Wonderfully artistic and quite long, alas too easy and for some too repetitive...
Graphics 10/10
The graphics in AMR redefine the term artistically proficient. The places you visit (and there are about 10 different sorroundings you visit) all create a unique atmosfere, from an oversized dollhouse with a dark and evil basement up to a wonderfull forest full of goblins ready for decapitation. While the graphics main focus is art, they are still quite technically proficient as well. The combination of technical proficiency, beautiful art and unique feeling of each of the places, creates a truly wonderful graphic experience. And the fact that Alice changes costumes according to the place she is visiting, so that she always fits her sorrounding perfectly, adds even more depth to your graphical experience.
Besides the fantastic graphical places in wonderland, you also visit reality (from time to time) only to find yourself in an equally menacing and dark city.
Sound 8/10
The music usually suits the environments quite fine. It could have been better at some places, perhaps add more dynamic, since it usualy only creates a background atmosfere, but overall you will not any quarrels about the games musical quality. Voice acting differs, while Alice sounds great, certain characters (mostly encountered in forms of memories - collectables hidden in secret areas) sound less enthusiastic.
Story 6/10
The story is about Alice, a young girl who survived a fire which killed her family. Since then she was a patient in a sanatorium for many years, where she slipped more and more away from reality and more and more into her wonderland. In the first game she had to fight the Red queen (from Carrol's second book), her inner demon, for control of her wonderland. Now in this game, she's many years older, almost an adult now, and she was released from the sanatorium into the care of certain psychologist. Yet now another demon, or rather a demon train, threatens her wonderland again and wonderland begins to disintegrate before her own eyes, or should I say before her own imagination.
While this story line-up sounds great, the execution is not so much. Your usual goal for each chapter is to find a certain character which Alice remembers from wonderland (like hatter) and converse with him/her/it. Most of the time they don't tell you anything of value, so the story kind-of stagnates until the last two of the six chapters. Add to this the fact that between each chapter Alice wakes up in the real world, but usualy to some unfamiliar scene which explain little and she only stays there for such a limited time that nothing can really be explained at all. While the ending is interesting story-wise, most the game isn't.
Gameplay 7/10
The combat system in AMR is great. You have 4 weapons, two melee and two ranged, all of which handle very differently and each of works well against certain enemies. You have a quick machete, a slow hammer, a quick pepper grinder (yes, it shoots pepper at enemies) and a slow tea cannon (yes, it shoots tea at enemies). You can upgrade each weapon 4 times by gathering enough collectible teeth around the game, there are more than enough to upgrade all four weapons to maximum. While fighting one enemy the combat system does not really shine, but when more of them (especially is they are of different variety - melee and ranged) group you, you will see the combat for the fun it is. You will have to switch weapons, combine certain tactics, etc. to survive.
Now for the bad part, which is, difficulty. I played at max difficulty, yet most of the time the game was too easy. The fights are unbalanced, while some - like fighting more than one Menacing ruin while still have weak weapons - are very hard, most others - like fighting madcaps or two or three slithering ruins - are just way too easy. The more you progress and the upgrades you get for weapons the easier the fights become since the enemies don't become adequately more difficult.
Last of all, as noted at the beginning of the review, I consider this game to be a 3d platformer, simply because you will spent the majority of your time jumping from one platform to the next, solving very basic platform-based puzzles. While this can become repetitive for many players, I enjoyed it, especially since you can not only double-jump, no, not even triple-jump, but you can actually quadruple-jump. Some things (like 2d oriental platforms, sliding, controling a rolling head, etc.) try to break this repetitivness, and for some it might work, for me they were unneeded, since I enjoyed the quadruple-jumping right up till the very end.
Replayability 7/10
You have many different collectibles which you can gather, ranging from memories (which help you better understand Alice's world), though bottles (which unlock art and such) to teeth (which you upgrade your weapons with). The settings are interesting, the game is long, and the range of costumes (and special abilities) which you unlock by completing the game is decent as well. So, yes, another go might be worth it, if you enjoy it for the surrounding and won't be bothered by the fact that is will not be any challenge at all (especially with special costume abilities).
One bad thing to note is that the game was most probably pushed by EA to be released sooner then it was finished, as usual (thank you very much EA, not!!!). We can see it in the artworks (many monsters which are missing from the game are still included in these) as well as in the fact that cutscenes and story in each chapter make an impression towards an ending boss in each chapter, but they are always cut before this happens, and you are sent to reality without a boss fight.
All in all, I recommend this game to all fans of jumping around, all fans of artistic settings, all fans of knives, and in fact, to many other subgroups. So don't just stand there and get a move on, into the nearest store.