The drastically polarised reviews around Alice: Madness Returns seem to be split between new-schoolers who refuse to touch anything without a crosshair, and old-schoolers who aren’t ashamed to show love for a game that hearkens back to a time when gameplay trumped graphics and fun beat framerate. After numerous hours in American McGee’s dark and peculiar re-reinterpretation of Wonderland, these wizened gaming fingertips are happy to type that the latter are indeed right, and madness returns in all its glory in a solid platformer that’s proudly more about art and action than antialiasing.
Eerily simple cut-out cutscenes start and continue a bleak tale of a more mature yet deranged Alice as she battles with memories of her family’s fiery death, drawing her back into a Wonderland like you’ve never imagined. In fact, so beautifully art directed and crafted is this twisted realm of Alice’s own imagination that one could liken it to playable concept art, a staggeringly varied amount of gorgeous locales that whisk you between Steampunk-esque clock towers to enchanted forests, frozen tundras to undersea villages.
Tight scriptwriting is delivered from treasured characters like the familiar Cheshire Cat (still suffering from malnourishment and mange, it seems) as well as new creatures as bizarre as the drunken, belligerent, screenwriting Scottish octopus. A lacklustre plot is saved by clever narrative, and commendable voice work brings each and every wacky Wonderland citizen to life with flair.
Combat is Madness Returns’ strongpoint, and a small but inventive selection of weapons like the Teapot (ostensibly a grenade launcher) and the Pepper Grinder (ostensibly a chaingun) work well alongside the famous Vorpal Blade and make for very satisfying battles. Alice also flitters about with a beautiful dodge move that has her evaporate into a cloud of butterflies, and a quick flick of her umbrella can deflect incoming projectiles; should she not be quick enough to escape the attack of a samurai wasp or slime filled with disembodied doll parts though, she’ll enter a black and white Hysteria god-mode that’s punctuated only with lashes of blood and the screams of unfortunate foes.
The platforming is well designed and relies on good ol’ fashioned player co-ordination to navigate successfully, though I found some areas frustrating and unnecessarily long. Fortunately the jumping and twirling sections are broken up with remarkably creative mini-games, most notably a 2D sidescroller under the sea and a painting that you can jump into and play. There are even riddle and challenge sections hidden away with rewards for thorough players, and the sheer amount of collectible memories (revealing the back-story) and hidden pig snouts with wings (yes, you read correctly) add to an already lengthy campaign that aforementioned thorough players can expect around 20 hours of madness from.
Technically there are several glitches which let Madness Returns down, the worst culprit being some horribly low-resolution textures which, as if their hideousness isn’t enough, like to pop-in a little too late for comfort and immersion when entering a new area. A rebellious camera also jumps about at inopportune moments, and even the ridiculous number of Alice’s dresses suffer from clipping here and there, but it’s difficult to fault a game for a flimsy engine when so much love and attention have been put into painting such a picturesque world.
Alice: Madness Returns is definitely a welcome return for fans of the franchise and should present a treat for newcomers too, especially those who appreciate a twisted visual style and some “meat ‘n potatoes” platforming action. And, if all this madness isn’t enough, the original Alice game is bundled in for free at a very modest download size of just under a gig, and there’s already free DLC available that grants you a bunch of new dresses and weapon upgrades.
So, as the Cat says, “We’re all mad here”, and you’d be the same for not venturing down this rabbit hole yourself.
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