The visual and audio aspects are superb, yet the gameplay is a bit on the generic side.
Taking place in a now hellish wonderland that seems to grow more and more grotesque and sinister as you go on, the story centers around an insane (and now teenaged) Alice who's family perished in a fire seemingly a short time after "Through the looking glass" (the second Alice book, for those who don't know). The story is original and a nice change of pace, though there isn't really much plot development after the game starts. However, there's enough story given at the beginning to carry it to the end without ever feeling confusing or plotless. However, it could have benefited greatly from some extra plot development, or insight on the world around you.
Nitpicks aside, however, this is a very good game. The art design is beautiful. The levels are varied enough that it always moves on to something different before it gets boring (although with such interesting enviroments that would take a long time), and (coupled with the disturbing soundtrack) can be downright eery, especially if you've read the books.
Ranging from gloomily colorless towns inhabited by living chess pieces, to blackened mountains made twice as perilous by numerous lava rivers running around them. Even if the rest of the game were horrible, it could quite possibly still be worth playing just for the magnificent levels alone.
The characters look good as well, and not a lot of them are particularly happy with the way wonderland is these days, either. The designers took a smart aproach when changing Alice from a seven year old to a teenager, making her look more mature without simply sexualising her. Instead of giving her a short miniskirt and high-heeled boots as some inevitably would have, they gave her the same old dress/skirt (I never could figure out which it was), but gave it a darker twist by adding a skull bow to the back and long black (but old fashioned looking) boots. This more intelligent redesigning of the characters really shows and just adds to the game's wonderful visual style.
The enemies are for the most part creative and often very challenging to fight. From the simple Card-gaurds (literally playing cards with limbs and a head) to the ghoulish Boojums, some are just particularly grim reinventings of characters from the books, while others are completely original, in a few cases just using names of characters from Carrol's books (not just the Alice books, either) who were referenced but never made an actual appearance.
The audio is just as great as the visual style. The sound effects are good and for the most part aren't overly generic, although the SFX for the game's enemies is where it's non-musical audio really shines.
Also, Chris Vrenna's soundtrack is second only to the game's art design for being the best part of the game. The only way to describe it without writing an entire paragraph would be to imagine nursery rhyme-esque music written by Marilyn Manson. It fits the game very well, using a large variety of sounds and instruments, and helps create the creepy atmosphere which really brings the levels to life.
The voice acting is also one of the game's finer points. The actors fit the characters almost perfectly (Alice's voice in particular), and it really complements the grim redesigning of the cast.
However, the game isn't without it's shortcomings. As wonderfully haunting as the rest of it is, Alice's real problem is in it's gameplay. It takes virtually no risks, and so it ends up feeling very bland in that aspect. While it's much easier to forgive (and much harder to notice as well) because of the game's great atmosphere and visuals, it would have been nice if the gameplay was as creative as the visuals that support it. While there's generally no large problems with the gameplay (besides some weapon issues, which I'm getting to), it (in contrast to the rest of the game) isn't much different from other third person shooters you may have played.
Another problem is the weaponry. While it's nice to see an arsenal of weapons (which are actually an arrangement of dangerous toys, interestingly enough) that doesn't just consist of the same old guns and chainsaws, the way they work in-game could have been a lot better. The deck of cards burns through your energy bar, yet does very little damage at all, making it less desirable than your first weapon, the knife, which can be thrown (albiet at a slower speed) at no cost of your energy bar, and does much more damage. The weapons you receive past that point don't have any extremely large problems, although once you acquire better weapons they become dramatically less used, and it could have been a good idea to add in additional things to make each weapon more useful in certain situations, instead of just pulling out your most powerful weapon and using that 90% of the level.
However, this seems to be fairly obvious in many games, and isn't really something you'd think about during the game as a design flaw.
And so, in conclusion, I'd like to add that this may not be your thing if you like games that have unique and inventive gameplay, because Alice's gameplay isn't like that. It's essentially a generic third person shooter (with some good puzzle solving thrown in for variety) dressed up in pretty visuals, and sports a great soundtrack. However, if you enjoy games with interesting enviroments, that maybe take a little emphasis off pure gameplay and focus on style as well, then you'll have a very good time with this game.