Review: Alice Madness Returns

Welcome to a world of complete insanity.  Alice Madness Returns is a game which takes the well known story of Alice in Wonderland and turns it on its head.  In this sequel to American McGee's Alice, Alice is competely insane, and Wonderland is her mind.  Now Wonderland is being destroyed and Alice must recover her memories and piece together the mystery of the fire that killed her family.

First of all, this game was AMAZING.  I loved just about everything about it.  This game would have been my game of the year if Portal 2 (and most probably Skyrim) hadn't come out this year.  The atmosphere of Alice is what really sold me on the game. Every chapter has a different theme, from a colourful forest, to under the sea, to the Queen of Hearts Castle.  Complimenting these level themes are Alice's dresses.  Besides Alice's grey dress in England and the standard Alice in Wonderland blue dress, this game has Alice in bevy of beautiful dresses, which match the chapter's theme perfectly.

I also enjoyed the gameplay in Alice.  It is a 3D platformer, with plenty of puzzles to solve and enemies to kill along the way.  The level design is phenomenal and the immersion complete.  Although some people complained about invisible walls, I found that they were in logical places and it really didn't bother me at all.  I also found the combat incredibly satisfying.  For those that watched me do this playthrough, you know that "CHATIA SMASH" was one of my most common sayings.  Alice is given 4 weapons with which to deal death and destruction in Wonderland, the knife, a hobby horse, a teapot and a pepper grinder.  Each can be leveled up by collecting teeth (yes teeth).  The hobby horse was my personal favourite and was how I smashed things ^^.  The enemies in this game are also incredibly creepy and fit the worlds they inhabit perfectly!  Overall the design in this game was great!

Yup, stripping homicidal dolls naked and then killing them.. thats Alice!

All of your favourite Alice in Wonderland characters are present, though perhaps not as you would have imagined them (especially if your only experience with this franchise is Disney).  The Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, and my personal favourite, the Cheshire Cat are all here, and wanting to help (or hurt) Alice.  Also present is the well known "eat me" and "drink me" premises, with Alice shrinking being a key mechanic of the game.  I would include the highlight of me stomping on enemies after eating something labelled "eat me" but unfortunately TTV won't let me get to any of my highlights right now.. so check out my videos for that (I'll link it as soon as I am able).  I really cannot express how much this game messes with your mind.  Especially later on, the lines between reality and Wonderland totally blur, creating a sense of truly being lost, insane and confused, just like Alice.  One level in particular, the insane asylum, really creeped me out and had me very freaked. 

Overall this is a fantastic game and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves platforming or just a creepy game.

I give Alice: Madness Returns 5 naked homicidal dolls out of 5.