Rizzalyn Vales

ALICE MADNESS: RETURNS (A Review) In gaming, people often look at the graphics first before playing a certain game which will give you the feeling of actually being the character you are playing. Alice: Madness Returns will give you the satisfaction of both being the player and being the character through its high definition display and more conventional plat-forming. Alice: Madness Returns is a sequel to American McGee’s Alice in the year 2000. The game was released in the year 2011 in different game platforms such as Play Station 3 (PS3), XBOX 360 and Microsoft Windows. The plot of the game will revolve with Alice Liddell and how will she save the twisted wonderland. She’s suffering from a trauma brought by the fire that killed her family. Just a heads up, it is psychological horror action-adventure game platform which I enjoy playing the most. It is played from a third-person perspective. The one who plays it has total control of the character. The Vorpal blade, as her primary weapon is a decorated kitchen knife which resembles the deadly quality of Alice in that game. There are many quests for you to play in order to get presents like the teeth that can be used as a token to upgrade your weapons. Alice’s lives or health was counted through the rose petals on the upper left of the screen. When it runs out, the player will go back to the most recent checkpoint and start playing again. Also, when Alice runs out of petals, the game introduced Hysteria which can be used for a limited time only. Whenever Alice is in that form, the damage she’ll cause to the opponent was doubled and she’ll become invincible. Again, for a short span of time. Let me just share a story. I was home alone when I first played Alice and it gives me creeps for no apparent reason. Same feels when I played Silent Hill for the first time. the game is smooth and you could go from one stop to another without buffers not unless if your PC is slow. Those weapon she have is a construction of deathly combos like for example, the Hobby Horse can destroy even armoured opponents. Alice’s swift movements are impressive. She can shrink for her to explore the whole place, even the hidden passageway that leads her to unfolding secrets from her past. I love this game personally because it has bits of Lewis Caroll’s vision of Wonderland that has been distorted which made the game more interesting. Throughout the game, your wit and reflexes will be tested by series of riddles and creatures far from mundane. The whole game is an experience of imaginative dream, giving you the glimpse of the fantastical world. Telling us that beauty has its price and beauty has some distortions when you look at the other side of things. Amidst imaginative beauty, secrets are lingering in every corner, every pathways and every door that Alice has to take. Adding to the profound love I’m feeling towards the game is that Alice’s costumes are so cute. It was like she’s cosplaying Japanese Gothic dolls. See it yourself dude. When it comes to music, it’s fine for me. At least it has bed music that gives you the haunting feels when the game has its downtime or should I say when there were no enemies. Nevertheless, it doesn’t make the game less exciting. That just bits of the game’s many elements that will surely make you play it til the end. I won’t spoil it but rest assured that you won’t get up on where you are sitting. I advise that it is best to play it at night. For what reason I don’t know. Maybe less distraction and more concentration. All praise to Spicy Horse, a Shanghai-based independent video game developer started by American McGee, a well-known developer of DOOM II, American McGee’s Alice, Alice: Madness Returns and Quake. If you’re not familiar with the game, here’s the plot: Alice, after being released from a mental institution called Rutledge Asylum, now resides in an orphanage for the mentally traumatized children under Dr. Angus Bumby’s care. Dr. Bumby uses hypnosis to help his child patients to cope up with their pasts. Alice thinks she’s fine but Bumby continues the hypnosis anyway. When Alice was struck by her hallucination, she found herself in Wonderland again. But this time, the wonderland she knows was not the same anymore and it is being ruined by a train that rampages through the whole place. In the long run, she’ll get to discover various Wonderland’s citizen that might help her or might attempt to stop her from knowing the “truth”. One of the best stages I ever encounter was when Alice met the Queen of Hearts which is a resemble of her younger self. Alice already defeated the Queen; that’s what she knows. As the game progresses, she’ll discover that the one who’s taken over the train’s hiding under the name of Doll-maker, its counterpart in London was Dr. Bumby. She’ll retrace the past and finds out who’s really the one responsible for the death of her family. Bumby tries to erase her memories and convinced her that she’ll have no pain after that but when Alice defeats the Doll-maker in Wonderland, she had the will to defeat Bumby in the real world. It will end with a Cheshire Cat’s monologue that the pain is worth fighting for. That is how the game will end. Truly is a masterpiece. I won’t spoil no more but eventually when you get to play it, you’ll realize the feels I had. I can’t really explain why this game got me in the first place but rest assured, you’ll enjoy the whole Wonderland experience.