Awesome take on the story, not so awesome execution...

User Rating: 6.5 | Alice: Madness Returns PS3
I went into this game with an outrageous bias towards... well, everything. I've read Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass more than a few times. I love the world Lewis Carroll created, and I love the character of Alice, and most importantly, I loved the first game, American McGee's: Alice. The first one was platforming at it's best, with great animation and a clever story-line, so surely a sequel ten years later should surpass all of that, right? Well, let's say for now that Madness Returns has some pretty big shoes to fill.

Starting off, you're Alice, as expected. The game takes place shortly after the first adventure, but this time in an orphanage. She's working with a doctor to help get over her... well, insanity. She seems to be a favorite of the doctor, and it's revealed why throughout the game. But I'm not here for spoilers, so there won't be any, really. But, the story does play a fairly big part in the game, and if you played the first one, you'll want to finish this one if nothing more than to see what happens.

As usual, one the first things anybody reacts to are the graphics. I don't want to keep drawing back and pulling out bits from American McGee's first installment, but I feel I have to, and this is one of the cases. The first game, for the time, was stunning, I found. The graphics were crisp and fun to look at. In Madness Returns, I felt they were a bit blocky at times. Alice and the rest of the cast look pretty well done, and the backgrounds are very pleasing to the eye, however the environments in which Alice interacts don't look as sharp as they could. They don't look bad, but they don't really stand out either.

The animations of some in some of the cut-scene interactions looked almost like something from the last gen of consoles. It's a bit harsh, but they didn't feel overly improved from the last game. However, with that said, there was one little bit that I really enjoyed. Alice's dress would change depending on the level and the atmosphere. I thought that was a nice touch. Sometimes it's the small things.

Another positive in the visual field had to be the transitions. The little bits that tell the story after or before a level begins. They're cell shaded bits of comic book art that really get down and dirty and show what the story and the theme is all about. They're gruesome and intense, but in a wonderful way. I almost wish more of the game played out like that, but it seemed the actual game play was toned down for some reason.

Again, in American McGee's Alice, the audio and voice acting stood out for me beyond anything else. I was so utterly impressed with the voice acting of the Cheshire Cat that I nearly spit my drink out when he first popped up. Perhaps my expectations were overly high for Madness Returns, but again, it didn't quite live up to its predecessor. The music in the game is outstanding, I must say. The score in each level is often against the grain of main theme of the story, but it doesn't matter; it feels complimentary in so many ways. I just wish Alice didn't sound so... droll. Even with it's little faults, the audio is still one of, if not the best aspects of the game.

The game play... Well, it's a platformer. You get exactly that. The game isn't revolutionary with the style in which you move around the levels, which gets a bit repetitive. At time it almost feels like each little world is a clone of the last with a new piece of art work thrown over it. It's not bad, it just begins to feel very familiar after a short while. Of course they try to keep it fresh by splashing in unique elements, such as drinking the potion to turn you small, thus revealing little secrets or platforms needed to cross the world. It's fun, but you walk so slow when little, and you're left defenseless, and every so often you'll need to jump from invisible platform to invisible platform while dodging enemy attacks. It was a nice touch, but like the rest of it, it got a bit old.

There are points in the game where you can predict whats going to happen. I remember one point in particular, and this was when I decided to go on a bit of a hiatus from it, when I walked into a new section and saw a bunch of floating platforms. The camera zoomed out, as it often did at this point in the level, and I knew exactly what I had to do. There was no mystery, there was no challenge, it was just... do it. The only hard part was maneuvering around the level...

That's where the controls come in. Not bad, not great. You have the ability to float, but if the camera isn't in the right place, landing is a craps shoot. You have to trust your gut and hope you're over top... something, but chances are you're not, and you'll fall into a bottomless canyon. That part isn't too different from other platformers out there, which is why I've never been a huge fan, but it made the game feel a bit dated, again, like they didn't improve upon the original.

When it comes to combat, it's a bit like the God of War series, oddly enough. It's a lot of hack and slash, which turn into combos. It's fun and rewarding, and it does stay fresh. The combat, when it works, is indeed the most enjoyable part of the game, however, it does get repetitive. I'm seeing a trend here, aren't you?

You just know when you're going to be ambushed by something. The area opens up and there's it looks just like an arena. A door blocks off, and the way you came from is now out of reach, and so you must fend off the horde in order to advance. Like the rest of the game, it felt extremely formulaic. Like the game felt it had to do that in order to fit in with the rest of the platforming world. I don't know what it was. Yeah, you have a variety of weapons to chose from, like the tea pot which shoot scolding tea, or the horse head, which acts as a massive hammer, but they don't seem to have any real purpose. Once you get them, they almost instantly become obsolete to the Vorpal Blade, the main weapon.

At times you may need to pepper (excuse the pun) an unreachable enemy from afar with with the pepper grinder, but like all the other weapons (save the horse head) it has a recharge bar, making it good for about one kill before you have to either switch out, or let it charge up. So, really, it's best to just stick with the Blade unless absolutely necessary.

All in all, the game isn't horrible, and it's fun in short dosages, just expect to be bored with it after an eight hour gaming session or something. It boasts decent, if not a bit outdated graphics, with high quality sound and mediocre game play and controls.

Perhaps the best thing about the game on the PS3 is the redeemable code to download a port of the original from the PSN for free, which is pretty sweet.

6.5/10.