink, R2-dodge, Square-vorpal blade, L3-activate hysteria, D-pad-pepper grinder, teapot cannon.Select-skip cinematic, Start-pause menu. The controls are good. Attacking using the Vorpal Blade and then locking on to targets and shooting them with the pepper grinder was seamless and smooth. Controls while platforming were also nice using double jumps and floating while traversing the map.

Alice: Madness Returns starts off with a demented cutscene of Alice in one of her “Shrink” sessions at the Orphanage. The Psychologist wants Alice to let go of her past which she has problems with. Alice saw her family burn up in a fire when she was younger which has something to with it. This entire game has that Tim Burton movie look artistically with wicked raw imaginative characters and set pieces. The world of Alice: Madness Returns has a heavy art inspired look to it not found in many games. Much of the early goings regarding gameplay had Alice chasing a white cat around the city until she drops in a hole. Vale of Tears is the first level you play in and its in Wonderland.

I must say Alice: Madness Returns has very bad performance issues. The framerate were so unstable at times it appears as if i was playing a slideshow. Wonderland looked very imaginitive from a graphical standpoint. After talking to the cat you soon run through the tutorial. You first acquire the Shrinking ability which lets you not only shrink to fit through small holes in walls but also see secret messages where to go next. Next you find and equip the huge butcher knife called the Vorpal Blade. After locking onto  a few enemies and killing them i got the Snicker-snack trophy.

Collectibles include “Memory”‘s which are like audio logs of Alice’s past mostly involving her family. You also collect Bottles for points. Collecting Hollow Yves (teeth) are important for Alice’s survival and upgrading her Pepper Grinder and Vorpal Blade. You get the Pepper Grinder when you help Dutches collect a Pig Snout when you go pig snout hunting. The enemies i ran into included Bolterflys, Slithering Ruins, Insidious Ruins and small mad hatters. The design for all creatures were interesting to say the least. One thing Alice: Madness Returns does right was give me the feeling that Alice is one demented badass in one crazy demented world.

Slashing with a huge butcher knife and mowing down enemies with a pepper grinder that resembles a gatling-gun was fun indeed. The entire atmosphere seemed demented and crazy. The music and sound design lends a hand in the atmosphere. The visual artstyle also contributed. The animations weren’t good and awfully stiff. The gameplay is good regarding the combat and platforming. Gameplay is diverse enough as you meet a few NPCs that give you missions. Exploring was also rewarded by finding items that benefited Alice. Its just too bad the performance issues standout and believe me they really stood out.

After spending one hour with Alice: Madness Returns i can say it has good combat, platforming and an interesting story with decent characters. The world has a unique artstyle and the atmosphere is good. What messes the game up is the horrible framerate issues and sporadic stuttering. Thanks for reading.