I picked up Alice Madness Returns from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Firstly can I just say to EA, THQ, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, everyone... This is how you fucking  
incentivise people to buy your game new! For those not in the know if you buy Madness Returns new you get a code to download American McGee's Alice, gratis. My hat goes off to whoever at EA or Spicy Horse thought this up cause I think this is a perfect solution to the "how do we get people to buy our game new without castrating them in the process?" question. I mean think about it. What if Warner Bro's, rather than having an online code for Mortal Kombat, had included a voucher in new versions of the game to download MK Trilogy? Or what if Battlefield 3 has a code for a port of Battlefield 1942? Honestly you'd encourage people to buy the game new without pissing off those who can't afford too. Bravo EA! How often can you say that?!
 
Anyway American McGee's Alice (Alice from now on)... I fucking love this thing. It's incredibly good. And I don't mean good in the traditional sense that say Portal 2 is good (See  Ramblings 8: Portal 2 & what makes a perfect game....) in fact a lot of this game is down right broken. They built a platformer on the Quake III engine. There's a perfectly rational sentence. A platformer. On THE QUAKE THREE ENGINE... and it shows. 
 
The camera makes no sense kind of disassociating itself from the game in general almost as if it feels like the artistic nature of the title should be taken to extremes by concentrating on close ups of this wall or that tree or the underside of this lily pad. Honestly the camera has killed me more times than any enemy in this game. Speaking of enemies the hit detection is literally, without using hyperbole; non-existent. Non-existent that is until the enemy dies. You'll be hitting a Card Guard with your knife or playing cards and you won't have any clue you're being successful until he splits in two in a fountain of blood. Also the game stutters like a tasteless joke about Michael J Fox and it's crashed on me more than once. Twice meaning I restarted the game. 
 
No, Alice is not perfect. 
 
What she is is gorgeous. This game's art is amazing. The aforementioned enemies ooze personality, they are as inventive as solider ants in colonial era military dress to giant farting mushrooms (that sounds kinda lame written down but trust me it's menacing). The detail on the main characters; Rabbit's suit, the occult symbols on Alice's apron, Cheshire Cat's earring, everything just feels lovingly detailed and crafted making the game a joy to observe.  This detail goes to Alice's weapons too. Her knife, playing cards, flamingo club et al. All lovingly detailed and beautiful to behold amidst the gore.
 
The level design is also prime. This is something that dawned on me when playing Perfect Dark, that in previous generations level design was so much more inventive. This was probably down to the limitations but if we look at The Fortress of Doors level in Alice it has a kind of symmetry, a sense of place that is really hard to explain objectively you just kind of have to feel it. They feel so confined yet huge. For example in the  Fortress of Doors, which floats in space, in several room the floor falls away to reveal an animated abyss. It's not really an abyss it's just a picture but the effect is perfect it says: this area is huge, without it being huge. For me that makes the game more magical like it's an optical illusion. Today they'd just make it huge. 
 
The Audio is beautiful too. Cheshire cat has an incredibly creepy English accent yet also exudes a sense of wisdom and authority, and reliability. He comes across as omnipotent. Alice is a little flat to be honest but then she is unhinged and her dialogue is genuinely creepy, almost as much as Cheshire Cat but Alice seems more coy about the whole thing. The only character I'm not hot on voice wise so far has been The Mock Turtle. He seems just kinda... there.  The mournful, beautiful, haunting music however is also thankfully there and it's divine to listen to. The chime bell in the opening level of The Fortress of Doors is a highlight. Some of these pieces could turn up on a My Dying Bride album without any problems. Except for copyright of course. 
  
I'm yet to finish Alice. I reckon I'm about half way through, maybe less. I want to complete it before I plough on with Madness Returns. This game has enchanted me. After all it's faults and discrepancies I love this game. The story, art, music, the sheer warped twisted horrific beauty of this game makes it possibly one of the best games I've played this year. Certainly one of the most imaginative. I've often held that game play isn't the be all and end all with games and a game can overcome weaknesses in the playing if it has the imagination to capture me. American McGee's Alice may be the finest example of such a game.