Combat in American McGee's Alice is monotonous, but superb music and an interesting, dark tale will keep you around.
- An interesting twist to 'Alice in Wonderland' with a creepy, dark setting
- The environments look great and well varied
- Combat is decent fun after learning the curve and there is a decent variety of weapons
- The soundtrack fits perfectly
Negative
- Combat lacks depth and is a bit frustrating
- The loose platforming can be a nightmare
American McGee's Alice is the 'Alice in Wonderland' of your nightmares. This is a twisted alternative universe of the famous novel, starring an insane, dark Alice and a dark and corrupted Wonderland. It is a decade year old game, but there are parts where the game remained enjoyable and worth playing even after such a long time.
After the tragedy where her family was killed where an accidental fire burnt their house, leaving Alice as the only survivor, mentally unstable and lost touch with reality. Her only companion (and friend), a stuff rabbit was the only thing accompanying her to Rutledge Asylum after a time skip. But that part is unimportant. Alice is taken to Wonderland again, where due to her broken mind, the once beautiful Wonderland is now a twisted reality ruled with an iron fist by the Queen of Hearts. Now Alice has to save Wonderland from the evil ruler as she meets some old, disfigured friends along the way to help her in her quest.
The story is quite good, but it is the setting that is most striking. The earliest environments are quite intriguing and the maze-like levels allow for some exploration. The levels are vast and open-ended, but there is still only one way to progress. Most of the time you'll find yourself lost on where you need to go, or what you should do. More than anything in this section, some characters are quite interesting. Take Alice for example, she is unlike the beautiful thick blonde haired, blue eyed beautiful young girl you have seen in Disney's animated version of Alice in Wonderland, but American McGee's gives us a slightly older, dark-brown hair, mentally tortured and tormented Alice who is feeling terribly guilty for being the only survivor of the incident. All the characters take a twisted form in this game, even the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat, who appears as a mysterious hinter and always by Alice's side who appears with the press of the C key, giving wise comments along the game and his voice is pitch perfect for the game.
American McGee's Alice is a third-person action game released only for the PC in 2000, but it is available for the PS3 and 360 now as well. The major area where the game suffers is the gameplay. It is a straightforward find enemy; hit him until he dies thing or just run away. It's not a very good system but there are some goods to it. There is a great amount of different weapons; a deadly vorpal blade, playing cards, a jack-in-the-box that shoots flames, an Ice Wand, and there are dice that summon demons, alongside some more which you'll obtain. Each weapon has a primary and secondary attack. For example the vorpal blade's left mouse button attack allows you to slash the enemy in front of you while the right mouse button lets you throw the blade. The Ice Wand's LMB sprays ice which freezes the enemies while the RMB creates a protective wall of ice. The weapons are well varied giving diversity to combat, but not enough. The combat is still straightforward and lacks any form of strategy. You have a health meter (red on the left) and magic meters (blue on the right). Simple enough getting hit by enemies' decreases the red meter and using some weapons which mostly are the RMB attacks decreases the blue meter. If the blue meter is depleted, Alice reverts to the vorpal blade, until the meter slowly replenishes to an extent where you can use another weapon or collecting a small red heart from defeated enemies which also replenishes your health.
But wait there is more than the combat, and thank god there is. The exploration plays a large part of the game since there is a lot, but a bigger part is the platforming. The platforming can be a section of a dream or of a nightmare, depending on your patience. It is loose and Alice's jumps are unpredictable leading to a lot of frustration and loading back. Alice can jump a longer than expected distance but the landing is a bit tricky. She can move in mid-air, allowing her to nail her landing but it's still difficult. Some of the tougher platforming areas are a bit difficult which end up slowing the pace a bit, but it's no big issue once you nail it. The save-whenever-you-want system helps make the platforming much more forgivable since you can save before a suicidal jump and load quickly to retry the game. And there will be a lot of loading and saving in the game, a lot. If you get killed or die you have to reload your last save spot, and unless you save often you'll be forced to repeat some section you'd rather not. Entering new sections automatically saves the game but you should do that yourself.
Aside from the combat, exploring and platforming, there are some very little, poorly varied puzzles. On occasion you need to pull three levers in the correct order to open a new path and on another occasion you need to explore aimlessly and find a lever to open a door. The puzzles are basic and are simply fetch quests that aren't much fun. There are also some scary looking bosses to fight, which are usually bigger than our little Alice. These bosses look good, but are quite cheap. Their health bar does not appear so you have to pound it until it drops dead. Usually the bosses have a particular weakness, like the second boss where it exposes its weakness occasionally after continuously chasing you. The bosses are tough and you will die a lot, but due to the save system the game lets you experiment with them to find out their weaknesses to win. For a PC game, this game controls as it should. The movement keys are the W,A,S,D keys and the camera is controlled with the mouse. It works well, even though you have to constantly keep it in check. Alice's movements are creepy especially when moving sideways but that's not an issue. A small issue arises when fighting bosses. Most of the time you're running backwards facing them and the camera is not perfect for that sort of thing. Anyways the controls are precise, so you can nail the platforming even if it's a bit cumbersome and irritating.
Since it's an old game, the graphics didn't really matter when I picked the game up. Although, it is does look pretty on some occasion and plain ugly on some. The indoor environments like corridors, indoor courtyards and rooms look good and well varied. The outside, nah not so much. The seemingly open-ended swamp like stage in the early parts of the game looks awful. Alice's design is ok and most of the characters are difficult to comment about; they are purposely disfigured to give the game that special unique touch and if that is intentional, it works. The world of chaotic Wonderland works well, and the level design is quite good overall. There are some exploration restrictions mainly outside, where you are not allowed to go to a seemingly accessibly area resulting in spares invisible walls. For its time, the graphics are great. Most of the story is told through voiced cutscenes with scrolling dialogue. There are no voiceless cutscenes luckily. The voice acting is good, but it's that British accent that stands out most, especially Alice's since she speaks the most. It's good, but I personally don't like that accent. On the other hand Cheshire Cat's voice is amazing and I love him as his presence in the game darkens and gives a mysterious feel to the game. The sound effects are nothing though consisting of Alice screaming to their doom or her get hurt, but the soundtrack is phenomenal for the game. I simply adore the soundtrack, perfectly creating a tense and dark atmosphere. The ambient music fits perfectly.
American McGee's Alice is a flawed yet very entertaining game that despite its age is very, very inspiring so don't let it up if you get the chance to play just because it's old. The sequel is here and if you want to drive into an older version of the twisted Wonderland, this is your chance. The graphics hold up despite some drab design, and the music is terrific without complains and even if the gameplay is a bit lousy at first but it may eventually grow on you if you stick long enough. Anyone looking for an older game but can be run on the old machine should give this twisted version of 'Alice in Wonderland' a try.
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Graphics = N/A
Games have evolved, especially in terms of graphics so I can't be a judge. Although some environments look great and it's apparent that some look better than others. Character models look quite good, but the bosses' great, despite their relative ugliness.
Sound = 9.3
Voice acting isn't the best I heard in a while, but it fits the game's theme. On the other hand, the soundtrack is fantastic. I love that eerie sound.
Presentation = 8.4
The menu interaction is a bit slow. That is really evident when you constantly save and load, and it's slow. The cutscenes are well presented and all of the game is voiced. Camera and controls are precise.
Gameplay = 7.9
This is a straightforward, depth-lacking third-person action game that disappoints in action. The combat is a bit lame even though you have a lot of unique weapons at your disposal. The enemy AI isn't anything to write home about. The platforming; you'll either like it or hate it. And there is a lot of it.
Story = 8.1
The twisted version of 'Alice in Wonderland' is a memorable place and there are some really interesting characters. It could have focused more on the original target rather than beating around the bush with some sections.
OVERALL = 82 / 100
Combat in American McGee's Alice is monotonous, but superb music and an interesting, dark tale will keep you around.