[REVIEW] My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy: Alice:Madness Returns

I must confess that I'd never heard of the original American McGee's Alice in 2000, 11 years ago. Around that time I was busy playing Diablo II, Thief 2, NFS:Porsche Unleashed and THPS2, and hadn't quite worked out what my preferred gaming style was. Upon reflection, it's probably a good thing: I never had a taste for platformers back then, and to be fair, I'm not the biggest fan of them now. They all seemed to be generic Sonic-type characters, all with attitude, and all doing something... good... and it's for that reason that I LOVE Alice.

Alice:Madness Returns is shipped with a DLC code for the original game, remastered in HD, so to make things fair I downloaded it and fired it up. I was surprised at how it felt, given that I'd already had a play around with A:MR at EA's preview night. It felt slow, and out of place, and definitely showed the age of the Quake III engine it ran on, but what stuck out to me most was the atmosphere created. It truly is a beautiful game, even eleven years on.

So with that in mind, I played for a few hours, then backed out and began my re-descent into Madness... and what a trip it was.

The game kicks off in London, where Alice is now in an Orphanage, and it's easy to see that things aren't quite... right. It's not long before the game kicks you back into Wonderland, where things have devolved into a wicked, warped version of Alice's original Psyche (perhaps a reflection on her own state of mind?), and she is reunited with familiar characters from the games predecessor.

I did feel that the game tends to drag in some areas, slightly to the detriment of the London narrative woven throughout, though that did mean that I had plenty of time to take in the beauty inherent in every area, or Domain. I remember telling Ken Wong, the Art Director for the game, how beautiful I thought it was, but I had seen so little then, and beautiful is a complete understatement. Everywhere you look, whether it's the sky in the distance, the creatures of the Ruin, and even Alice herself, resplendent in her dresses, it's the little touches that really set this game apart from other 'jumpy' platformers.

The amazing visuals are wonderfully complemented by a score that would make anyone a little twitchy... Sharp, scratchy strings sections alert you to the presence of enemies, and big drum sounds give a feel of actual danger. There's a lot of psychology at place in this game, the music-box style tunes that play in the London scenes imbue a child-like feeling of exploration and mystery, and the soundtracks to each Domain are both chilling and exciting.

All in all, I really feel that this is a game for people that aren't necessarily a fan of platformers... Yeah, sure, there's a LOT of jumping, and not much in the way of puzzles, but the combat is free-flowing (and very pleasing on the eye... so much so it borders on the sadistic), and the story is solid. And it's beautiful... just... beautiful.

I still think all the guys at Spicy Horse might need to get a psychiatric check-up though... just to be sure.

For more on Alice:Madness Returns, check out our Preview Event Coverage and Intro Cinematic articles. Also, GAME Australia are giving away 4 (four) copies of Alice2 right now! Click Here to go to their competition page!