Alice (Mac)

The Queen of Hearts cruelly rules the land, the White Rabbit is tattered, the Cheshire Cat sports a pirate earring and a mangy, emaciated look, and the Mad Hatter is even madder than before. Alice, armed with her characteristic politeness, athletic ability, and a large knife, must venture through this dark Wonderland righting wrongs while thwarting the Queen and her army of playing-card guards.

The game itself uses an over-the-shoulder perspective and has Alice running, jumping, and swinging from ropes like a younger and primmer Lara Croft. Controls are easy to use and aside from difficult jumping puzzles and an odd problem where Alice slides on surfaces, the game is easy to play. Wonderland here is dark, like a Tim Burton film, but still easily recognizable to fans of the classic novel. If anything the game is woefully linear--there's only one path and therefore no need to replay the game after you've finished it. The result is a game that feels more constrained and conservative than its source material should have allowed, but the atmosphere makes for an exciting action-adventure nonetheless. Mature subject matter is strewn throughout, so always remember that this isn't an E-ticket Disney ride. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Gorgeous, wicked graphics
• Excellent use of Carroll's famous characters

• High system requirements
• Very linear

Settings and objects perfectly capture the mood and tone of nightmarish delusion. The characters Alice meets as she proceeds to a final showdown with the Red Queen are very good -- the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, etc. I thought their visual representations were good and creepy, and I thought the voice work was excellent, particularly for Alice and the Cat. Cutscenes are seamless, and the game was very stable. Running on a G4 tower, I had no problems at all. It's easy to change the controls, and you can save any number of games at any time during play.

The story cleverly parallels the literary work, and reading the books (as well as Alice's journal that comes with the game) will add to your enjoyment. There are too many nice touches to list: the music is haunting and gorgeous, the Saved Games screen is captivating, the Load Game graphic is beautiful and changes as you progress, etc. This is fine work by a talented team.

Weapons are well-suited to the theme, if not always terribly exciting. Enemies are varied and interesting, and powerups are plentiful. My only complaint would be with the strict linearity of play. This is the most fun I've had with a new game for a long time.

Caveat: Despite its association with a beloved work of children's literature, this is NOT a game for kids. Themes and visuals are graphic and disturbing.


Plays very well, but reading the books first is a plus   February 20, 2003
D. A. Clancey (Sunnyvale, CA United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I'd say the game was excellent, but if you can read the books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) first because like any sequel, the first two will enhance your enjoyment of the third part. When put into context with the books, this game has a lot of plot and story going on here. I'm someone who really enjoys the plot and the story more than the gaming. It took me about 60 hours to play from start to finish, and has a lot of fun in the process. There are 40 levels, starting with the easy tutor levels to the insanely difficult final battles. I think American McGee did himself proud. I enjoyed the dark twist he put on the Alice tale, given the fact that "looking glass" was much darker than the previous "alice" tale, it seemed to flow very naturally. The music really adds to the effect, creating a very eerie and surreal experience.

However, it is not a child's game - it is very much a mature topic. Essentially (and I'm not giving away anything) Alice is grown up and her parents died in a terrible accident. This, coupled with her memories of wonderland, caused her psyche to break (It was sort of inevitable in my opinion), went insane, and apparently attempted suicide on several occasions. She was in what appears to have been a catatonic state for nearly ten years, while in her mind the battle between Alice and the dark and shattered wonderland rages. Bosses in the game represent facets of Alice?s condition, and as she victors over each, she grows closer to regaining her sanity.

Runs great under Mac OS X.2.4, but keep the pixel depth down to a minimum, or else lower end machines will start to drag in gameplay. I played it on my 700 MHz G3 iBook at 640x480 with 32 bit color and textures and it ran wonderfully. I've also run is on my 500 MHz G4 cube at home at the same setting and it seemed to run great. I imagine more video memory would allow you to up the screen resolution, but I only have 32 meg V-ram on either machine. The quake engine is very stable, there are next to no problems with collision detection, and I only got a full unix kernal lockup once in the 60 hours I was playing it.