An enjoyable and solid experience, IF you can overlook the repetitiveness and some minor graphical/audio glitches.
Personally, I enjoyed Madness Returns despite its gameplay issues and a couple of other frustrations that I had with it. However, this is a fair review. Thus, I can't solely rely on my own experience and enjoyment. Alice: Madness Returns suffers from one major problem, and no, that problem is not the repetitive nature of the game; it's the fact that the chapters drag on for far too long! Sure, the gameplay itself isn't that varied, but at the same time it's fun and rewarding, especially the combat. The problem is that when the developers drag on the chapters, even the fun combat can get very boring.
Speaking of the combat, I think it's necessary to talk about it first before getting into the details about the gameplay issues. During the course of the game, Alice will acquire four different weapons: two melee weapons (a blade and a hobby horse) and two ranged weapons (a kettle and a pepper grinder). Killing enemies with these weapons is very satisfying, mainly because the controls are smooth and there are different types of enemies that can't be killed with just button mashing. You can press L1 to lock on your enemies, which can be very useful when you're using ranged weapons. Also, it helps you to doge the enemy attacks easier by pressing R2. Locking on the enemies and dodging on time is the key to beating the bigger enemies. That's why you can't always mash buttons and win. There are times where you need to lock on the enemy, deflect their fire balls with your umbrella, then once their shield is broken, you have to attack them as quickly as possible, and then start dodging by pressing R2.
Alice also collects teeth in the game in order to upgrade her weapons. While upgrading your weapons could be really rewarding, it doesn't add that much to the actual gameplay. You can level up these weapons four times until they're maxed out, but you never learn any combos by making these weapons stronger. The only difference is that they become faster and more damaging. It would have been nice if Alice could unlock combos for her blade and Hobby Horse. That would have made the combat a lot more entertaining.
While the combat isn't too deep, it's enjoyable and fun, same as the platforming. The platforming sections are pretty good for the most parts. However, they can get very annoying at times. The main issue with this portion of the gameplay is that Alice can't grab on to ledges for some reason. This can lead to many cheap deaths in the game. Other than that, the platforming is pretty standard. It isn't anything special and it's not nearly as rewarding as the combat, but it's not terrible either.
Besides the platforming and the combat, there is other side stuff to do in Alice: Madness Returns. In every single chapter, there are many different collectables. These collectables include memories (they are like audio diaries in Bio Shock and they're supposed to reveal Alice's past, but some of them are very irrelevant), pig snouts, bottles, and challenge rooms (I can't remember what they're called in the game). Finding these hidden items actually adds a lot of value to the gameplay. In order to find all these items, you really need to pay close attention to your environment since many of them can only bee seen when you use the shrink potion by pressing L2.
The shrink potion has other uses as well. Not only it helps Alice to find invisible pig snouts (you need to use your pepper grinder to pepper these snouts and unlock either a basket of items or a hidden passage to get to another collectable), but also it helps her to see invisible platforms, different signs on the wall that tell her what's coming next, and also she can fit through key holes when she's small. These key holes are basically entrances to tunnels that lead to secret rooms, where Alice can get her hands on a hidden item.
Now, let's talk about the major downside of the gameplay that I mentioned earlier in the review: the length of the chapters always leads to tedium. Sure, the combat, platforming, and finding hidden items are all fun to do, but when the game requires you to do all these things over, and over, and over again without ever changing the pattern, they become pretty boring. The developers try to mix things up by throwing in some mini games (like chess puzzles and side scrolling stages), but then again, these mini games are either too easy, or they are over used (in chapter three, you have to go through three side scrolling stages that look pretty much identical). Some of these mini games can get very annoying too, especially in the final chapter.
The puzzles themselves are extremely repetitive. They vary during the course of the game, and they are actually interesting to figure out at first, but they get tedious pretty fast since you have to do different versions of the same puzzle numerous times during a chapter. Same goes for the combat; although the style of enemies changes from chapter to chapter, the combat itself can get really dull because you have to kill the same type of enemies over and over again in one chapter. The thing is, as I talked about it earlier in the review, you never unlock any combos by upgrading your weapons. So every time Alice slashes her enemies with her blade or smacks them with her hobby horse, you have to see the same repetitive animation. By the way, there is only one boss battle throughout the entire game, which is a shame because I personally think epic and challenging boss fights can really add to the overall value of a game.
The developers could have easily fixed this problem. They didn't have to change any of the core gameplay, but they could have made the chapters that take place in Wonderland a lot shorter, and add to the parts that take place in the real world. Yes, you actually get to play as Alice in the real world, but these sections always involve you getting from point A to B, so that the next chapter in Wonderland can start.
All these issues aside, I thought Alice: Madness Returns was a really solid action/platformer game from beginning to end. The involving storyline, eerie atmosphere, fantastic art style, great voice acting, very good music, and a rewarding gameplay all come together to make an all around enjoyable experience, IF you can overlook the repetitiveness of the game and some minor graphical/audio glitches.
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Story: B+
Gameplay: C+
Visuals: B+
Music: A
Voice acting/ sound: B+
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Final Score:
7.5/10
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