American McGee’s revival of the classic tale finds a more world-weary Alice who has lost her parents to a raging house fire. Emerging as the only survivor, she believes the house fire to be her own fault and thus attempts suicide by slashing her wrists. She fails, though enters a coma. While in the coma she is housed in an asylum where she withers away day after day until one fateful evening years later, a white rabbit appears seeking Alice. In need of her aid to fend off the evil Queen of Hearts from her dictatorship of the new and macabre Wonderland, the rabbit insists she return to the fantasy world to right the wrongs that have occured in her absence. Along her way she is aided by a psychotic, grinning Cheshire Cat who is always full of riddles and guidance to help her on her way, but he surely cannot help her regain her innocence or her sanity.
Alice is indeed an FPS, though it involves more puzzler elements and that of an adventure game. You’ll journey through all of the newly demented Wonderland, exploring Alice’s delicate psyche along the way. What once may have seemed pure and innocent has degraded into something nightmarish and painful. Strange asylum inmates are to be met in the libraries, and familiar faces are turned on their heads into terrifying creatures. Alice is never once a calming sort of game, despite the preconceived notions you may have had regarding the classic story. Even the inhabitants of Wonderland, notably the Cheshire Cat, could be construed as individuals from Alice’s real world who break through to her catatonic self.
Everything about the game screamed demented and psychotic to me, and even at a younger age I connected with it on a very personal level. As a connoisseur of the out-of-the-ordinary, I tend to gobble up deranged fairy tales or reworkings. American McGee knew just how to get my attention - one, with the involving gameplay and tweaking of the classic story, and two with an eerie soundtrack that conjures stormy nights in your bedroom with no one around to hear you scream should the Boogeyman come creeping in. If the game seemed only mediocre to you, you must not have fully experienced its soundscapes.
Alice is a game that will remain with me until death, simply because it dared to put an original twist on a story ruined by Disney and other childish media. News of the upcoming sequel (or prequel - we’re
still rather short on information) has thrilled us Alice fans everywhere. Will it land another special place in my heart or will it wind up on the shelf with other lackluster titles? Only time will tell. For now, take great pride in venturing down this rabbit hole.
Highlights:
- Experience a macabre Alice.
- Ghoulish soundtrack gives you chills.
- Exceptionally twisted characters.
- Two words: Cheshire Cat.
American McGee’s Alice
System: Windows, Mac
Developer: Rogue Entertainment
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Find: Goozex
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
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July 24th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Oh - My husband just installed this game and I have yet to try it out! Shame on me! I seriously have to make time for this.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I really, really wanted to hate this game. I was going through an anti-”linear FPS” phase at the time. But this game was so incredibly well-done that it is simply a joy to experience. I may dig it out for nostalgia. Highly recommendable to most of my friends.
July 25th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Great game, shame I never have had time to finish it. I love Alice in Wonderland and I too love reworkings of fairy tales and children stories.