Alice sports a great visual style and well... thats just about it. But that dosen't make it terrible in any sense.

User Rating: 7.5 | Alice: Madness Returns X360
By Cobra2525 | Review Date:
Story: In the original game, Alice returns from Wonderland only later to be caught in a fire in her home and her entire family being killed. Alice then goes insane, for feeling responsible for her family's death, and is put into an asylum for ten years until she is able to get a grip on reality again. Alice: Madness Returns, takes place one year after she is released from the asylum and lives in an orphanage run by Dr Angus Bumby, a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to help children forget their painful memories. Alice, However cannot let go of her memories of the fire and is determined to discover how her family died and who, or what, was responsible for the fire. Later Alice then slips back into Wonderland only to be told by the Cheshire Cat that an outside entity is corrupting Wonderland and is starting to drive Alice back into Madness. The story kind of has two plots with one being Alice trying to find what killed her family and what is corrupting Wonderland. The story itself is pretty good in its own rights, it isn't amazing or anything, but it will keep you interested enough to keep you playing until the end. A positive would have to be a lot of the characters you meet can range from being funny to plain insane which is appropriate for the game. The bad is that the pacing is kind of off, with the story not really going anywhere for the first few hours and like I said before the story doesn't really break any new boundaries in story telling, but all in all the story is good enough and interesting enough to keep you going.

Graphics: If there is one thing that Alice gets right is the graphical style. The design for just about everything from the monsters, characters such as Alice, The Mad Hatter, March Hare etc. all look great. the design for Wonderland is equally great showing off many different environments from lush gardens,a deck of cards in the sky, decrepit castles. There are some really interesting looking cut scenes that are styled like a hand puppet show and they are definitely interesting to look at. Now while Wonderland is all nice and stylish, Victorian London on the other hand... eh not so much. While it does catch the atmosphere of the country at the time the raw power shows that it is not as powerful as say Gears of War 3 (hard to believe they were built on the same game engine). While I'm on the topic; while the design is top notch, the over all raw power is nothing really special and somethings like the textures and the animations could use some work. On the flip side I will say that the sound holds up fairly well, sporting pretty good voice acting and some cool sound effects like the monsters screams or your knife slashing away. While the raw power is nothing amazing, the style is what steals the show and what makes this game truly shine.

Gameplay: The game is pretty much a standard action game, while nothing new, is still a good time. First let me start off with the platforming. The platforming can be pretty well done at times with you floating on air and gliding from the next platform and can be pretty well done at times. While at other times it can be pretty annoying because you may miss a jump and because Alice can't grab onto the platforms it can get annoying. While the platforming is simple it can be fun while other times it can get annoying. Next is the combat, first lets start with the good: you get a pretty good variety of weapons such as your signature Vorpal Blade which works for your swift, light attacks, a hobby horse which is for more slow but powerful attacks. You also have two ranged weapons which are a pepper grinder which works like a gattling gun, and a teapot cannon which kind of works like a grenade launcher. Lastly you have an umbrella which works like a shield and can deflect attacks and clockwork bombs that are mostly used for platforming sections but can be used in combat. There is also a good amount of enemies to fight, most of the game you will be fighting enemies known as the "Ruin" but as you travel to different areas you will fight all sorts of different types of enemies, so unlike Dante's Inferno or Splatterhouse, you won't be fighting the same seven or eight enemies. Now what is bad about the combat? Well it dosen't really evolve and can feel very shallow at times. What I mean is that you are not going to get a huge amount of combos, or any really, in the game and most of the time you are just slamming down on the X or Y buttons. Sure you can upgrade your weapons, but this feature is very light and is nothing really special. Also there are some other gameplay features such as these 2D platforming sections, block puzzles, challenge rooms, and riddles which to to mix up the gameplay but these aren't all that fun and it can get a little repetitive after a while. That and the camera can be pretty clunky at times, especially in combat when you are trying to lock onto the right enemy and the camera is flying all over the place. My last real complaint is that there aren't really any boss fights (except for at the end of the game), and this is a big miss in the gameplay section. While I'm not saying the gameplay is bad or anything, it can be pretty fun at times just getting lost in the very imaginative word the developers created, and if you think it is going to be short like most action games, then think again because this game is at least a good 12-15 hours. Along with that if you bought the game you can download the original game or buy it off of PSN or XBL. While the gameplay isn't bad in any sense, it just needed more substance.

Overall:

Story: 8 While nothing amazing, it will keep you interested enough and is a pretty good re-imagining of the Alice in Wonderland universe (I wonder what Lewis Carrol would be thinking if he saw this... XD).

Graphics: 8 While the raw power isn't the best, the design is what really shines.

Gameplay: 7 While everything works and it can be fun, it just needed more substance.

Enjoyment: 7 had a pretty good time getting lost in the creepy imaginative world and I hope to see more installments with more improvements.

Final score: 7.5

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

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