Alice: Madness Returns - There's a Hole in My Soul!

Alice: Madness Returns is a highly twisted take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a game not meant for children, unless of course you want to give those kids nightmares. It’s a solid action adventure bolstered by a phenomenal art style that unfortunately misses the must-buy mark due to repetition and frequent bouts of frustration.

Madness Returns takes place immediately after the events of the first game, American McGee’s Alice. Even though she’s discharged from the asylum, Alice is still haunted by the visions of her family that mysteriously burnt to their death. This obviously has manifested itself in rather unpleasant ways and so Alice must reach deep down in her troubled mind to unfudge the situation.

You won't like her when she's angry

Gameplay in Madness Returns largely consists of platforming, combat and minor puzzle solving. Now platforming basically involves jumping from one place to another occasionally aided by certain air vents that propel her higher. You’ll have to pull levers, stand on pressure pads and indulge in a ton of time based jumps, some of which may raise your blood pressure significantly. Unlike her peers (you know Lara Croft, Prince of Persia etc) Alice cannot grab onto ledges so if players misjudge a jump, you’ll have only a few seconds to reach safety using her double or triple jump ability. For ledges that are too far away to scale with even double jumps, Alice can glide all the way there simply by holding down the jump key. Platforming when used sparingly in games is somewhat of a respite from the action but in Madness Returns it does feel a tad overused.

The other facet of gameplay in Alice: Madness Returns is combat that’s as fast as it is brutal. You’ll start the game off with the Vorpal Blade, a sharp knife capable of cutting enemies down swiftly and effectively. As you collect teeth (yes teeth) throughout the game, you’ll be able to upgrade the blade’s power and speed making it a real boon in combat, especially when it comes to fast moving enemies. Besides the blade, you have two ranged weapons, one that fires pepper and the other that unleashes globules of boiling hot tea. Umm yeah.

Free falling

And finally you have a wooden horse, the game’s equivalent of a giant hammer that’s capable of shaking up even the toughest enemies. While combat is satisfying in itself it isn’t as fluid as say the one found in the Devil May Cry  series where players can seamlessly switch between ranged and melee weapons pulling off some insane combos in the process. If anything, the ranged weapons become somewhat of a pain to use simply because the game’s lock on system is a bit broken. It’ll snap to targets you don’t want it to and it won’t automatically target the highest priority making fights that include both ranged and close enemies an utter pain. Unlike most games where you stay locked on to a target for as long as you hold the Focus button, this one makes you press it once to lock on after which you have to press it again to sort of un-lock.