Alice Madness Returns Review

[Onyx Oblivion]

The story is quite insane
The platforming quite redundant
The hack-n-slashing is mundane
And the collectibles abundant
But all these bits and pieces
When encountered on your quest
Does not make the game feces
On that, I'll place my bet

 

[Steve Butts]

Well, I'm impressed. This kind of cleverness is why I love the Escapist. Did it take you long?

The idea for this percolated over the weekend and came out in fragments here and there. Then it was just about putting the pieces together.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Sounds like an aesthetic that would be right up my alley. Having not played the first game, would I be able to jump right into this one?

I'm wondering about the same thing you are, even though I played the first one, a long time ago.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

This review style was quite new
as it left Dr. wonderful in awe
As he sat and read and read
His additional respect to Steve writing cred
have left a impact in Dr. W Head.

 

[Zero=Interrupt]

This.... is awful. Please translate into the Queen's English.

And I mean the Queen of Canada.

 

[Xenominim]

Clever review but you realize of course people will want more themed reviews now. Don't worry, it's not all bad, when Dead Island comes out you can just type "Braiiiiiiins!" a couple hundred times.

 

[Seieko Pherdo]

Sounds like an aesthetic that would be right up my alley. Having not played the first game, would I be able to jump right into this one?

I'm wondering about the same thing you are, even though I played the first one, a long time ago.

When you buy the game you can get the first one with it, though now that's out you might have to pay 10$ for it but the original PC game can go up to 100$ so I say that's a fair deal. And as to the jumping in to the game, I think yes.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

An impressive review.

The aesthetics are definitely the games strongest point, but I've honestly been enjoying the gameplay more than most reviewers seem to be. It has a few real issues (whoever set the movement speed for the colossal ruin enemies needs to be given a good talking to), but overall I thought it was a pretty enjoyable and well executed platformer. I was somewhat dissapointed by the lack of boss fights, but the bosses in the first game were frequently insanely irritating, so maybe that was a good thing. It's certainly not doing much to push its genre into new territory gameplay-wise, but it does everything competently and the same is true of a lot of games that routinely receive far more positive reviews. I don't know, maybe everyone else has just fallen out of love with 3D platformers (there certainly haven't been that many this generation). I'd probably give it a 6 or 7/10, but that's assuming a balanced review scale where 5 is a thoroughly average game.

Sounds like an aesthetic that would be right up my alley. Having not played the first game, would I be able to jump right into this one?

I'm wondering about the same thing you are, even though I played the first one, a long time ago.

You don't need to have played the first one, but it comes free with a new copy of the console version (I think you need to use EA's store to get it on the PC), so it's pretty easy to do if you want. The second game is much more polished, so I might recommend just watching a LEt's Play of the first if you aren't in to spamming quicksaves.

 

[icame]

How long did this take? It has to of taken at least a day.

OT: I am going to rent this game, as I just want to play it for the visuals and story, and once I have gone through it once there isn't going to be anything to bring me back with the gameplay being average.

 

[RJ Dalton]

How can you have gears turning in lava? wouldn't they just heat up and change shape/melt and completely fuck up the mechanism they're a part of?

You're asking for logic in a game that takes place inside the twisted psyche of a madwoman? Shame on you. Logic defeats the purpose in a game like that.

Personally, I'm kind of disappointed. The idea had so much potential. It should have been fucking incredible. Instead, it's just an average game. Mediocrity is always more disappointing to me than spectacular failure. At least I can get a kick out of failure.

 

[psiho333]

Superb review, bravo !

 

[Gaderael]

Best review I have ever read in my 2 years of reading the Escapist. I think more reviewers need to take a chance like this when reviewing games. Something long the lines of say, when reviewing Battlefield 3, the review is presented as a mission report, or something like that. Or for an alien invasion type game, the reviewer could present it like a reporter on the ground, like War Of The Worlds.

 

[Dastardly]

Alice Madness Returns Review

With apologies to Lewis Carroll.

Read Full Article

Such a missed opportunity... finally, a game with a distinct visual style, and they fumble on the gameplay?

Sure, yeah, everything's gritty and dark now, but I strongly feel that the AG Alice stuff gets grandfathered in on this one. It's more of the earlier Tim Burton vein than the "gritty reboot" lode of today. But, like Tim Burton, they seem to be relying on the mildly-disturbing visuals to carry the whole production... leaving story and gameplay by the way.

Wonderland has always been about mindgames and thwarted expectations, but the game is almost entirely "execution" puzzles: combat and platforming. Where is the "madness" promised in the title (and in the setting itself)? Instead, it's an old-school platformer (complete with Mario 2 (US) princess-floaty-dress mechanics) with an over-equipped heroine.

To my mind, any game meant to include "madness" or "horror" has to play upon nerves and fear. When you're packing an arsenal, and everything is straightforward, what is there to be nervous or fearful about? Simply telling us (or just heavily implying) that Alice is scared and/or crazy doesn't make it so. The gameplay fails to reinforce that tone in any way.

Strip down the weapons. Make fights about survival more than dominance. Make the player feel lucky to have just survived that last encounter, but also nervous about whether they still have enough to make it through the next. Get straight-up Escher on level design. And in the name of all things holy, put some real puzzles in the damned thing.

(Also, I can't help but think, "I nailed your mom's crazy bits." And then I chortle in my joy.)

 

[Unhappy Crow]

I enjoyed this game. It was a smart idea to play the prequel that came with it before playing Madness Returns.

The levels were long and linear, but I enjoyed looking for some of the collectibles and using Shrink Vision when you're small to look at the hidden scribbles (there's an achievement for finding a secret hidden message in one of the chapters and I thought that was cool.) My only problem with the game is that there was only one boss fight (the first game had more than one), glitches I encountered, and getting stuck on walls and stairs in some of chapters.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

With apologies to Lewis Carroll.

You're mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

How can you have gears turning in lava? wouldn't they just heat up and change shape/melt and completely fuck up the mechanism they're a part of?

Depends on what they're made of. Lava--surface lava, anyway--gets up to about 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit. If you make your gears out of, say, tungsten carbide [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbide], you should be fine, as it has a melting point of around 5,200 degrees.

(And yes, I looked all that up. I'm geeky, but not that geeky.)

 

[DarkRyter]

I hope the art director's okay with all their coworkers being kinda lame.

 

[9thRequiem]

Really nicely done review.

Personally, I loved the game. Sure, the gameplay is pretty standard, but the game's aesthetic is simply awe-inspiring.

 

[teebeeohh]

isn't the heart of darkness first a health potion and later a macguffin in the legacy of kain series?
OT: i agree about the visuals, but i was never able to play through a game with mediocre or bad gameplay for the sake visuals, sometimes story but never visuals