A wicked wicked twist of alice in wonderland, which is a blast to play.
User Rating: 8.8 | American McGee's Alice PC
American Mcgee's Alice, Is an excellant game. It takes the novel from most peoples childhood, and gives it a severely wicked twist. It makes makes Lewis Carroll (its original author) seem lighter then day. Afterall, the original book itself was actually quite dark. But enough of that, I must get back on subject. When I got the game a few months back, i first wondered about its gameplay. I thought "Can you really do a gothic and dark version of this classic sotry?" But then you have to think Alice in wonderland (and Through the looking glass) always had a darkness to it. But this game was taken to new dark hype, and it is a blast to play. Allright lets get a bit into the story. Alice' house burns down right smack at the start of the game. You see torn pages of the Alice in wonderland book, and you hear screams of Alice' beloved family. You then see our heroine Alice, in an asylum. She apparantly was the only survivor. Since she was reading Alice in wonderland and passed out, she wnet kind of...crazy. She falls asleep at night int he asylum, and has dreams about wonderland. Then boom just like that you're in wonderland. Is this a piece of your insanity, or is it real? Only you can find out. Anyways, like in the classic Alice in wodnerland story, you meet all of its characters but with a dark twist of course. Alice was given a gothic makeover. She now has brown hair, a prissy attitude, and a big treacherous butcher knife you slay wonderlands demons with. Of course you also meet the wickedly genius chashire cat, the psychotic mad hatter (who runs an eerie asylum which you must progress through) the quite jittery white rabbit, and so many more. Everything in the game is fantastic. The blood effect is nicely done, though it could of been bloodier. The monsters you face are odd, but stick close to Alice in wodnerland in its own unique way. The stages are very dark and depressing, and give you a Nightmare Before Christmas vibe. Of course, the game sticks close to both Alice in wonderland, and its sequal through the looking glass. Seeing the chess world, is one of the greatest things in the game to see, as is the Mad Hatters asylum. But enough of that, lets get into the games other features. There are a variety of weapons in the game, such as a bloody butcher knife, a croquet mallet, and the diabolical dice (which summon demons to kill your foes, and possibly you) along with many others. My personal favorite weapon is the ice staff. The monsters come in varieties like the card soldiers which belong to the queen of hearts of course, little morman things which are easy to kill, but get annoying, and killer mushrooms which taunt you with hearts to heal you, but can devour you alive, along with many other oddities. The game is very challenging at times. It is a adventure game with a dark twist, and can throw many puzzles at you at any moment. The puzzles are nicely planned, as is everything else. The graphics may look a bit "playstationesque" for the PC, but in my opinion they look great. The game isn't scary, but it is very fun to play. There is one more thing I'd like to add, before i end this. If you've played the suffering, you'd knwo that you could transform into a ferocious monster. In Alice, you can do that as well. If you reach a certain item, you can transform into a red eyed, monsterous demon. be careful though, because it doesn't last forever. Thats all i have to say about this games details. In conclusion, I reccomend alice, to someone who likes dark plots, or superb adventure games. Maybe even all the Tim Burton heads would get a kick out of this game. Expect more from American Mcgee in the near future. oh and the soundtrack (done by Chris Vrenna of NIN and Tweaker fame) is one of th ebest things about this game. Adds both a fantastic gothic feel to the game, and just makes it plain creepy. Atleast play Alice for its soundtrack..trust me its that good.
