Platformer Madness – Alice Returns – in 3D with PhysX

Alice: Madness Returns – Dissecting the Game

Dissecting this game is something that no reviewer should do as you must journey through Alice’s madness to its root to discover the cause and perhaps to find some relief. The game settings are varied enough to retain the player’s interest and the objectives are usually quite clear. And of course, the ever-present arrows pointing you in the right direction when Alice is small usually make going in the right direction easy.

Alternative routes to reach a goal and the ability to complete parts of a level in a different order make it seem much less linear than it is.  However, the developers did nothing to make solving puzzles easy and they even made solving some puzzles optional.  Unfortunately, unrelated puzzles tend to repeat the exact same sequence of moves for solving similar puzzles in level after level.

However, the level design is amazing and it varies from chapter to chapter.  There is a decidedly oriental feel to the level designed by the studio in Japan and the artwork is drastically different than from the rest of the game and the rest of the chapters.  Unfortunately the now cookie-cutter ideas once implemented as original, are then are repeated over-and-over with very slight variations.

The game is quite mature and it requires Alice to smoke using the hookah to proceed.  Artwork is absolutely top notch and the player has time between the battles to admire it.

We also notice that Alice’s necklace is the Omega symbol – the last letter of the Greek alphabet which is commonly used to represent finality. From her smile, it is possible that she is finally on to something.

Alice has a choice of many costumes, from the story costume above to the Silk Maiden spun by the Caterpillar himself ..

… to the Siren and many more.

The dress contributes to and enhances the ambiance and the  constantly changing environments. There is great detail and not a lot of reused set pieces.

The Giant Alice section was unique and broke up the sameness of the hack and slash game.  There is even laugh-out-loud humor with an “invincible” NPC whose spinning staff generated a shower of visually impressive PhysX sparks and caused Alice a lot of trouble and pain all through the level . . . .

. . . concludes with an interesting and humorous twist.

All of the old favorites are back with some twists, including the Walrus with a new appetite and the flamboyant Carpenter.  You will receive many quests from them to put a show together.

Those who were once friends have come apart and need rebuilding like the Hatter who you will need to literally carry you to the next chapter.

And you will find that some are are now waging an insane war against you.

Alice’s 4 major weapons are interesting and a departure from what has been seen many times while still being familiar.  The Vorpal blade is back from the first game and the Hobby Horse fully upgraded as the smashing weapon is great with awesome horse sound effects, defense breaking sounds and it actually feels powerful!  It also has some impressive PhysX effects.  There is a Teapot Cannon for taking on multiple enemies and also a Clockwork Bomb which distracts enemies and can be used to hold down switches while Alice proceeds.

There is also persistent debris.

The motion blur does not detract.

Alice’s health is represented by the Roses in the upper left corner of the screen.  As she takes damage, the roses disappear one-by-one until Alice dies.  On the very last rose Alice may go into a hysteria mode and take no damage for a short period while here mele attacks damage increases.  There are mini-games scattered about the levels that allow you to increase the amount of roses and thus increasing Alice’s health reserve.

For this editor,  Alice: Madness Returns is a spectacular game with great level design and superb artwork that makes you want to see what is around the next corner. It is a worthy successor and continuation of the original game.  The enemies are varied and their multiple attacks are difficult as you need to change weapons quickly and accurately to focus on each enemy’s weakness. Lots of stuff is hidden (like nests that respawn and must be eliminated) and you might find yourself replaying a few bits over again.

If you have a top Nvidia card, SLI or a dedicated PhysX GPU, the PhysX effects are great on high. It is a good looking game that plays well on maximum settings and medium PhysX with a GTX 560 Ti.  As to to controls, the best advice may be to play with an Xbox 360 controller; PC KB+Mouse is rather imprecise and without anytime save it is an exercise in frustration although it certainly can be done.

It might be easier to not use the auto-focus and rather point Alice toward the enemy with the mouse instead.  The primary use for auto-focus appears to be to deflect projectiles from certain enemies back at them using Alice’s umbrella.

This editor really enjoyed the game nearly as much as the original and we hope we don’t have to wait another eleven years to see an expansion or a new Alice game. The level art, music, and voice-acting are excellent. The combat is fun with different enemies requiring enough variations in how you deal with them to keep your Alice on her toes and dodging attacks.. The combat usually slows down very briefly to give you a chance to dodge a strong attack which looks cool as Alice transforms into a cloud of butterflies for the dodging animation.

It helps to collect the memories throughout the game even though they are not absolutely necessary to understanding the story although it makes more sense if you do. Many cut-scenes are done in a 2D storybook style, where the characters are rendered as paper cutouts. It looks very interesting in 3D.

The game setting – Wonderland and Victorian London

The London areas are used as tie-ins to the next Wonderland chapters and are sadly very short.  You may notice that Alice’s Wonderland is often inspired by things Alice sees in London immediately before she enters those areas. For example, you can find a mermaid over a bar in London before you enter the Walrus and the Carpenter’s underwater level.

And now underwater in WonderlandWill Alice ever make sense of it all?

Finally, loading on the PC version is very quick and you are back into the action in no time when you die and respawnning is quick and nearly painless (except for having to replay from the checkpoint).  The game is plenty long enough and many players will feel that they got their money’s worth in a well-executed game of decent length.