Alice is an stunning game, with serious visuals and dark themes
I run the game with a GTX 580 Nvidia graphic card, direct X11 and a quad core system. I turn the settings to maximum and oh boy, wonderland is a sight to behold. To start, Alice itself is the best animated digital model ever. I almost fall in love for her. She is so cute and fragile. Very feminine. Well and i have a weak spot for dark haired woman with green eyes, lol, so...
Her dresses are also fantastic, varying from colorful to gothic, In the second chapter, Alice found herself in the bottom of the sea, so her dress is iluminated, much like to the fish that lives in the dark regions of the ocean. Genius.
Alice starts her adventure in the grim, dark, decadent and coal smoke London of Vitorian times. Where much like all poor populace were drunks and prostitutes looking for troube or living miserable lives. The buildings are almost jet black because of the coal (beggining of the industrialized era, where the most polluted fuel ever was in full speed), so its not surprinsigly that Alice took shelter in her wonderland.
Every long chapter of the 5 available begins with Alice searching for answers in the real word, and every detail that she sees or interacts in the real world will show up in some way or another in her twist wondeland.
Graphically speaking this game is a masterpiece, with vivid animation and wonderfully rendered environments and creatures. You feel you are inside the world with her. I cant go on without speaking too about imagination and criativity. Alice is one of the best imaginative games i ever played in my life. And i thought Trine was good. In chapter tree you visit the lawyer that helped Alice after the disaster that took the lives of her family. As you enter the house, you see that the entire decoration is from China, from vessels to paintings, so when you enter wonderland itself in that chapter you starts in a Japan, Chinese theme decoration chapter. All was made from porcelain, jade and the most incredible ORIGAMI. I saw a dragonfly, and that caught my attention, so i sneak closer and i found out that it was made from paper. A origami. One of the best levels in game for me.
In this game you also find mini games and puzzles, and i disagree intirely from Gs. They are just put amazing and plain fun.
Weapons are toys from Alice past, but take no mistake, they can lead to devastating effects when they are used correctly with the right enemy and when properly upgraded.
But wonderland is not just beautiful graphics, there is a dark history being told and you need to discover what is causing its destruction or face madness and oblivion. All you see that seems twisted, gruesome and bizzare will have a perfect explanation at the end, where you will face your true enemy. This leads Alice as a genuine psychological thriller game at some memorable points and chapters. I must admit that at chapter five i became scared with the situations and challenges i found there. This is what Fear 3 should have been to begin with. But as i have already told, all will have an explanation.
To complete, in this game you also have a plethora of hidden objects to discover (memories to give one example) that explain obscure points of Alice past and persons that she was involved too. You will need to search well to discover them. I completed the game with 98% of hidden objects found, so i am happy :). Dont forget to shrink Alice to discover hidden objects and plataforms.
Conclusion, dont be lured by the low rating this game had, it was clearly underrated and this game is one of the best of 2011.