Alice: Madness Returns

As many iterations and spinoffs that were made from the delightfully bizarre world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, American McGee’s Alice was truly unique at the time. Though the gameplay consisted of little more than awkward platforming, the gothic turn in the art style breathed new life in the notion of video games being art, and brought forth a new age of delightfully darker versions of Wonderland. And now, with Alice: Madness Returns, it brings back that artistic charm of the original, and makes some heavy upgrades to the gameplay as well.

Though the story of Madness Returns plays directly after the original game, you needn’t worry if you didn’t play the original (though it comes with it for free in new copies of the game). Ultimately, Alice Liddell is still on a downward spiral to reality-escaping insanity, with only her desire to find out the truth about the fire that killed her family to distract her from completely turning to Wonderland. It’s a fascinating (albeit disconcerting) tale that makes following Alice’s mind entertaining throughout, with plenty of great dialogue and good voice work as well.

But while the story itself is intriguing, what makes this lengthy adventure consistently engaging are the aesthetics of the distraught Wonderland. Whether it’s the industrialized version of the Mad Hatter’s turf, an oriental zone with giant kanji text in the sky, or a truly terrifying version of the Queen of Hearts’ castle, all the style put into this imaginative den of insanity is all wonderful stuff. Even the segments when Alice returns to “reality” in the distraught London, the detail is outstanding. The only blemish are the occasional muddy textures and Unreal engine pop-in in the areas, but just the incredible amount of detail to Alice’s hair, animations, and dresses, make up for it. All of which is topped off with a soundtrack that, though not memorable in any way, adds to the disturbing scenery like a glove.

The presentation is fantastic, but at the end of the day, this is a video game that needs to have legitimate gameplay to back it all up. And thankfully, the best that could be said about actually playing the game is that it’s never flawed enough to detract from the experience. It’s as cut-and-dry of a platformer that you’ll find these days, but it’s also a good one. Unlike other games in the genre that tend to frustrate through needless collectibles, generic combat, and vague objectives, Madness Returns somehow made it all work. The objectives never cause fifteen minutes stretches of “what do I do know?,” the camera might not be perfect but never caused me any cheap deaths, and picking out Ms. Liddell’s weaponry and customizing them is flawlessly designed. In fact, it actually helps make the occasional combat very fluid and never a button mashing fest. The great amount of invisible walls and feeling that the levels drag on too long prevent the gameplay from being truly great. But not to the point of being mediocre, which for this kind of game is a godsend.

About three-fourths of the way through the game, I found a rather interesting graphical reference to the main character of the game Psychonauts. On the outset it seemed like an odd cameo, since this game wasn’t developed by Double Fine, but by Spicy Horse. But for me, it immediately felt like a nice touch. Like Psychonauts, Alice: Madness Returns is a game that might not redefine the platformer. But everything else about the game, from the fantastically dark and bizarre art style, to the engagingly bizarre storyline, is brilliant. And if you do find yourself wanting such a game, then you should absolutely take a trip to this beautiful, blood-drenched Wonderland.