Alice: Madness Returns Review: Don't do down the rabbit hole

Alice Madness Returns is a platformer sequel to American McGee's Alice, continuing that games edgy and dark interpretation of the Wonderland setting. The franchise has a niche but strong following and in a world where good platformers are hard to find there is a lot of expectation on this game.  
 

 
The story of Madness Returns focuses around Alice's continuing quest to discover the truth of the fire that killed her family while Wonderland is suffering destruction at the hands of a demonic train that is travelling through it. Many of the characters from the first game return and the game switches between the creative Wonderland and a stylised version of Victorian London in a dark Wallace and Gromit look. Unfortunately the game makes it as difficult as possible for the story to be coherent or understandable. Dialogue is flowery and meaningless as nothing of consequence is said. Cutscenes resemble concept art and this shows the low budget of the game as it really feels like a cheap and unsatisfying method of ending each chapter of the story.  When Alice emerges back into reality from Wonderland I feel the game captures the dark and cynical spirit its aiming for really well, but this is rare. While the core story is reasonable the way the game tells it is difficult to follow and makes it lack any kind of compelling nature. The characters are all weak and it feels like a story that really does not need to be told.  
 
 
The games visuals are its strongest point. The London sections of the game are dark and really stylised, granting the game a distinct character. The Wonderland portions have a similar look, with exaggerated character models and environments. Each section of Wonderland that you play in has a distinctive design and the game uses a lot of colour to make it more attractive. Parts of the game look like a painting, and Alice's hair looks fantastic in the game. The lighting is also excellent, though I feel that the game never looks as pretty as 2008's Prince of Persia, which is a similar title in some respects.    
 
 
The audio in the game is mixed. The music is great at times, especially the London sections when it helps shape the eerie atmosphere, but is completely forgettable at other times. Voice acting is another major problem. The game is riddled with atrocious accents, mislaid tones and truly terrible and ineffective dialogue. Some may say that its an artistic endeavour that you just "don't get" but this would be bullshit. Its a pretentious script filled with drivel that utterly falls on its face when trying to tell a story and is not fit for purpose.  
 

 
 
The actual gameplay is made up of platforming, fetch quests and combat. The platforming element in the game is rather good, with a slow fall mechanic and the ability to do a quadruple jump to get across very large jump distances. The problem is that the platforming takes up way too much time and has very little content of substance. It all feels fine but there is only so much jumping from platform to platform and hitting switches I can do before I get bored. The combat is surprisingly good, with a good set of weapons that are vicious and gratifying to use and the need for a tactical approach to many of the enemies. There is some exploring to be done  with the ability to shrink Alice down to uncover hidden paths and platforms initially providing a satisfying twist on the linearity of the genre. What detracts from this is the amount of pointless fetch quests and minor puzzles that the game has. The check point system is also brutal and adds a lot of frustration for the player. 
 
 
The game is divided into 5 chapters, each taking around 3 hours. This is the biggest problem in the game: its far too long and its meagre content is spread too thinly. While there are a lot of good concepts at the core of Madness Returns, they fall apart over the ridiculous length of the game and its horrible pacing.   the level design of the game is put to use crafting stages that vastly outstay their welcome. As a result, solid core mechanics are no match for the intense tedium that sets in two-thirds of the way through each stage. The stages get really repetitive as the same tricks show up again and again, and the game commits the cardinal sin of being just plain boring. The game does include a HD version of the original, but you require a code to access it and I did not have it as this was a rental for me. 
 

 
 
Madness Returns is a game that I really wish was better. It has some great ideas and solid gameplay in it with a really interesting art direction, but the flow of the game does nothing to alleviate its monotony or boredom. You are forced to  platform extensively without any feeling of gratification, as finding the hidden items in each level seems to be purely for its own sake. What’s more, each chapter seems to send Alice on an offbeat fetch quest unrelated to anything else, which fails to culminate in any ambitious boss fighting, puzzle solving, or narrative reveals. It feels lazy and is just not fun to play, and its pretentious standing as an arty game would be more accurately portrayed as an inconsequential blip. 
 
 
Pros: 

• Strong concept
• Attractive stylised visual design
• Tactical combat
• Good weapons
• Solid platforming mechanics
• Really good looking hair on the main character
• The London sections are really interesting
• The first game comes on the disc

• Way too long
• Horrible pacing
• Game mechanics get repetitive
• Incomprehensible plot
• Cheap cutscenes that look low quality 
• Awful dialogue
• Item finding is pointless
• Too many fetch quests
• Pretentious arrogant game
• Completely fails to reach its potential
• You need a code to play the first game packaged on the disc

• Teeth are currency in Wonderland 

  
Score: 

• 4/10