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American McGee's Alice

223
100
6
2.85
35,991
11,507 (32%)
8-10h
American McGee's Alice
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Reviews

  • ProfJuhProfJuh341,734
    24 Oct 2017 13 Jan 2023
    5 0 3
    American McGee's Alice is a classic.

    Released as a PC exclusive in 2000, the game tells the story of Alice's return to Wonderland at age 18, after her family dies in a fire and she becomes a patient at a mental asylum. The game is very heavy on psichology, with Wonderland being a sort of way for her to cope with her trauma, and may or may not be real. Throughout the game, some characters also bully Alice and prey on the fact that she blames herself for being the only survivor of the fire.

    Graphics:
    Being a game nearing it's twenty years, Alice has it's rough edges here and there. This game comes from an era in which developers were abandoning basic brushes and started using models for most of the scenario, so some areas are very detailed - especially towards the end of the game - while others may look very basic. Character models can also be a sort of mixed bag, with some, like the Jabberwock and the Red Queen, looking much more detailed than Alice herself. It gives off the feeling that the artists got better at their craft towards the end of the project.

    Being a game done in the Quake 3 engine, we also get some treats here and there. Most of the stuff that the player will be seeing up close use that deep texture trick thing which makes the texture look like it's in a super high resolution, so it's quite rare to see a blocky texture anywhere in the game. However, what really pleases the eye in this game is the art itself. It's gorgeous, and the fact that Madness Returns uses pretty much the same art, as the characters look the same as in this game but with higher poly counts, is a testament to it's excellence. The game starts a bit slow, with that Village of the Doomed and Fortress of Doors being a little boring, but soon the player comes to places with gorgeous vistas, such as the checkerboard world of Pale Realm and the oversized jungles in the Vale of Tears, or even the player-dwarfing castles in Queensland. There are also a lot of physics-defying places. Rooms that stretch and contort, or rip apart and start showing the void through the cracks. It's very... interesting.

    Sound:
    The sound and music in this game are fantastic. Voice acting is really well done and still holds up very well. Each character has it's own voice, and you can tell that the direction was very specific and got all the attention it deserved. The cat and Alice get the most praise here. One can tell she's angry, or sad, or annoyed, just by the tone of her voice. Most of the other characters are mainly just sad (allies) or angry (enemies), so not a lot of range there, except for the Jabberwok, which is very creepy, though it's the only enemy that stands out, in my opinion. The audio quality itself is also very good, and there are no sudden cuts or anything like.

    The weapon sounds are all very distinctive, and most of the enemies get their own sounds. They get tiresome at times, though - especially the banshees, which basically fly at you and scream. A little more variation there would've helped, but eh. Some areas also get weird audio cues, like the waterfall at the beginning of the Vale of Tears, which you can't hear at first but when you get closer it's SUPER LOUD. Still, I can recall this happening only two or three times throughout the entire game, so a lot of attention went there too. As for the music, it's right up there with the art. Creepy music box-like tunes mixed with choruses some times. The only issue here is that some levels can get very long and the music may become annoying over time - especially with songs that loop a lot. Once again, though, I can only recall two or three levels that really tested my patience with the music looping a lot, so it's not an issue throughout the whole game.

    Gameplay;
    Here's where the game suffers the most, though one can't really say it's bad. Being a third person shooter, the game might feel weird for those coming straight from Madness Returns. It was also designed to be played on the PC with a mouse, so the aiming feels a bit clunky at times. However, except for the knife and the staff, every weapon has a very forgiving auto aim, which makes up for the weirdness. Running around shooting is not really a problem. I, personally, found that increasing the aiming speed in the options made things even easier.
    Also, there doesn't seem to be a lot of conveyance in the levels, since people seem to get stuck a lot. I beat this game without using walkthroughs when I was 13, though, and never had to look up where to go replaying it again now at age 28. I'd guess people are just used to the conveyance we get nowadays and don't really pay attention at the level design anymore. That's not to say that there aren't confusing areas, but that's kind of the point of the game, being about psychology and all.

    Also, if you've played Quake or Doom, some of the areas might feel very familiar, with American McGee being a former idSoftware alumn and all. More than once I saw something that wouldn't look out of place in Quake, especially at the Mad Hatter's lair. Back to gameplay, it's pretty much non-stop combat, which can become frustrating thanks to the arsenal. The Vorpal Blade makes its first appearance here, but it's a very situational weapon, so it sucks that you have to use it in the first areas of the game. The melee attack doesn't always stun the enemies, so you take a lot of hits. The alt-fire allows you to attack from a distance, but theres a long cooldown time - something like 5 seconds or so, which is an eternity during a firefight. Thankfully, every enemy you kill drops health/mana to make up for any lost health. There's also the deck of cards, which works like a machinegun and alt-fires a shotgun blast, but it's very weak and I found myself avoiding it after the beginning of the game. Most of the other weapons are very situational and require careful planning to use, like the jack-in-a-box (pretty much a mine/grenade type). Others I found to be mostly useless, like the dice, which may or may not spawn an ally to help distract the enemies from you. Being dice, however, sometimes nothing happens. Also, if you use it without any enemies around, the creature that spawns will, instead, attack you, which makes it interesting, I guess. Once you get the staff, in the latter half of the game, though, you probably won't use anything else. The staff requires good tracking, so you can't count on autoaim to help you, but it's so powerful that it's not a problem. It fires a beam that fries everything, and once you stop shooting it also fires a sort of rocket. The alt-fire, though, is a mistery to me. It fires "grenades" up, which fall all around you and kill you. I tried using it a few times, only to end up killing myself. Not sure if I'm doing it wrong or the developers really forgot something there.

    Finally, there's a bit of platforming all around the game. This is rather easy by itself, and made even easier since there's a sort of "auto jump" mechanic which assists the player in jumping around. The game, however, isn't all that easy, so I'd recommend saving a lot, since checkpoints are quite scarce. Saving takes up like 3 seconds, so there's really no reason not to.

    Overall:
    American McGee's Alice is a very interesting game. Though it's a bit dated, it's still quite playable - and thanks to the focus being on the art, quite enjoyable too. It's also still refreshing after all those years, as you get a game that's not about saving the USA or the world or anything. Instead, it's about the struggles of a mental patient having to deal with guilt, et cetera. No replay value here, but the trip is worth it.
    4.5
    Showing all 3 comments.
    HarbringernightBesides some inconsistencies with grammar and spelling I enjoyed the review.
    Posted by Harbringernight on 31 Dec 17 at 22:17
    ProfJuhMy apologies. English isn't my first language, and Windows 10 keeps correcting some of the stuff I type (it changes "an" to "na", for instance). I'll give it another pass and fix whatever I find!
    Posted by ProfJuh on 31 Dec 17 at 22:21
    HarbringernightFor English not being your first language, it is then fantastic. laugh
    Posted by Harbringernight on 01 Jan 18 at 02:35
  • OverkillChaosOverkillChaos885,521
    19 Jan 2014
    10 11 6
    A very weird game, and back in the day this was a violent computer game that few people actually owned. The puzzles in this game can be tough at times, because sometimes you don't even know your in a puzzle, it's almost kind of like Half Life 2 in the puzzle department. I will rate this game on what I have seen so far.

    Graphics
    As for as the graphics we have evolved so much in gaming that giving the audience something from 2001, and using a Xbox 360 controller can be a bit clunky at times.

    Gameplay
    The gameplay is okay but the game is at times supposed to be linear, and you as the player sometimes get lost on what the game is actually trying to tell you. I found myself looking for the next place to go, and kept asking myself "Oh they want me to go their......". Also you have to excuse some of the glitchyness of the game. Also anything that flies is near impossible to kill until you find a better weapon. Sometimes you will hit a switch, and they spawn 2 flying enemies that insta-kill you. If you didn't save then too bad. It's one of those things you won't understand until you see for yourself.

    Music
    Delightfully creepy, and entertaining.

    Story
    The kind of leave you high in dry on why you are there the story becomes more apparent the more you play. But it does not do a very good job on luring the person in during the beginning sequence.

    Graphics: 3/10
    Gameplay: 5/10
    Music: 8/10
    Story: 6.5/10


    OVERALL: 5.6/10
    2.5
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