Alice: Madness Returns

With our first game review comes the introduction to our game scoring system. Overall we judge games based on their gameplay, storyline, and graphics which we will rate on a scale of 1-10. Then we will give the overall game a 1-10 rating to follow-up.

"Alice: Madness Returns" is the popular sequel to the game "American McGee's Alice". Upon it's release it received mixed reviews, but became increasingly popular and broadened it's already great fan-base. It features a 19 year old Alice Liddell, who is still suffering from dellusions and hallucinations after her release from Rutledge Asylum. After being greeted by Nurse Witless, whom cared for her at Rutledge, Alice is sent back into a seemingly familiar Wonderland. Once within Wonderland she enters the Vale of Tears, only to find Wonderland in shambles. Throughout the game Alice struggles to collect her memories of the horrific fire that killed her family, and to save her Wonderland from the Infernal Train.

The game consists of five chapters, and a final sixth chapter in which you face the final boss. Throughout the game you interact with many not-so-farmiliar 'Alice in Wonderland' characters, who have been changed by Wonderland, such as the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Dormouse, and March Hare.

As far as gameplay goes, Alice: Madness Returns is very simple, consistent, and repetitive. There are various mini-game puzzles, where you must collect blocks and reassemble the pictures they depict, play Wonderland chess in the Queen of Hearts domain, roll a dolls head through a series of almost pinball-like rooms, sail a ship through the Deluded Depths, or even playing through "Radula Rooms" in which you can extend your health line of "Roses" by finishing the trials of "Surviving the Passage of Time" "Kill or be killed" or answering one of Cheshire Cats "Riddle Rooms".

Enemies can be scary at first, but once you find their weakspot and upgrade your weaponry they present almost no challenges, especially if your first playthrough is on easy. Collecting teeth to upgrade your weapons is quick, and once you've upgraded everything to the max teeth lose their purpose (unless you download the DLC dress pack).

But despite all it's simplicity, Alice: Madness Returns is an unbelievably beautiful game. The graphics, although macabre, have a timeless feel to them. The Vale of Tears (for a time) is the Wonderland we all dream of, a lush, beautiful, and strange place filled with waterfalls and strange creatures. The Deluded Depths are dark and elaborate underwater towns, graveyards, and caverns. I could spend all day blabbing on about how amazing it is, and thank the awesome designers at Spicy Horse, or you could just go see for yourself.


Alice: Madness Returns is a mixture of simplicity, artistic beauty, and a bit of real madness.

Gameplay: 7/10
Storyline: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10

In the end after much debate we've decided to score Alice with a 7.5/10 overall. You can purchase the game and it's prequel, on the xbox live marketplace. Try it out, it's full of dress-up, tea party, and pepper-grinding fun.
Happy Gaming!