Spicy Horse
Alice: Madness Returns

American McGee is a decidedly controversial figure in video game history. After working on level design for games like the first two installments of the "Quake" saga and the second and third of the "DooM" series for idSoftware, in 2000 he debuted as a designer for Electronic Arts with the fascinating and disturbing "American McGee's Alice," a twisted version of the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" conceived by Lewis Carroll. However, after that splendid debut, he's been trying for years to reach similar qualitative heights, offering titles that, while they present massive potential on paper, leave a bittersweet taste when you finally lay hands on them: if "American McGee's Grimm," a reinterpretation of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales, is a pleasant game but certainly not unforgettable, "Bad Day L.A." is the lowest point of his career and calling it embarrassing is being gentle (at least in my opinion). This "Alice: Madness Returns," a direct sequel to "American McGee's Alice," represents the title with which he seeks to re-establish himself to fans and others as the brilliant visionary the gaming world had come to love eleven years ago. The second chapter of the Alice saga, developed by his founded software house, Spicy Horse, thus carries a heavy legacy on its shoulders, which we will discover in these lines if it managed to satisfy.  

Firstly, it seems appropriate to warn those who haven't played the first episode and intend to do so without spoiling the ending: skip the plot summary and go directly to the gameplay paragraph to avoid spoilers. That said, here's the plot in brief: in "American McGee's Alice" we saw our protagonist committed to the Rutledge Asylum following her family's death in a fire possibly started by her cat, Oreste. Alice takes the blame and, after a suicide attempt, is taken to the unfortunate institution where, in her mind, she embarks on a tormented journey through the distorted lands of Wonderland, now corrupted along with its inhabitants by her guilt. At the end of the game, the girl managed to overcome her complexes, represented by the Queen of Hearts and her minions (like the Mad Hatter), and was allowed to leave the asylum. However, years later, her crazy visions and guilt resurface, and the incipit sees Alice trying to overcome them with the help of a doctor who tries to make her forget the bad memories related to the fire. The girl begins to develop some doubts about the real causes of her family's death. During the game, she will thus investigate these events, roaming the streets of a decadent Victorian London, and in the now-destroyed Wonderland, she will once again try to fight her complexes that will manifest in the form of strange oily creatures.

Now, let's talk about the actual gameplay: just like its predecessor, "Alice: Madness Returns" is a platformer contaminated by slasher elements. While maintaining the structure of the first entry in the saga, the folks at Spicy Horse have made appropriate modern game modifications, refining, for example, the jumps between fixed, rotating, rocking platforms, etc., through improving the protagonist's agility, now capable of performing a triple jump twirling in the air before landing gently. It must be said that, unlike many video game productions aimed at an ever-wider audience and therefore casual, here the difficulty, though not creating an impossible challenge, is certainly not set low and you will often have to repeat several sections, though not yet falling into excessive frustration thanks to the good distribution of checkpoints. The other side of the coin of "Madness Returns" is, as mentioned, represented by battles against various enemies, whose aesthetic variety is guaranteed by the portion of Wonderland you are in (you will have to cross six of them). The adversaries will be quite tough, although they will ultimately always present the same attack patterns (aside from bosses and mini-bosses), and our Alice can count on a respectable arsenal: she will have at her disposal the Vorpal Blade (a very sharp kitchen knife), ideal for quick but weak attacks; a Hobby Horse that will act as the slower but more powerful mallet; a Pepper Grinder and a Teapot, namely the machine gun and grenade launcher of Wonderland; timed bombs in the shape of the White Rabbit, useful for solving some simple puzzles; and an Umbrella capable of deflecting enemy attacks. The absence of parrying is counterbalanced by Alice's ability to transform into a swarm of blue butterflies, thus avoiding enemy attacks. The action's pace will be pleasantly interrupted occasionally by side-scrolling sections or small puzzles and environmental enigmas. Despite the number of actions to perform being quite high, the controls are well-positioned and decidedly manageable. The real problem of the game is that it does not add anything truly new to the genre (except for Alice's ability to shrink to pass through small passages or see invisible platforms when she is large) and also has a somewhat "old school" structure that prevents chaining real combos in the fights (there will just be a couple) and exploring different scenarios in all directions due to annoying invisible walls. Nothing that ultimately ruins the overall experience, but a bit more effort from this standpoint certainly wouldn't have hurt. In the long run, there is also a certain repetitiveness that could tire some players before reaching the end.

Graphically speaking, "Alice: Madness Returns" uses the now-ubiquitous Unreal Engine 3, although not at its peak levels: in fact, the characters in this production, especially when compared to those of games using the same graphics engine, like "Batman: Arkham Asylum," suffer from a certain "polygonal deficiency" and some textures are decidedly washed out (except on PC, where the graphics cleanliness is greater). What makes this new adventure of Alice truly memorable is the horror-dark style that characterizes Wonderland and which, if it is barely hinted at the beginning, will gradually become more and more overwhelming as you reach the end, characterizing settings (particularly in the last three chapters) and characters, such as the skeletal Cheshire Cat, as charismatic as few, the mechanical Mad Hatter, or even the tentacled Queen of Hearts. In short, while not boasting the graphic quality of a random "God of War," the stylistic research perfectly balances the technical shortcomings, delivering a visual impact that is both decidedly pleasant and disturbing at the same time.

In summary, "Alice: Madness Returns" is an excellent product that manages to satisfy both those who played the first episode and those approaching this saga and succeeds in entertaining thanks to a compelling and interesting story to follow (leaving room for a possible sequel), non-innovative but never frustrating gameplay, and first-class visual characterization. What holds it back from achieving excellence is a repetitiveness that could tire players in the long run, a few small technical issues such as delayed texture loading, and an Alice who, beyond occasionally getting stuck in the scenery, could have been better characterized, as all things considered, she seems like a normal girl. However, four stars are more than deserved, and lovers of old-school platformers now have the opportunity to add a new gem to their collection.