Alice: Madness Returns is a sequel to American MgGee’s Alice, a dark action adventure game from 2000 based upon Alice in Wonderland. It got good reviews, but I have to say that I never got round to playing it as I was only just getting into gaming at the time and I was way too young for it.
There are currently 3 trailers out for Alice 2. Trailer 1 is a short and sweet affair: it opens to a swinging key with a voice counting down from 3, then fades to show a girl, obviously our Alice, sitting in a room that has human arms hanging from the ceiling...well, no one goes to Wonderland looking for subtlety. She’s looking down, and the voice asks her to tell us of Wonderland. The camera zooms to her face, she opens her mouth...and lots of blood and teeth come spilling out. Nice, guys. Well, this is definitely Alice 2, no doubt about that. Not much else to go on in terms of game content, but it was an early teaser, so that’s ok.
Onto trailer 2 then: it shows Alice walking through a town square, then pause to look at a little diorama of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. She sees two ghosts in the glass, turns around, but they’re not there. The diorama then lights on fire (so you know it’s awesome), then tentacles (yes, frickin’ tentacles) come out of the case and drag Alice through the fire and through the back of the diorama case. Now, I dunno about you guys, but I’ve seen the Internet; I see a young girl in a skirt, tentacles and aggressive non-consensual grabbing. This may not be Japan, but the connotations are still funny. Still a good trailer, a little more hinting at the story/enemies, but still too early to make assumptions.
Trailer 3 is a MUCH grander affair. Alice is seen walking through a lovely Wonderland scene, and encounters the Caterpillar (still hasn’t kicked the hooka habit, poor guy needs a good ol’ intervention). The oversized stoned grub then flap some butterfly wings and rears up menacingly, while the scene around Alice burns in a spontaneous volcanic eruption. The scene transitions to the Mad Hatter’s table, where the old crowd are gathered: he then screams “Attack!”, and sics a giant teapot-cyclops-thing on her (genuinely the weirdest thing I have seen in a trailer). Alice then proceeds to stab the attacking table furniture in the eye with a knife – the Vorpal Blade, so I’m told (I’m damn sure that 1) that thing was a sword, fucking anticlimactic, and 2) Alice didn’t have that in the book, but what do I know) – and the trailer fades out with the girl’s face, grinning ear to ear with blood all over her. Ho-lee shit, people.
So far, the trailers don’t say anything about the actual gameplay, but it can be assumed that it will be similar to the original. I didn’t play the original, so that would be a bit lost on me if not for the helpful information on the website for the game, which is linked at the bottom of this entry. The game will boast it says, upgradeable melee weapons including the Vorpal Knife thing; intuitive and rewarding puzzles; and being able to explore Wonderland and meet all the weird and wonderful people therein...and likely beat them with Vorpal sticks.
There are some screenshots out, but no gameplay vids have been released yet, which suggests the game is well into development yet not so far in as to be able to prove anything, but that’s ok. American McGee has a good track record, and the first was supposed to be really good.
The game looks to be attempting to innovate on platform action gaming and good for it. What I’m worried about is this notion of making the Wonderland universe darker. I mean, it was a good idea for a first game, but I do wonder if the sequel is symptomatic of either the renewal of the property by Tim Burton, or this whole idea of making childish things darker so the grow-ups can enjoy it without feeling guilty.
And if it’s that, I say: making something darker does not make it more “mature”, no matter what the ESRB rating says. I mean, have you seen Splatterhouse? If you want to enjoy Wonderland, you are allowed to do it in its original guise as a children’s story. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was about an innocent little girl having a good time meeting strange new people in a weird and wonderful place. Do you really have to add all the blood to make it acceptable for your age group? You see this in several adaptations: when X-Men got the film treatment, they took all the colour out of the costumes, because the grown-up geeks considered themselves too old and respectable for their heroes to wear spandex.
I shouldn’t really throw that at American McGee though, I think he’s definitely trying to do something different artistically; the whole thing about making stuff darker needlessly bugs me.
So, predictions: Alice – Madness Returns looks to be an interesting game that should shift on the shelves, and will likely be great aesthetically. I’m not sure what to expect of the gameplay, as there’s little to go on. My gut instinct would have me think cynically, that it’ll be just another hack n’ slash platformer, but I’d like to hope for enough innovation to make it memorable. The trailers aren’t brilliantly put together, and the third one felt a little disjointed on first viewing, so I’ve not been grabbed as much as I otherwise would have. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, so I’ll keep an eye on it.
Alice - Madness Returns website: http://www.ea.com/alice
American McGee's website: http://www.americanmcgee.com/
The trailers are there. Watch them, make your judgements and please feel free to come back here and tell me what you think. If I'm wrong, tell me why. If you'd like me to look at anything else, please say so.
Alice: Madness Returns and American McGee's Alice are the property of EA and American McGee.
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