Alice: Madness Returns

The works of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (or to you and me: Lewis Carroll) famously fall under the genre of “literary nonsense”. They are, however, incredibly influential works and had surreal metaphors for Alice’s own problems with growing up and her curious nature. Over the years there have been many adaptations of the timeless classic. From the semi-inaccurate animated offering from Disney to the overly gritty epic offering from Tim Burton… via Disney.

You see, Disney has had a bit of a monopoly at Lewis Carroll’s expense and for the most part got it horribly wrong. The animated version tried to make things a little too child friendly, while the Tim Burton version had to find some way of inserting his missus and best friend into the mix. Video games though have had a better stab at the proceedings with American McGee’s Alice having a massive cult following. Obviously not content with Tim Burton’s loathsome offering, American McGee is back with Alice: Madness Returns. Is this Wonderland a truly magical realm of the bizarre or an experience that will send you to an asylum?

Alice Liddell is a troubled individual whose parents and sister tragically died in a house fire. She was the only survivor and constantly blames herself for their demise. Years of medical care later and she is back on her feet in the middle of London when suddenly the visions of a demonic train take over her mind. In order to save herself, she must stop the train of thought and face the truth of what happened all those years ago. Wonderland sequences act as metaphors for certain truths of Alice’s past and incidentally a lot of the background for the plot concerning her past is told through collectable memories. It is possible to make sense of what is happening without them, but collecting memories tells a far more intriguing story. There is a bit of a haymaker point that changes how the conclusion could be perceived. It is an uncomfortable idea, but one that is sensibly told through metaphors and memories with the conclusion in particular being satisfying in more ways than one. It might be lazy storytelling on the surface, but it is tasteful.
Wonderland is a world that is fixated on whatever emotions and locations that Alice is experiencing at that time, and it is pretty amazing to look at. The anthropomorphic denizens of Wonderland range from the weird and wonderful characters from the books, to the monsters and soulless beings that you encounter throughout the adventure. The Mad Hatter and his tea party seem to have taken a steam-punk look, which works surprisingly well, but it is Alice that stands out in that she has the most going on with her design. Her hair seems to move dynamically and in wind direction. There is one level where you are submerged in water where it almost imitates hair being in water, a touch that shows great care in her design.

One particularly nice touch is that her dress changes partway through each chapter to match the theme of the current location. The atmosphere presented to us is either of the serene or the chaotic, depending on where Alice’s head is at that given time. It would have been nice to have seen this as a gameplay mechanic, as I’m sure her mental state and Wonderland have more links than scripted events.
While it isn’t the most technically proficient world, there are plenty of nice touches and it is remarkable how much depth has gone into creating the characteristics of Wonderland.The disheartening thing about this Wonderland is that you are on a largely linear track with little opportunity to explore fully, though there are instances where you have a choice in what route you take. Certain mushrooms act as trampolines, vents allow Alice to soar high, and a variety of obstacles can be bypassed by using her various abilities. Early on she is led to a purple waterfall by the sarcastic Cheshire Cat which grants her the ability to go small on the fly. While in this mode, she can pass through keyholes and see pathways that aren’t viewable easily in her normal state. She can also use projectile weapons to open gates and various jumping and gliding abilities. There is a certain attention to detail in the design that adds an incredible level of immersion to the game, but sometimes the detection is a little off the mark. It’s by no means terrible, but it has its fair share of moments where the game decides it doesn’t like you very much.Alice: Madness Returns is, however, a largely platforming based game with elements of Legend of Zelda styled combat, complete with a targeting system and dodging in the form of turning Alice into butterflies. Enemies have a wide variety of forms and indeed strategies at their disposal, though Alice has some rather odd contraptions to use herself. Instead of swords, axes, guns and shields, Alice uses the Vorpal Blade for quick attacks, a Hobby Horse for stronger ones, an umbrella to deflect incoming projectiles and a combination of a rapid-firing pepper grinder or teapot cannon. It’s an endearing trait though as it add a unique flavour to the adventure, and the weapons work superbly despite some teething issues initially. Combat on a whole does get very repetitive after a while though, but enemy diversity helps dampen this complaint a tiny bit and the last gasp “Hysteria” mechanic helps in harder modes from certain death.

A total of six chapters doesn’t sound like very long for a game and they all seem to follow a set pattern. First you have a sequence in London, then the initial platforming bit, followed by introduction to world enemies before finally solving the unique obstacle and completing the chapter. The catch is that these chapters are incredibly long. More often than not the game comes across as schizophrenic in structure as Alice’s sanity.

Things can go from tedious and monotonous with one type of obstacle, to inspired and polished with another. Slide puzzles are never fun and it is a small virtue that you can skip them on the fly. Others such as the 2D Japanese platforming and giant Alice sequences are intriguing. Various mini-game styled rehashes of some of the more interesting activities will challenge you with riddles and gauntlets. On more than one occasion, I was on the brink of putting down the controller thanks to the slow pace between chapters and linear process map between them, only to find something that made me think that there was something interesting here. Once you finish the game, you have the option to go through the various levels to get all the collectables, dress Alice in dresses that give bonuses/challenges.

Certainly nothing on the original classics, but it is nice to see that in terms of flavour at least, Alice: Madness Returns manages to engage the audience with its own twisted and unique take on the characters. While it manages to capture a spectacular, if slightly twisted take on Wonderland many locales and characters, it’s the real world drama and its implications on Alice’s fantasy realm that makes things disturbing, but also worth playing through. The rest of the game is highly confused though. Elements of greatness lurk beneath the level designs, which incidentally go on far longer than they probably should. Tedious slide puzzles are few, but they only needlessly extend the duration of a level. Combat is diverse, but at the same time oddly repetitive and with a certain lack of real big encounters. A serviceable sequel certainly, and it improves many things on not only the original game but also non-novel adaptations of Lewis Carroll’s works.