American McGee's Alice is an M-rated PC Game which takes the word "Wonderland" to the extreme-It's M-Rated, which'll probably attract the people who think T-Rated games are the kinds of stuff Kids play, but that's not nessecarily what attracted my sister to this game.
The graphics of Alice are pretty good, unlike the Movie Alice and Wonderland and the satan-spawned Game Boy colour game which uses Primarily light colours, this game uses Dark Colours. In fact, Alice is no longer a blonde, here she has Brown Hair and the Chesire Cat looks alot different than the one we've grown to know and love. Almost all the enemies have been curiously transformed, and that is pretty much one of the elements that makes American McGee's Alice a Horror game.
The controls can be a bit annoying in the beginning, most of the camera is controlled by the Mouse, Quake vets should be comfterable with the controls, but newbies may take some time to catch on. It took my sister an hour and a half to figure out that the blue thing is what you were aiming at, but it only took me about thirty minutes to master the controls. Like alot of 3D games, the camera can tend to be a problem at times, but once you get the hang of controls, it won't become much of a problem unless you find yourselves surrounded in battle
Speaking of Battle, Alice features bloody decapitations, quite unusual for being based off of a KID'S TALE. Sometimes, the battles can be a bit annoying, especially when they put you up against like 10-20 at the same time, or that (restrains self from typing a long list of obsceneties) Jabberwocky, which is probably one of the HARDEST boss battles in Gaming history PERIOD. (How hard you may ask? When compared to Ruby Weapon in Final Fantasy 7, The Jabberwocky makes it look like a Forest Imp! And the same goes for Riku with the Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts) Underwater Combat is also pretty annoying, especially since you almost never have an infinite supply of air and you move incredibly show, but that's before you learn to swim faster and jump out of the water. Swimming is probably one of the most common problems people have with this game.
Alice takes Wonderland to a Darker side, the game starts out with Alice in her bed, and then her house catches Fire, Alice starts to go to her parents, but they tell her to save herself, she manages to run outside, but her parents are killed as her house burns to the ground and she is driven as Mad as the Mad Hatter. When she's just lying there in the Asylum, her doll tells her she must return to Wonderland, which has gone on a very strange transformation due to the Meta-Essence, and, of course, the Queen of Hearts is who you must kill. The storyline moves at a decent pace, but when you try to chase the White Rabbit, you have to go on a huge quest to get a shrinking potion, then a rock blocks the Door the White Rabbit goes through and then you have to go the long way around. It can get annoying at times, and by the time I found the White Rabbit again, I almost completley forgot where we were going.
Overall, American McGee's Alice is indeed a classic for older-gamers and for the kinds of people who think Video games should contain nothing but Blood and Decapitations. You can find it with another Classic, Clive Barker's Undying, in a bloody Wal-Mart for about 10 dollars or just the original game for like 8 elsewhere. American McGee's Alice isn't nessecarily a phenominal game, but it's well worth your time if you think Alice and Wonderland is just for kids. AND if you think WIZARD OF OZ is for kids, then look out, because American McGee will prove you wrong with his Oz game, which may come out later this year. 8.74/10
Pros:
-=Graphics=-
-=Great Concept of making Alice in Wonderland a Horror game=-
-=Some great Voicework=-
-=Great Controls=-
-=Such creative use of Toys
Cons:
-=Controls may be a bit annoying for beginners=-
-=How annoyingly hard the Jabberwocky is=-
-=Camera Control is easy to go crazy or get out of focus=-
-=Battles may be a bit annoying=-
Douglas's game of the week: American McGee's Alice
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