American McGee's Alice

aka: Ailisi Mengyou Xianjing
Moby ID: 2703
Windows Specs

Description official descriptions

Shortly after Alice returned from the miraculous trip through the Looking-Glass, her house was burnt down, and her parents died in the fire. Alice was the only survivor of the terrible accident. After repeated attempts at suicide, she gets locked up inside a mental institution and is slowly wasting away there before she is summoned to Wonderland again by the White Rabbit. But this time it's a Wonderland gone seriously bad and gory. The only chance for Alice to restore her peace of mind and find out more about the death of her parents is to fight through Wonderland and free it from the evil powers.

American McGee's Alice is a direct sequel to Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass, itself a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The player controls Alice as she tries to find her way and eventually escape from the demented surroundings of her own fantasy world that she's been thrust into. The surreal environments utilize themes from Lewis Carroll's original books, applying a noticeably darker and more violent edge to them.

The gameplay is third-person action with platforming, shooting, and light puzzle-solving elements. Alice starts with a knife, which can be used as a melee weapon or thrown at enemies. Later she acquires other weapons, such as a staff that shoots bolts of energy, dice that emit deadly gas, a time-stopping watch, and others. Weapons have an alternate fire mode, which usually inflicts more damage but depletes Alice's magical energy. The latter, along with Alice's health, can be restored by collecting the essence of defeated foes.

The game also features platforming sequences, during which Alice has to jump over gaps, avoid obstacles, or climb in order to reach her goal. Puzzle-solving usually involves manipulating the environment rather than using inventory items.

The game was re-released as part of select editions of the 2011 sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, as a downloadable extra. The content is identical, but with widescreen support, updated controller support, compatibility tweaks and higher-resolution textures.

Spellings

  • Америкэн Макги: Алиса - Russian spelling
  • 爱丽丝梦游仙境 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

102 People (90 developers, 12 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 62 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 146 ratings with 11 reviews)

Wonderland gone REALLY bad

The Good
American McGee's Alice is a fascinating game - at least it is for me. But where does this fascination come from?

The first and foremost thing about this game is its atmosphere and style. In my opinion it's sheer genius to expand the nice Alice in Wonderland story into a tale of death and murder, blood and torture, and pure paranoia - a tale for grown-ups. But it is one thing to have a good idea, and something completely different to make a good game of it. But here, the designers did.

The level designs and graphics all resemble the "known" Wonderland, but this time a Wonderland gone really bad. The game throws levels at you that vary from stunning beauty to mind-twisting surreality. This alone kept me playing, just to see what crazy stuff the designers had up their sleeves, yet. And I wasn't disappointed when with the conquering of the heart queen's castle near the end game, another visual blast was waiting. The enemy and weapon design also fit well here, both adding to this wonderful dark and paranoid atmosphere this game delivers.

Speaking of enemies, I really liked my cannon fodder, as no two enemy kinds are the same to kill. There are the lava monsters that are fluid and easy to kill when they come out of their lava pit, but turn to stone and, therefore, get harder to kill by the second. There are those little devils that just take one hit, but come in hordes. There are those fish pests that charge at you while swimming and throw acid and lava when you're standing at the shore. And the list goes on. Every enemy kind is well thought out and has its strengths and weaknesses to be discovered. And when you found out how to kill them more or less easily, they will team up to make your life harder again. The same goes for the boss fights, pure adrenaline.

Speaking of weapons, those all are Alice's toys gone dangerous. There's her cards, her cricket bat, her jack-in-the-box, her dice, and so on. They all kill the enemies in two different modes, can be used short or long range, are toys of single or mass destruction. It's part of the fun to try out all these funny goodies and see what they can do to your opposition. And you should know your weaponry well, as there will be fights that are impossible to win with one weapon, but easy going with another one or a combination of them.

The Bad
Some things hinder this game from becoming a true classic, though.

If you put aside the covers of cool design and style, a linear action platformer is left for you to play. A good one, that is, but somehow the actual gameplay can't really keep up with the presentation. The level designs vary in quality, top notch levels make room for huge mazes with spawning enemies that are an exercise in anger management. Furthermore, the cool background of Alice freeing her own fantasy world of her problems and sense of guilt isn't developed well within the game. Here and in those enemy-ridden mazes you will most painfully notice that the developers of this game have a history of developing 3D shooters.

The controls sometimes annoyed me, especially the jumping didn't work as expected, more than once it wasn't clear to me whether Alice can grab hold of an edge in front of her or not. Falling down into nirvana too often is the result of all this.

Last thing, fighting enemies it's sometimes not obvious whether you're doing damage or not. Especially when battling the centipede boss monster, I spend half an hour throwing everything at him until I finally looked up in a FAQ that there's a special area where he can be hit.

The Bottom Line
I love this game, no doubt about that. But still, I sometimes dream about it done right from start to finish. With a good storyteller to develop Alice's problems, with a huge Wonderland for Alice to roam freely, maybe with an RPG-like experience and questing system. The sky was the limit...

But heck, a sequel is in the making, let's see what they'll do with this legacy.

Windows · by MZ per X (3017) · 2010

Style over substance... but that's not COMPLETELY bad...

The Good
Everyone agrees that this game's LOOK is amazing, and a real winner. It's a fantastic experience just to wander around in, to experience. If every game's world was this... amazing-looking, immersive... well... real life would seem remarkably dull.

The Bad
...but aside from that look, that style, that flash and thunder... everything else about this game is straight out of some other game. Throw-the-lever puzzles, find-the-pixel puzzles, figure-out-the-sequence puzzles, and the ever-popular jumping puzzles. LOTS of jumping puzzles.

Bleh.

And then, once you get past the puzzles, it's fragfest time, as you hack and blast your way through a horde of enemies, culminating in a face-off with a level boss.

...and then you start all over again on the next level, with the last level boss's weapon in your arsenal. Can you say "Mega Man?"

Aside from some very original scripted sequences, it's really more of the same.

The Bottom Line
In many ways, this game could be described as "3-D Goth Super Mario On Serious Drugs."

On the other hand, if you LIKE Mario-style 3-D platformers... well... it's great.

Windows · by Dr.Bedlam (55) · 2002

Would you like some tea with that?

The Good
People who read the stories or saw the movie (which I assume is everybody) know that Wonderland is rich with characters. The Mad Hatter, The cheshire Cat and of course the Queen or Hearts are all wondrous examples of interesting characters. McGee saw the opportunity to have lots of interaction with characters and jumped straight for it, creating an adventure in which you truly get to know the people around you. Psychonauts also did this and both games harvest the fruits of their labor, a game like Alice in which you regularly talk with other characters fascinates me more than anything else, sure there are dozens of games where you see characters talk in cut-scenes, but I prefer the Navi-like approach to how the Cheshire Cat works in this game a million times better.

Wonderland can be described as a place where everything is weird and unpredictable and it's nice to see that the conversion to a more horror-themed world has not done any harm to that fact. Whether I am watching Alice paint trees in the Disney Movie or fighting my way through the Wonderland Forest in this game, I always feel like I am somewhere new, somewhere where everything is unpredictable. Behind every corner could be another weird contraption or some kind of uncanny creature.

This game set out with the goal to make something disturbing, did it succeed? Yes, very well in fact. While I wasn't scared, there were times when I had to smile at how well the game succeeded. Death animations are a very satisfying example, the first time I took my knife to a card-soldier and cut off his entire top-half was quite amazing and unexpected. The game is also very clear on the topic of death and often main characters would be killed like they were nothing at all, no build-up, no silent hints, just one quick move and they are done for. Area design can also get rather freaky and at one point I was walking through a hall seemingly made of Human flesh. Good stuff.

A lot of games have the problem that their characters move insanely slow, something that might seem like a nitpick, but I always get rather bored when I need to traverse long areas and Marcus Fenix is taking his sweet time to do it. Resident Evil is also a great example and Raz was also very slow unless he was levitating. I usually don't hold it against a game, but here I feel like praise is deserved. Alice runs and quite fast too, this makes it less painful to platform around with her and it gives the game a good sense of flow.

She also uses several interesting weapons that gradually get better as you progress in the game. At first you get to handle a petty little knife and a set of cards, none of which are likely to kill the final boss for you. Later on through you will get the Ice Rod which freezes enemies and the Diabolical Dice which spawns very strong demons into the field. Most weapons really fit the Wonderland-theme and especially some of the later weapons clearly displayed the fact that American McGee used to work on a Quake game.

A nice balance between platforming and fighting keeps the game entertaining to play for me. Very long sections in which I either fight or jump across platforms usually bore me, I need a bit of variation to keep myself interested. In Alice you might be climbing up a hill while enemies hurl boulders at you, once on top you fight your way through some of the bastards before having a conversation with a character and leaving for some more platforming. The two elements are also nicely combined, so it doesn't feel like the game is pulling a big lever every time you need to switch and instead everything mixes seamlessly.

You know what makes Alice in Wonderland my favorite Disney movie? The Cheshire Cat, oh damn I love that pink bastard. I already mentioned that he functions as a Navi-type character in this game, meaning that he follows you around on your adventure and gives you advice or insight into the story. The voice-actor they hired to take care of everybody's favorite kitty is also really enjoyable and you can just hear the pleasure in his voice. With some genuinely good writing backing it all up, we get one of my favorite characters in all of video games.

The Bad
While the weapons are very much entertaining, the combat clearly wasn't meant for it. The game runs on the Unreal Engine, which as far as I know is more of a shooter-affair and not really meant for a platform adventure game. This results in very poor hit-detection and even when you hit an opponent it's very hard to tell if it did actual damage. Enemies don't really flinch whenever you hit, but only about 1/10 times and at all other times you are left wondering if the weapon is working. This makes combat rather clunky and a dodgy aiming-system doesn't help fixing that either.

Platforming is also rather imprecise and Alice tends to slip a little bit. Whenever I had to go through a platform-section, I would decide beforehand at which points I would save real quick before continuing because falling halfway through a huge climb can be very aggravating. When the problem is not slipping, it most likely ends up been falling through platforms, something I experienced a lot when standing on the edge of something.

Talking about saving a lot, that didn't function too well either. The save-system is very standard, but there is no way to override old saves, every time you save it makes a new file. At first I didn't realize this, so before I even grasped what was going on I had thirty save-files and I had to delete every single one of them by hand. Auto-saves are also rare and suffer from this same problem.

I don't really like games that are too open, especially when I end up getting lost or worrying endlessly if I am missing out on some kind of secret, but Alice does it wrong on the entire other side of the spectrum. In this game there is barely anything to explore, it's a strictly linear path with adventure ahead of you and dead enemies behind you. Even if there is a side-path or you find a hidden area, it can only contain the basic power-ups. I remember that in the sequel to this game there were a few collectibles which fleshed out the story some more, that would have spiced up gameplay a bit in this title too.

The Bottom Line
Some of the more observing readers might be wondering: "Why do you like this game, while you absolutely hated Zelda: Fallen Sage?" and that's a perfectly good question. Both these games do the same thing, they take something from my childhood and give it a mature re-imagining. Where Alice shines though is that there are also more comical and enjoyable moments in this title, such as the commentary provided by the Cheshire Cat, whereas Fallen Sage was an endless river of depressing events. This game ends with a very uplifting cut-scene that makes you feel like you truly conquered the obstacles you were faced with and Fallen Sage ended with a plot-twist leading up to an unnecessary boss-fight which completely ruined what would otherwise be a sweet ending. This game also does the conversion to a mature story right and we get to help Alice overcome her sense of guilt, thus addressing the subject of depression and traumatic experiences in a mature fashion, instead of more melodrama like in Time's Menagerie.

Who is this game for you might ask? Well, I keep seeing a lot of Goths play this game and many teenagers who grew up with the story seem to like it as well. If you are interested in a game that truly captures the style of the classic PC-platformer, then either this or Psychonauts would be a good choice, depending on what kind of atmosphere you are looking for.

Windows · by Asinine (957) · 2012

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Sequel on its way xroox (3895) Feb 20, 2009

Trivia

Alice statue

Rogue Entertainment still has one of these aforementioned Alice statues, along with the Cheshire cat, in its Dallas offices. Only three (of Alice and the Cheshire cat) were created.

Cancelled port

A PS2 version was also in development but was canceled causing Rouge Entertainment to shut down, a decision which infuriated American McGee.

Extras

  • The game came with a "Casebook" that described how Alice got admitted to the mental asylum and how her doctor tried to cure her.
  • EA supplied an Alice statue to selected retail outlets for promotion. It was an evil looking Alice bearing a butcher's knife in bloody hands, and her skirt was bloody, too. In Germany however, the knife and blood were gone, instead, she was holding some playing cards.

Cover art

Later releases of the game in the U.S. had an altered cover art. In the original, Alice was seen on the cover holding a bloody knife, with blood stains all over her apron. There were two revisions to this; in the first one she can be seen holding an ice wand, and in the second revision she's holding a deck of cards. In both of them her apron is stain-free. The Cheshire Cat next to her even looks less skeletal in the new cover art.

Cut content

An early version of the game gave you the chance to summon the Cheshire Cat to fight by your side, but this feature was removed from the final game. You can still find some early pre-release screenshots around the net that showed this however.

Merchandise

As of 2004 a line of action figures based on the game is currently in stores.

Ratings

According to an Wired interview with American McGee this game was Electronic Art's first 'M' rated release

References

On the "load/save" screen, you get three buttons to load, save or delete a game. Next to each button is a one-letter abbreviation of it's function. Did you notice that this spells out "LSD"?

Sales

According to an interview with American McGee, Alice sold over 1 million copies on the PC platform alone, contrary to reports saying it sold poorly.

Soundtrack

  • The original musical score for Alice was created by Chris Vrenna, former drummer for the band Nine Inch Nails.
  • There was a soundtrack for the game released when the game came out, which included music from the game, with dialogue from the various characters. As of 2004 you can still buy it from various retailers for $10, brand new.
  • The name of the soundtracks in the musical score are not completely correct. For instance, the musical score features a track named Battle with the Red Queen, but actually that track appears in the Skool level.
  • The musical score feature an "extra" track called Taking tea in Dreamland (the reason why it is called "extra" is that it doesn't appear in any levels throughout the game.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2000 – Special Award for Graphics
    • 2000 – Special Award for Music
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 11/2005 - #6 Game Which Absolutely Needs A Sequel (it eventually got one in 2011)

Information was also contributed by Foxhack, Lev Epshteyn, Karthik KANE, phlux, S M, Roger Wilco, Zack Green and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • A White Rabbit, A Crazy Alice, and Mac OS X
    An Apple Games article about the Macintosh version of Alice, with commentary being provided by Michael Rogers, president of Aspyr, the company responsible for porting the game to that platform. The article also provides a brief "Visitor's Guide to Wonderland" as well as general information about the game, including a brief background on Lewis Carroll.
  • Walkthrough
    A complete guide on Gameboomers from the beginning to the end of this game! (English)

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  • MobyGames ID: 2703
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Cam Guest.

PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Macintosh added by Corn Popper. Xbox 360 added by Kennyannydenny.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Unicorn Lynx, retinadesgastada, Zeppin, Klaster_1, Patrick Bregger, piltdown_man, Tien Thuy Le Nguyen.

Game added December 3, 2000. Last modified March 20, 2024.