Alice Combat Trailer

Ok, the 14th of June release date for Alice: Madness Returns is nearly here, barely more than a fortnight away. I've had my eye on this since the very beginning of this blog, and while I continue to use it as a mild bashing post, I really want to hold out hope for it. I just watched the recent trailer showcasing the combat in more detail. Here it is on The Escapist: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/trailers/3318-Alice-Madness-Returns-Combat

My thoughts? This looks awfully generic in terms of mechanics. You hit them with swift attacks or heavy attacks, use the odd ranged attack, there appears to be form of "rage mode" involved...to be honest, folks, I've seen this too much before. Even the bosses have really obvious weaknesses: hit him while he's doing an attack to stun him and get more hits in? Goodness me, where do they get this from? For a fun example of these sorts of mechanics, see the Lord of the Rings movie games. There were great little hack n' slashers, before we saw too much of this sort of thing.

I have said before that we may have hit a bit of a wall with mechanics design the sense that only serious technological improvement will make more involved and original possible, so that could forgive the slightly boring looking fights...but I think I'll withhold that level of judgement for now.

I will point out that the aesthetic design is still fantastic. I could take any screenshot here and frame it - and I would. The bad guys and environments are gorgeous in their own unique way. Even the interface fits nicely with the rest of the screen, although I'm not sure whether the wrought-iron things at the edges are part of the game or just there for the trailer.

I do want this game to be good, and I don't doubt that Alice will shine as a beacon of great artistic and narrative design...but I want them to surprise me with the gameplay first. Otherwise it's gonna be average at best.

Comments down below :)

Alice: Madness Returns belongs to American McGee and EA. Trailer found on the Escapist.