Alice: Madness Returns

[illdog]

Its not the game i was hoping it was going to be. Thats a fact. But, i am enjoying it non the less.

It feels dated, like if it was released five years ago it would be triple A but there's too much platforming and not enough action. I love a good platform game too but the levels are very long and fairly repetitive and i can see why its getting criticism. It does look a bit ugly as well, that apparent from the start.

It does have a macabre charm though, i like Alice as a character and the characters of Wonderland are frighteningly nuts.

The controls are nice, the fighting is a direct descendant from Zelda's lock on style. You control the camera completely yourself, it doesnt ever adjust for the best angle. You collect a nice array of weapons, Alice's knife is called the Vortal Blade, you get a Pepper Grinder which is like an automatic machine gun, a Hobby Horse which is like a war hammer and an umbrella which is your shield.

As its a platformer there's tons to collect, bottles (?), Pig Snouts which are often hidden so you have to listen out for their grunting and when you see one you have to pepper it to make it sneeze, this reveals a new path or a goodie basket. You collect teeth which are scattered everywhere, this is the games currency which can be spent on upgrading your weapons. And finally there are memories hidden around, i guess to help Alice piece together her broken psyche.

Ive only done the first world and half of the second so i cant judge it fully but ive played enough to get the gist of it. I shall play on, im enjoying it enough to want to.

[illdog]

This game is much bigger than it needs to be. There are only 6 chapters (and i think the 6th is basically the boss fight), im half way through Chapter 4 and ive played for 13 hours. And instead of being impressed by its vastness im a little dissapointed by its repetition.

Its basically platform for a bit which includes jumping around and floating on vents, hitting switches and jumping some more untill you get to a room, the door shuts behind you and fighting multiple enemies ensues. Upon further play the lock-on mechanic (a la Zelda) is a little messy, flicking the right stick switches the enemy you lock on to but it doesnt often switch to the enemy you want to fight, more the smaller enemy just to one side thats causing you no hassle.

Its not to say im not enjoying it, its just not as exciting as it could have been. Chapter 3 started off really well, fast paced with lots of enemies and dramatic music but trialed away and took about 3 hours to finish. Chapter 4 has been the best so far, starts of in the skies walking on playing cards and now im in the castle of the Queen of Hearts. But you cant escape the fact that most of the time your doing the same thing all the time but with different textures.

[Hendo]

Sounds very "buy sub 20 quid" to me.

[hinn888]

Yea likewise, i was really interested till i saw some gameplay, gonna wait it out.

[stoobie]

Same again - I was interested but then I saw a video of the opening level and it looked like it played awful - around the £10 mark and I will give it a try tho

[illdog]

The story is excellent, i wont spoil it but pay attention to it, its getting really good. Im halfway through the 5th Chapter now and tonight is my games night so i intend to turn it on at 5pm and i shall play intill its done. And order a kebab.

[DANGERMAN]

I started this tonight, I'm still in the tutorial section (just got the pepper grinder), but I will say that the game is mental. The bit with the rabbits in the square just before you head to Wonderland

I'm also liking the way Alice's madness has been grounded in reality, and people are taking advantage of her vulnerability, it's a really odd depressing tone to set for a game, properly grim rather than just a bit Tim Burton

[retroed]

Sounds very "buy sub 20 quid" to me.

Yea likewise, i was really interested till i saw some gameplay, gonna wait it out.

Same again - I was interested but then I saw a video of the opening level and it looked like it played awful - around the £10 mark and I will give it a try tho

£10 on Play.com for today only.

[hinn888]

Saw this earlier, had to be just to midnight doesnt it

I'm not sure if someone has got me this for christmas so i guess its best to wait it out.

[HandsomeDead]

So has anyone else played the original that came with it for those that bought it new? I have but I don't know if I'll be playing it again.

I wanted to play it before I started Madness Returns for continuity's sake but it's too awful. For one it's a platformer that uses the Quake III engine which makes for awful, loose and slippery controls and I just can't bear it. And the combat is equally bad. Guys just run at you and you can't block, or dodging is out of the question as they seem to home in on you. I'm surprised anyone put up with it long enough to see whatever interesting things it does, but even for a game that's 10 years old it's really not a well crafted game at all.

So I'll just be skipping it and jumping right into Madness Returns now. I guess playing the first one wouldn't add much, anyway.

[Bob]

I played the first one and it was quite shit. Finished it though thanks to some sort of misguided stubbornness and belief that it was going to have a great story. It didn't. I can't actually remember getting anything from the game at all. Most of the characters carry over into Madness Returns but they do so little in the original game that the gaps are usually filled in the first couple of lines of dialogue with a new character.

I did get a really creepy, awesome bug that wasn't at all awesome at the time when it happened because I had headphones on and was sitting in the dark. I killed something and saved my game, then died (which happened an awful lot) and when I loaded that game up the music would go all crackly then sound like it was screaming at me, sort of like an angrier version of the Evil Dead.

Madness returns is awesome though, one of my favourite games of the year.

[HandsomeDead]

Will probably just go right to Madness Returns then. After I've finished off a few things.

[regemond]

8-year bump.

 

Honestly, I've been so disenchanted with modern gaming recently. I don't want to sound like a hipster, but I just can't find something to entertain me. I've got Red Dead 2 started. I've got Yakuza Zero/Kiwami waiting to be played. ESO is downloaded to the Xbox. Disgaea 5 on Switch. Xenoblade chronicles 2 to finish. Nier: Automota started. None of it is grabbing me. the one titles that have really held my attention recently are Untitled Goose Game, Overcooked and Fortnite.

 

So when I saw this on EA Access and realised I hadn't finished it first time round I thought 'fuck it' and decided to give it a go. I'm absolutely enamoured with it right now. I'm approaching the end of Chapter 3 and even though it's the same thing over and over as mentioned above, it's just a ridiculous amount of fun. There's tons of personality. The characters are nuts. I love how dark it is, and even the weapons - which are based third-person adventure weapons - have been given a twist to fit in with the same world.

 

It's not a great game, and I can see some faults in the gameplay, but I really don't care. I'm enjoying myself. I'm looking forward to the opportunity of carrying on. At the minute, I'm happy.

[Metroid66]

Hit the fifty hour mark on AC shadows so am taking a well earned break from playing an 8 stone girl who kills anything that moves to playing an 8 stone girl who thinks she's killing anything that moves.

 

It's funny reading some of the original posts here from when the game came out, illdog pointing out that the game feels a little archaic, something that might have felt current if released five years earlier, so 2006😀.

 

So it mustn't hold up now then? Or so you'd think.

 

Fact is, games like this buck the trend so hard they just feel like a breath of fresh air. I'm six hours in and really enjoying it. It's not too hard (some rough checkpoints) it's not too serious, it's just wonderful art design, silly characters and stupid weapons. Sometimes, for all the serious platforming of Uncharted, Assassin's creed etc, you just need a good double jump to make you feel good about your gaming.

[Maryokutai]

I revisited this last year as well, didn't quite get through, maybe I'll go back. It 'functions' surprisingly well I think, both platforming and combat are quite enjoyable if nothing particularly special. But it's also very same-y in how it progresses and I'd argue every level/area is about 33% too long for its own good.

 

What is maybe even more apparent today than it was on release though is how UE3 just couldn't handle this game's artistic vision. You can get a sense of what they wanted to portray and how, but it all ends up looking like Gears on a drug trip. It's a shame McGee never got funding for the planned third game, there's a lot you could do with this series and more modern tech.

[Metroid66]

Just got the teapot rocket launcher.

 

Those 3 headed babies are in for it now.

[Metroid66]

Done!

 

You know, if you're looking for a relaxing, pallette cleansing action platformer, look elsewhere.

 

While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, it's clocking at over 17 hours for a play thru on normal. The enemies are tough and their besting is not helped by an almost comically erratic lock on system. 

 

And yet it's a game with a ready surplus of charm, great art direction, fine acting and good performance on pc (with a quick poke under the hood to get the game running at 60fps and 4k.

 

Yeah, really liked it.