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)

A truly magnificent gaming experience

The Good
There are many things to like about this game. First off, the graphics are just drop-dead gorgeous. The scenery is as spaced out as one would expect from a game with a knife-wielding Alice. From the lush outdoors to the spooky buildings, the graphics are always a pleasure on the eye. Secondly, the levels are great. Every level has its own unique graphics, and design, giving the player the feeling of being totally immersed in another world. One of the best levels, for instance, is one where the surfaces of the walls are like mirrors, reflecting other walls. Thirdly, the controls are great: it doesn't take very long to learn how to move about and fight. Finally, the game's difficulty slowly increases as you get more used to controls and gameplay. For instance, the first few levels pits you against cards that die with one or two hits. Later however, you battle rooks and knights, each of which attack in different ways, and require a different amount of hits to dispatch.

The Bad
The requirements of the game are a let down. The first time I played it, I reached a point after which none of the game's sprites would show up. So everything was white, except for the levels. This made playing difficult. Of course that was because my video card was a stinky one. After getting a new system, however, the game screams to be played. Also, at times, the controls can be over-sensitive. This is esp. frustrating when negotiating jumps: sometimes you jump onto a platform, only to land near the edge. Desperate to avoid falling off, you quickly move back, only to accidentally run off the back.

The Bottom Line
The gameplay is good, the voice acting is great, and the graphics are superb. This game will definitely appeal to fans for 3rd-person perspective 3D games, and maybe even the RPGers (I mostly play RPGs myself). Words cannot describe how great a gaming experience this was, esp. since I'm playing it for the umpteenth time.

Windows · by willyum (1020) · 2002

Painting the roses red…with blood.

The Good
I always enjoy it when someone takes an otherwise harmless children’s story and exposes all the grotesque potential that lies underneath, which is what Mr. McGee has done with Alice In Wonderland.

Using an updated Quake III engine and 3rd-person perspective, to say that this game is disturbing would be a dreadful understatement. Wonderland has become a dark, malicious, and misshapen land, which now makes even less sense than it did when Alice went there the first time. The vibe given off by the scenery in the game is not unlike that of Clive Barker’s Undying; very little light and a seemingly never-ending night. All of the characters from the original story are present (even the Mock Turtle), and it was a joy to roam around and see how they had changed due to Alice’s insanity (the Cheshire Cat now even sports a large earring). Also, gamers in my age range (20-25) may find a few things to remind them of console gaming in the late 1980’s. The gameplay itself was quite retro in many respects, and reminded me very much of the old side-scrolling jumping games like Super Mario Bros. or The Lost Vikings, except rendered in 3D. This game could’ve easily come out 15 years ago on the original NES.

The Bad
I honestly don’t have any real complaints about Alice, other than there were times that I thought it was too easy and helpful almost to a condescending level. So even if you’re fairly new to gaming, I would still advise you to play it on the hardest difficulty setting, since you’ll find the most challenging gameplay there. Also, the replay value is virtually nonexistent, but for a game like this it’s to be expected.



The Bottom Line
Many people have complained that this game is devoid of replay value (true), has wonky control (true), is too easy most of the time (true), and is a throwback to old console gaming (true yet again). My advice is to check your brain at the door, and take this game for what it is; a twisted and creepy good time in a familiar setting. And since it is now priced between $7.99 and $9.99, it’s a very good deal.

Now, will someone please make this into an animated movie?

Windows · by BJ Hoskins (9) · 2003

Alice for those who fell out of Wonderland a long, long time ago.

The Good
Put away your hash pipe, please. You won't need it to get a rush out of this game. American McGee's Alice plays like Dr. Seuss' worst nightmare, and perhaps, like Lewis Carroll's wildest ambitions. For anyone who's ever read the book, a whole new element comes to the character of Alice by playing this game. It could be viewed as a continuance of where "Through The Looking Glass" left off. Let's get down to business.

Built on the Quake III game engine, Alice takes that sharp system and pushes it to the max, with many effects unfound in Quake. If you stop drooling at the graphics, you'll notice the characters. Alice, now auburn haired and green eyed, wears an upside down horsehoe necklace and blood spatters on her apron. They never do come out. Guided and bemused by the Cheshire Cat, a scrappy looking feline with words of wit and wonder, she pursues the White Rabbit but becomes caught up in many different subplots.

Alice takes a brilliant new approach to what really is a third-person shooter game. An amazing story, mostly conjured up with help of the old books, and creatures and settings that are realistic (and fing scary enough) to keep you up nights. It doesn't get much better.

The Bad
There are a few more interactions that would have been nice to see, such as the choice-system seen in the old Windows game Titanic. You would choose what to reply, and based on that, your fate would be decided by the creatures you interacted with. That would require an expansion onto likely a second disk, but it would be worth it, just to give the player's mind a little more to chew on.

The Bottom Line*
Let's face it, kids who loved Alice In Wonderland, Disney-style, are not up for American McGee's Alice. If you're light hearted on blood and violence in your games, Alice will not be a favorite. But for those of you who like to do things the old fashioned way with a demonic twist, Alice is your meal ticket.

Windows · by The Cheshire (5) · 2003

[ 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)

Identifiers +

  • 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.