Alice: Madness Returns

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Alice: Madness Returns
Studio China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Spicy Horse
Publisher United StatesUnited States Electronic Arts
Senior Developer American McGee
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 All platforms June 14, 2011 June 16, 2011
North AmericaNorth America
EuropeEurope
platform Windows , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3
Game engine Unreal Engine 3
genre Action-Adventure , Jump 'n' Run
Subject Alice in Wonderland , horror
medium DVD-ROM , Blu-ray , download
language German, English, Spanish, French, Italian
copy protection EACore
Age rating
USK approved from 16
PEGI from 18
information First-time buyers of the Xbox and PS3 version also received an HD version of the predecessor American McGee's Alice for download.

Alice: Madness Returns is a computer game for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that was released on June 14, 2011 in the US, on June 16, 2011 in Europe and on June 17, 2011 in the UK. It is the sequel to the game American McGee's Alice from 2000. The developer is the Chinese studio Spicy Horse, whose founder American McGee created the first title for rights holder EA .

action

Alice: Madness Returns takes place around eleven years after the first part. After Alice was released from the Rutledge Asylum, she now lives in an orphanage in London . Still heavily traumatized by the memories of the death of her parents, she tries with the help of the psychiatrist Dr. Angus Bumby coping with her mental problems. When Alice meets a cat on the street after a therapy session, she follows it and runs into an old nurse from the madhouse named Witless. When Alice tries to extort money from Alice, Alice suddenly gets violent visions and ends up in Wonderland. Here she meets her old friend, the Cheshire Cat , who tells her about the change and destruction of the Wunderland. In five chapters she tries to stop the destruction of the wonderland. For the transitions between the chapters, the game briefly fades into Alice real life. The events there are the triggers for Alice Wonderland visions and lay the thematic basis for the next sections of the game.

Gameplay

The six chapters of the game are many classical Jump 'n' Run shaped elements and struggles. Alice can do different types of jumps and, with the help of her skirt, float over larger abysses. Alice can also shrink and, for example, reach otherwise inaccessible areas through a keyhole. In addition, Alice only receives her shrinkage , which only makes some invisible platforms or solution tips visible.

On the way, the player encounters various opponents, including monstrous modifications of well-known characters from the wonderland. Alice fights them either with her arsenal of two melee and two ranged weapons as well as with special weapons such as a rabbit-shaped bomb or an umbrella.

From time to time the player completes small mini-games that are built into the story, such as puzzles or a 2D platformer in the style of the early Super Mario games.

Another element is collecting various items. With the help of collected teeth, the weapons can be upgraded up to four levels. In addition, the player will find scraps of memory from Alice's deceased parents or people around her, bottles and pig snouts through which Alice gains access to special areas or objects.

development

In a review, McGee criticized EA's marketing strategy, which, in his opinion, made the game appear as a dark horror title due to the published trailers, although this did not correspond to the design concept. Due to the expectations generated from this, the publisher ultimately missed the target group. Originally, the publisher had already asked for a much darker style for the title during development, which McGee successfully resisted.

marketing

In February 2009 EA announced a sequel to American McGee's Alice for PC and consoles, at the time still under the working title The Return of American McGee's Alice . In addition, Electronic Arts joined forces as the owner of the rights with designer American McGee and his Chinese development studio Spicy Horse . It was also announced that the story writer and executive producer of the first part would also be involved in the development. In November of that year, a fan-made trailer was falsely declared genuine by game magazines. At EA's studio presentation on July 20, 2010, further details about the game were shown in the form of screenshots and a first official teaser video. The final title Alice: Madness Returns was also announced. A second teaser was shown during the 2010 Tokyo Game Show , and a third appeared on February 14, 2011 on MSNBC's "in-game" website. On March 4, 2011, the first trailer appeared, showing the game's gameplay and various weapons. On April 20, 2011, Electronic Arts confirmed that Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 users will have access to a re-released HD version of the original American McGee's Alice game via the enclosed download voucher . The final release trailer was released on June 3rd. This showed different opponents, Alice in battle and the Cheshire Cat.

reception

reviews
publication Rating
PS3 Windows Xbox 360
4players 65% 65% 65%
Eurogamer 5/10 5/10 5/10
GameSpot k. A. 7/10 k. A.
GameStar k. A. 71% k. A.
IGN 6.5 / 10 6.5 / 10 6.5 / 10
Meta-ratings
GameRankings 70.90% 74.23% 72.64%
Metacritic 70% 75% 70%

Alice: Madness Returns received moderate to good ratings. While the average of the test ratings according to Metacritic is 70% (PS3, Xbox 360) and 75% (Windows), depending on the version, the game received a rating between 7.9 and 8.3 points for the PS3 and Xbox -360 version, 9.0 out of 10 possible points for the PC version. Gamespot gave the title 7 out of 10 points, IGN US awarded it 6.5 out of 10 points.

Overall, the various critics argued that some of the graphics were no longer up-to-date, that the game sometimes appeared unfinished and was very monotonous. According to the players, however, nothing else was expected and thus it is highly praised among them for its good atmosphere and good story. GameStar gave 71% for fun, praised that it “tells a great story”, but criticized that it was “playfully poor”. The Tagesspiegel assesses that it is “in terms of design… one of the most original things the games industry currently has to offer”. However, the “plot and course of the game” are marred by “undemanding puzzles and monotonous collecting tasks”, which ultimately leads to “boredom” for the player. On the Internet sales platform Steam , the title immediately reached a place in the top ten sales charts.

After working on Alice: Madness Returns, Spicy Horse turned to developing free-to-play online - only games. In a review published in July 2012, studio owner McGee described the concept of console games published on physical media in stores as obsolete to the game magazine Game Informer . If the product cannot convince right away and in a very tight time frame, the financial failure of the game is inevitable, since the developer, unlike online games, can no longer counteract it with improvements before the game disappears from the shelves and thus from the public eye . But he also generally criticized the number-fixated, investor-oriented corporate policy of publishers who determined this market area. At the same time, he stated that EA marketing had got the best out of this “broken system” for the product, but that he and his studio had no interest in doing anything again in this market. With free-to-play, the studio would have already made more revenue than Alice: Madness Returns .

Downloadable content (DLC)

American McGee's Alice

This is a port of the PC game for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation. On April 20, 2011, Electronic Arts confirmed that buyers of these two consoles would get access to a reissued HD version of the original game via "Online Pass", an accompanying download voucher. The title is distributed as a game expansion, is linked to the main program and can be accessed from the Alice: Madness Returns main menu . This is a measure in the context of EA's sales concept Project Ten Dollar against used sales . However, the title is also available as an add-on for the main game via the console operators' online sales platforms.

Insane weapons and costumes

This is another level of upgrade for the weapons available in the game. In the regular game the weapons can be upgraded up to level 3, while this DLC allows this up to level 4. As a result, the weapons cause significantly greater damage. The also included items of clothing for Alice also influence the game values.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Horst: Crazy ingenious: Alice - Madness Returns. GamersGlobal, April 20, 2011, accessed July 14, 2011 .
  2. ↑ americanmcgee.com
  3. ↑ gamona.de
  4. ^ Brian Crecente: The Return of American McGee's Alice Set For PC, Consoles. Kotaku, February 19, 2009, accessed June 21, 2011 .
  5. ↑ American McGee : Return of Alice (Video Madness). November 4, 2009, accessed June 21, 2011 .
  6. ↑ a b Alice: Madness Returns comes in a double pack. Electronic Arts , April 20, 2011, accessed June 28, 2011 .
  7. ^ A b c Paul Kautz: Test (evaluation) to Alice: Madness Returns. 4players.de, June 16, 2011, accessed March 8, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b c Quintin Smith: Test Alice: Madness Returns. Eurogamer.net, June 14, 2011, accessed May 28, 2014 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Peter Eykemans: Alice: Madness Returns Review. IGN US , June 16, 2011, accessed June 21, 2011 .
  10. ↑ a b Kevin VanOrd: Alice: Madness Returns Review. Gamespot, June 14, 2011, accessed August 18, 2016 .
  11. ^ A b Daniel Matschijewsky: Alice: Madness Returns in the test: Is the woman crazy? GameStar , June 17, 2011, accessed June 21, 2011 .
  12. ^ Meta evaluation "Alice: Madness Returns". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed May 28, 2014 .
  13. ^ Meta evaluation "Alice: Madness Returns". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed May 28, 2014 .
  14. ^ Meta evaluation "Alice: Madness Returns". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed May 28, 2014 .
  15. ↑ a b Meta evaluation "Alice: Madness Returns". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed May 28, 2014 .
  16. ↑ a b Meta evaluation "Alice: Madness Returns". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed May 28, 2014 .
  17. ↑ a b Meta evaluation "Alice: Madness Returns". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed May 28, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Alice: Madness Returns for PC. Metacritic , accessed June 21, 2011 .
  19. ↑ Achim Fehrenbach: New Games: A frenzy of shapes and colors. Der Tagesspiegel , June 17, 2011, accessed on June 21, 2011 .
  20. ↑ The-Khoa Nguyen: Duke Nukem Forever dominates the current Steam sales charts. PC Games, June 20, 2011, accessed June 21, 2011 .
  21. ↑ Jim Reilly: American McGee's Free-To-Play Future. In: Game Informer . GameStop , July 16, 2012, accessed July 17, 2012 .
  22. ↑ Daniel Raumer: Electronic Arts - ... fights against used games. In: GameStar . IDG , February 18, 2010, accessed July 11, 2011 .
  23. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski: Alice: Madness Returns' 'Online Pass' grants you Alice 1 (it's $ 10 otherwise). In: Joystiq . AOL , April 20, 2011, accessed July 14, 2011 .
  24. ↑ David Martin: Alice: Madness Returns - "Weapons of Madness and Costumes" -DLC available now. In: Video Games Zone . Computec Media Group , June 17, 2011, accessed July 17, 2012 .