Game Review – American McGee’s Alice

“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“Alice In Wonderland” is a classic story by Lewis Carroll regarding the adventures of a young girl named Alice in a magical land known as “Wonderland”. Since it’s creation, it’s had it’s fair share of success in many different entertainment forms. One of these forms is my personal favorite: video games! In 2000, Rogue Entertainment developed a game called “American McGee’s Alice” (published by EA). It was deemed a psychological horror game set in a third person, action adventure style.

Wait, what?!

Psychological horror?! Alice In Wonderland? I mean, the story was weird and some of the characters are borderline creepy like Cheshire Cat but..psychological horror? Surely, they can’t be seri-

…Oh

Well then, let’s take a look at the plot, style, and game-play of this game and see if it stood the test of time. This is “American McGee’s Alice”.

Plot:
Now mind you, I always try to understand the plot on my own merit. I don’t care for games that force me to do research in order to understand what’s going on. AMA, seemingly, takes place after the events of Alice’s first trip to Wonderland. A fire breaks out in Alice’s home that causes the death of her parents. This leads to Alice becoming an orphan and having mental breakdowns recalling the events. This causes her to end up in the asylum where White Rabbit appears to her and claims she needs to return to Wonderland to save it. The game starts you off directly in Wonderland. You learn quickly that the once beautiful Wonderland is now a macabre, barren, bloodbath of a land. Cheshire Cat appears and briefs you in on the situation while also acting as the games tutorial/narrator. To make a rather lengthy story short, it turns out the Red Queen (OFF WITH THEIR HEAD) has caused the problems in Wonderland and is looking to either conquer it completely or destroy it (or both). Alice’s adventures will take her through fighting well known characters such as The Duchess, Mad Hatter and even the Jabberwocky (whom for some reason is just called Jabberwock in this game).

Isn’t he cute?!

Trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible, the story is rather charming (in a Gothic, horror, what the f*ck kind of way). It takes a well known tale and adds a devilish spin to it. The game does a great job incorporating all the big names into it, as well as familiar items such as the crane club, the keyholes, and the Vorpal Sword (Note, while the game never officially claims the “knife” is the sword, it’s my belief it was intended). I have very few critiques about the plot. It’s well done, and has that AIW charm of confusion and riddles. It’s enjoyable…even if dated (but we’ll get to that) . Overall, I would rate the plot above average and probably the best aspect of the game. Unfortunately, it means we’re going to have to go down from here. Let’s just hope it’s not to far down the rabbit hole we have to go….

Style:
So when I say style, I should say graphics, sound, environments, etc. However, that would be annoying to type out in every review so style it is. Now, I have to keep in mind that this game was made in 2000 so it’s rough looking especially compared to it’s sequel. With that said, for the time it was made, it looks well done. All the environments resemble and feel like the areas you would expect in Wonderland. The “Fortress of Doors” is filled with…doors. There’s a wonderfully cryptic maze in the garden of the Queen’s Castle. The Mad Hatter’s land takes you through some quirky, clock-like environments that you would imagine him being accustomed to. Overall, it looks great…or it did. If I have to be honest, the games graphics didn’t age the best. It’s quite clear the game is from the past but I can’t really hold too much against it. That would be like yelling at Citizen Kane for not having CGI and Michael Bay explosions.

That would just….be terrible…

While the environments are nice, the sound is a bit repetitive. Some of the music loops and tunes play in several areas. It’s creepy and adds to the tone but hearing it for the 1000th time gets a little “GUUUUUH” after a while again. So..I guess style is actually fine too. It’s outdated and if someone made a game with the graphics now, it would be rubbish. However, for the time, it seems like it would have been really fun to play around with. So, at this moment, not too far down the hole but now we’re in the final area: game-play.

Game-play:
Okay…I’m going to be REAL open-minded about this and say that…FOR THE TIME IT WAS MADE…it was probably solid game-play. However, in the year 2015…it’s…bad. Not unplayable “Lord kill me now” bad but definitely “Holy Hell, this is bullsh*t” bad. To start, Alice’s jump is delayed ever so slightly. It seems fine at first but you’ll realize it will kill you more than you want it to. Considering a large aspect of this game is platforming, you’ll wish for a better jump and quick. The melee attacks in the game are useless in every sense of the word. There’s no lock-on meaning attacks are free range. The enemies don’t really react as they should making it seem like your attacks aren’t even effective. It’s best to stick with the best range weapon you’ll get at the time.

For the love of all that is Holy, get the Jacks

Alice has a health bar and a mana (magic, spirit, fun?) bar which controls magic attacks. Obviously, the more attacks you use, the faster the bar goes down. There’s no way to increase the size of either bar so what you see is what you get. A nice (and weird) aspect is that EVERY enemy drops both health and magic making the game a bit easier and approachable. As long as you can kill an enemy on the screen, you can live for a second longer. It’s weird because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game where EVERY SINGLE ENEMY drops health to recover. You would think it would make the game too easy but it balances out nicely since enemies can drop you fast with certain attacks. Speaking of being attacked, there’s no dodge or block programmed so wildly jumping and running is your only defense. The nice aspect is you can skip battles in many parts of the game without penalty since there’s no experience to be gained but there will be areas where skipping fights is a bad move. Finally, regarding combat, Alice can find weird potions or bugs on the ground that will change her physical form making her more powerful or faster. I can’t really comment too much on these because I rarely used them. However, if you do find one, it’s worth picking it up.

Finally, the god-sent aspect of the game is the save function. In Alice, you can save anywhere and everywhere no matter what’s going on and the game will take you back to that exact spot. This is…the only reason why I continued this game. The game-play can be frustrating as hell but knowing you can save anywhere will make you want to keep trying in steps. Keep in mind, there is an auto-save function but it’s not great so it’s best not to rely on it. Another great aspect is that loading is fast in this game so dying doesn’t feel too overbearing (which is great because you’ll die a lot).

Final Conclusion:
It’s charming in a retro way but you will get frustrated. “American McGee’s Alice” is one of those games I would recommend but only at the risk of knowing it’s age is a huge factor to it. Everything is solid despite the age and the game is very playable. The story will keep you interested and seeing the Gothic versions of your favorite characters is awesome. However, some outdated controls and annoying glitches will haunt your progress and make you wish it was remastered with a tighter feeling. Overall, I had a great time with it and, should you choose to follow the White Rabbit, I think you will too. It’s important to know that buying “Alice Madness Returns” can net you a free copy of the original game (sometimes, not always).

Agree with my review, think I’m just as crazy as the Mad Hatter and it’s off with my head? Well, good news! You have a voice and can share that opinion with me right at the bottom of this article. Until then, I’m Gamers Mentality and this game is over.