"An inspired look at a classic fairy tale, with some modern "dark humor" thrown in. It's not for kids, though that's half the point."

---from the review

-----------------

Sidebar :

-----------------

"Most Overrated Game"...? Well, not the "most," to be sure, though some big name game review sources call this one of the more overrated games in history. To me, that's a bit harsh. Among all the shoot everything moving snoozers, this was a really macabre vision, not unlike what Tim Burton would do to the Alice in Wonderland tale, if given the chance. It also had intriguing characters, not the typical demon cliché. Speaking of clichés,  it did have a lave level (ugh), though even that was unique, in a way. I liked the game, let's put it that way.

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

American McGee's Alice

Click Picture To Order This Game (PC Version)

 Macintosh Version Available! Click Here To Order.

A Techtite Review

This is one of the games that I most anticipated this holiday season, because of a lot of promise. For one, there's American McGee, who helped make some of the best works of ID Software (Doom, Quake, and so on). He left ID to make games which will go in a new, different direction, and this one definitely qualifies! While recent ID action games have relied on less and less story and/or puzzles, American McGee's Alice would do exactly the opposite, with an evolving story, intriguing puzzles, and far more to do than just your typical "shoot everything moving" action game. The final result, just in time for the holiday gift season, was definitely worth the wait.

The storyline is best explained in the full screen video intro. Think of it as sort of a "Tim Burton" type of spin of the classic Alice/Wonderland tale. Alice barely survives a house fire, which kills her parents. Stuck in an asylum for years, a nurse finally decides to put her old, stuffed white rabbit by her side, to see if it sparks any response. Alice turns to the stuffed toy, which suddenly comes to life, saying, "Save us, Alice!" It seems that Alice was not the only one affected by the fire; Wonderland has been changed as well. It's up to her to revisit Wonderland, and put right what has gone terribly wrong.

This "new" Wonderland has been plagued with despair, not unlike Alice herself. Where a statue of Alice once stood, there's a pool created by the statue's tears; in another land, everything is in mere black and white, with Alice as the only sign of color. Each of these lands are brilliantly created, with some strikingly impressive textures, animate foreground objects, and background effects. You'll be playing the game all day and night, if only to visit more and more of this strange, new Wonderland, and fight the forces of a now very evil Queen of Hearts!

While game play is typical of the third-person action genre, there are some truly unique enhancements as well. For one, most weapons are unique concepts of toys-gone-bad! A jack in the box, for example, is now a "Jack Bomb." The croquet mallet is now an instrument of electric evil, as either a short-range club, or as a way to hit long-range targets with deadly, electric croquet balls! My favorite, however, would have to be the Jacks, which when seen for the first time, will never leave you with the same feeling of that children's game ever again. Some weapons are not as inspired as others (I found the playing cards don't help Alice much in battle at all), though the other weaponry makes for a very unique action game, indeed!

Game levels are equally inspired. To make things even more intriguing; even the backgrounds are fully animated! I don't know how they managed it, though instead of the typical, static, out-of-focus backdrops of skylines and what-not, looking to the distance shows animation galore! In a level of clocks and gears, the background shows giant, flying pocket watches, spinning, twirling, and whizzing past in the distance! This makes for an even more eerie effect, when you find yourself on a gigantic version of the Mat Hatter's Tea Party table (shown here). In another level of doors galore, a giant door whizzes into view, opens, engulfs the scene, then goes off into the distance again. I don't think I've ever seen such excellent care to backgrounds, as well as foregrounds, in any other action game this year. As the storybooks might put it, "Curiouser and curiouser!"

Such inspired areas lead to some amusing puzzles. In the black-and-white land of chess pieces, for example, you must solve some movement puzzles, using some of the more restricted playing pieces of a chess board (the knight in particular!). After using the "drink me" potion to become small, a bunch of evil Ladybugs throw a giant marble down the hole after you, creating a truly ingenious spin on the classic boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Of course, the toughest puzzles are the standard "boss" characters, where you must discover the best way to defeat a now-evil Tweedle Dee and Dum, as well as a far more insane Mad Hatter! Helping you along the way is the Cheshire Cat, whose advice is available by pressing "C," though always speaks in riddles!

The biggest flaw with this game --if it's fair to call it that-- is that it's definitely not for kids. If you're the type of person who was put off by the dark vision of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, this game makes that film look like a walk in the park. Make Alice do the wrong thing, and it's "off with her head"...literally. Enemies include ladybugs with rather annoying, explosive acorn bombs. Later in that same level, bugs carry their own miniature little guns (awww, how cute...<bang>!). However, this type of dark view of a classic children's tale should be right up most mature gamers' alley, when wishing that a classic children's tale of their youth had that little extra "kick" to it. While very foreboding, this is a very inspired spin of the classic story, just the same. I found its spin of the tale very amusing.

It's the little touches that make a game shine, and American McGee's Alice has several of them. I loved the way further exploration leads to the load-screen's Wonderland map filling in, piece by piece. The music is amusingly childlike, yet darkly played at the same time; perfect for this game in every way. The voice acting is superb, right down to the Cheshire Cat (who sounds like a feline Jeremy Irons) and Alice herself. There's even an asylum "casebook" of Alice's years in the Asylum, that comes free in the game box, and can help people understand more of what they'll be seeing in early levels. This all leads to a very quick --though quite victorious-- animated finale. After all, Alice has flipped her wheels, and the point is to help her regain them. However, if a sequel needs her to go off her rocker again, I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed...

---Techtite