Question: What is the difference between a convict in a Victorian
prison and a patient in a Victorian asylum?
Answer: The convict knows when he is getting out.
Paraphrased from The
Blackstone Chronicles

Alice
Liddell was “lucky.” She was one of the very few who was
pronounced cured and allowed to leave Rutledge Asylum.

Alice was still a child, barely in her teens, when her house caught
on fire. She escaped, but had to watch the flames and listen to the
screams of her parents and older sister trapped inside. They never
made it out.

The
experience was too much for Alice and her mind just shut down. Comatose,
non-responsive, she was sent to Rutledge Asylum. The treatments of
the day did nothing, but Alice had something which very few patients
did – a fully formed alternate reality in the form of Wonderland.

Alice
retreated to her inner Wonderland which was now deformed and horrible,
matching the horror of her memories. Familiar friends were now horrible
monsters which had to be destroyed. As each abomination was vanquished
Alice’s mind was freed from another psychosis. Finally, with the removal
of the last foe, her mind was freed to return to reality.

The “cure,” however, was only superficial. Alice was
conscious and mostly rational, but she suffered from hallucinations
and was tormented by nightmares. She was released form the Asylum
and entered Dr. Bumby’s care at the Houndsditch Home and Refuge for
Wayward Youth. Her sanity was being eaten by the memories still trapped
in her mind.

Dr.
Bumby’s treatment consisted of encouraging his patients to forget
their sad past and forge ahead into the bright future. But how do
you forget a suppressed memory? Medical science was again unable to
help her. There was nothing for it but to return to Wonderland. A
diseased and deadlier Wonderland which now had something to hide.

When
American McGee’s
Alice (AM’s Alice) came out in 2000 it became one of the three
First Person Shooters (FPS) which I enjoyed enough to play through
to the end (the other two are Descent
and Freelancer).
I still consider its introduction to be the best intro to any game
ever made. AM’s Alice was a hit and stayed on the shelves longer
than most games. It took eleven years for American McGee to create
its sequel. How does it compare?

Let
me start by saying that while both Alices are FPS games they still
have strong Adventure leanings. AM’s Alice was strong
on exploration and had some puzzles in it. There was also a strong
storyline. Alice: Madness Returns (Alice MR) continues this
style and even strengthens the Adventure elements. It has more worlds
to explore, more puzzles and now you have to find fragments of memories
in your travels. So the storyline is continuously fed to you. In fact,
I was almost ten minutes into the game before I had to fight my first
monster.

The
game engine has changed. AM’s Alice used the Quake 3 Engine
while Alice MR uses the Unreal Engine. Movement is the same
for both – W, A, S, D with the mouse steering. My system is
a few years old and it was able to handle both games quite smoothly,
as log as I didn’t have anything else running, like a browser. My
only complaint was with Alice MR. There are no save game slots,
only console style checkpoints.

Alice: “I didn’t come here looking for a fight.”
Cheshire Cat: “Oh? Pity, because one is looking for you.”

The
combat system has become more complex. AM’s Alice had nine
weapons for you to find and select. Each weapon could be used either
for melee (left mouse button) or ranged (right mouse button). Ranged
weapons consumed stamina which slowly regenerated on its own.

Alice
MR has separate weapons for melee and range and you can change
between them very quickly for combo attacks. For example, you could
use the Horse to inflict a lot of damage and stun your opponents,
then change to the Blade to quickly slice them up a bit, then back
to the Horse to finish them off. Alice MR also allows for combo
moves with a single weapon. Click the mouse two or three times and
Alice will perform a two or three slice attack. The new system also
allows Alice to dodge and defend, but these require two additional
keys and I found it a bit of a struggle. No doubt it is easier with
a console controller.

In
AM’s Alice the game was mostly exploration and combat. In Alice
MR you also have to collect teeth (to upgrade weapons), collect
memory fragments, collect bottles (to unlock additional content) and
shoot down pig snouts (because the Duchess told you to). So there
is quite a bit more to keep track of.

The graphic styles have also expanded. Apart form the photorealistic
rendering in the introduction, AM’s Alice relies on a single
style. It is characatured and cartoony. It is her Dreamland. It is
quite effective.

Alice
MR uses three different graphic styles. When viewing her dreams,
the world looks like moving bits of paper from a book (it will remind
you of the animations from Monty Python’s Flying Circus). London is
done just as Alice sees it – gray with the people becoming caricatures
of reality.

And then there is Wonderland. In Wonderland the air is clear. The
water runs pure. The flowers open up and shine when you approach.
Color and beauty are everywhere. At least at the start …

The
voice acting in AM’s Alice was superb. Everyone knew why they
were saying what they did and there was a disturbing undertone of
insanity in all the characters. You had the impression that they might
be rational now, but could freak out at any moment. Alice and the
Cheshire Cat were especially fun to listen to.

Alice MR was able to get the same voice actors for Alice and
the Cheshire Cat, but some of the emotional intensity is missing.
The characters all seem a little too domesticated. But even if the
acting is no longer excellent, it is still Very Good and better than
most games out there.

The
background music is also superior. Instead of the synthesized chordal
progressions you get with most games, we hear the violin and music
box. It sets the mood and fits so well with the atmosphere that we
frequently don’t notice it.

So where does that leave us? AM’s Alice was a hit; did Alice
MR measure up? Yes, and in many ways exceeded AM’s Alice.
Alice MR is not a game of endless quests and leveling up. It
is a single quest. There is a young girl to save and then the game
is over. But there will be a lot to do before you get there and it
was very well done. I give Alice: Madness Returns a solid “A”
for nailing it.

Note: Alice: Madness Returns will include a
code allowing console players to download American
McGee’s Alice for free. Source: CVG

System Requirements:

• CPU: Intel Core2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.60GHz or greater;
  AMD Athlon X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.60GHz or greater
• RAM: 2048MB or greater
• VGA: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 256MB or ATI Radeon X1650 256MB or greater*
• DX: DirectX®: 9.0c
• OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows Vista with SP2, Windows XP with SP3
• HDD: 8.5 GB
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

*NVIDIA GeForce 8400, 9400, 210; ATI Radeon HD 2400, HD 3200, HD 4300
as well as integrated versions of supported chipsets are below minimum
system requirements.