As a rather large fan of the original American McGee's Alice, I was very happy to hear of its sequel, and moreso that it'd be coming to the PC platform. After many examples of PC games not only shifting their focus to consoles but also neglecting their PC roots entirely, it's good to see that Alice got a proper release on the home computer. It's still a bit console-centric, but for what the game is, that totally works.
Madness Returns is definitely a direct --not spiritual-- sequel to the events of the first game, and you follow Alice's continued spiral into her guilt and confusion-ridden freefall into and out of insanity as she tries to simultaneously forget and piece together the events that truly transpired in the death of her family.
Let's not beat around the bush; the main reason to play this game is the visuals. The art design is top-notch, taking you to majestic and classic Wonderland locales and if not terrifying then at least disturbing and twisted visions of Alice's psyche. Fish brutally fitted to walls with oversized screws, an origami people terrorized and eaten by a race of Samurai wasps, gigantic cards 30,000 feet in the air. This game is jam-packed with absurdities that are a joy to look at, and you'll look forward to each new level, and each new outfit that Alice is fitted into as you enter them.
That isn't to say that Madness Returns has nothing going for it but its visuals. Quite the opposite. At its core, this is an action-platformer title that harkens back to the classic days of platforming with a few modern twists to alleviate frustration. Gone are rage-inducing platforms that are difficult to land due to controls rather than skill. Missing a jump doesn't kill you, it doesn't even harm you. The platforming is there to entertain, not to truly challenge you. Miss a jump and, as in Prince of Persia 2009, you'll warp back to the previous platform you were standing on - and in some cases on the one you were aiming for. The controls are tight (I used a 360 pad, as it is a platformer.) and responsive, and you've got the ability for a triple jump, using a Princess Peach-like float mechanic for each one. This makes platforming, as I said earlier, entertaining rather than challenging.
Where it could possibly get a little frustrating for you is the combat. The combat in general is fine. You'll hack, slash and shoot (With a giant pepper-grinder!) through foes, each with various weaknesses and strengths that demand the use of multiple weapons. Occasionally, though, the lock-on system won't respond as well as you'd like, and it may seem like it will largely ignore your commands to switch targets, or switch to a target of the opposite direction you pressed. Compounded with this is the occasional camera hiccup. I found that when not locked on, I never had any camera issues whatsoever. However, when I used the lock-on function, which is quite useful despite my minor complaints here, I'd often find the camera getting stuck on walls or zooming in far too closely to Alice. On the plus side, however, you cannot walk yourself off of a ledge while locked on, meaning you don't have to fuss too much on smaller platforms where combat is essential.
I played the game on the Nightmare difficulty, which is the highest available in the game. This, as with most games of this genre and indeed games in general, meant that rather than enhanced AI I was typically just greeted with enemies that had higher health bars and that hit significantly harder than normal. A few enemies were even capable of killing Alice in one hit. Now, I love games on hard, so I won't complain about that basic definition of higher difficulty.
The problem came from those aforementioned hindrances that I mentioned earlier in this article. What, when playing on the normal difficulty setting would be minor inconveniences often became the source of my frustration as I was repeatedly killed by mechanics that simply didn't seem to work properly from time to time. When none of these issues cropped up, I was able to do fine and it was all quite satisfying. But it happened often enough that I'd recommend not starting the game on Nightmare until you've familiarized yourself thoroughly with the game's design and are able to cope with these minor issues in a manner that doesn't get you consistently hit -- as dying from losing all of your health results in getting sent back to a previous checkpoint, which can mean a fairly significant amount of game time lost. You won't be restarting from JRPG-levels of lost progress --typically 5-15 minutes-- but dying repeatedly due to the same problems can make these short replays much more frustrating than they should be.
When you look beyond the core design and its few flaws, Alice is a game that can evoke an interesting range of emotions from the player. Time spent outside of Wonderland is set in mid 1800s London, where the Industrial Revolution has begun, and smog darkens the sky. Drunks and prostitutes are everywhere, and the atmosphere is depressing if not oppressive. As I played I began to get the sense that the 'real-world' people we see in London are not shown as they truly are, but as Alice sees them; ugly, deformed, disturbing. I felt that Alice truly despised nearly everything around here and it only strengthened the thought of her need to escape to (and repair) Wonderland. Playing a platforming game, I was surprised that I often felt outright contempt for certain characters and sympathy for others. To give a proper example would be to spoil segments of the game more than I already have. (I consider every new area in the game to be a surprise, so forgive me for describing a few bits in my earlier paragraphs.)
The tale of Alice's return to madness, or rather its return to her is indeed a dark and decidedly grim tale, but in a much more 'real' sense than the first game. Alice's problems go beyond just Wonderland and because of that you become more attached to her and her story as she rediscovers what happened on that terrible night she lost everything. The ending, while a bit abrupt, was something I honestly found miserably sad, cruel, cathartic and empowering all at the same time. If you're going to play Alice, you owe it to yourself to stick it out until the end. This is where I'd speak about the collectibles in the game, but aside from achievements I'm not entirely sure what you can unlock. I collected most of what was there to collect, but the most interesting tidbits were the memories, which gave you bits of back-story right then and there, much like audio-logs in other games.
I feel the need to bring up a point of contention I have with Giant Bomb's official review of this game and indeed Ryan Davis' opinion on the title in general: his notion that every area in the game went on for 45 minutes to an hour too long. This is an important matter because it discusses both the length of the game and potential burn-out. Indeed, the first two areas of the game stretch out for far longer than they should. If they wanted these two stages to be of that length, then they ought to have prepared more art assets, as eventually you're just playing to get to the next area. However, I feel that the following stages all felt to be of appropriate length for my taste, save for perhaps the Mysterious East stage going on for maybe 20 minutes or so too long. Each area of Wonderland is jam-packed with art assets that you will most assuredly spend time ogling, and they rarely stay so long as to allow you to grow bored of them.
Stripping away all commentary about what is there, my main reason for not giving this game an even higher score would be I feel it ends too abruptly and that not enough new areas are presented. Even more time in London would have been great, as you only spend about 30-45 minutes of game time total in this locale, which is fascinating in its own right, as a sharp contrast to Wonderland, no matter which stage you're on. The platforming is entertaining and not very punishing, which I generally see as a good thing. I do love challenging platforming, but it simply would've made this game frustrating. The combat provides the bulk of the challenge and when a few minor quirks aren't messing with you then it's satisfying and often fun and exhilarating, especially on higher difficulties.
All in all, I heartily recommend this game to anyone who, like me, loves platforming and some basic-but-fun platformer-esque combat. There's plenty of secrets to find, and the title is certainly longer than many others released these days, so it retains its value well for a single-player oriented experience. If you're into twisted, inspiring art, then that's an absolutely excellent reason to get this game. I hope this review has been helpful to someone, and please let me know if I have missed anything or slacked at any point! I would like all of my reviews to cover the bases they need to cover while also giving a fairly informed opinion and providing commentary beyond just telling you my likes and dislikes about a title, or simply its mechanical shortcomings or successes.