It tells the story of Alice after her house was burned down (the cause was retconned in the sequel for story reasons) and she was admitted to a mental institution. This is a very dark sequel to the original tale and it showed a very somber Wonderland as a result. The original characters from the book were made into very twisted versions through both nonplayer characters and boss battles. You're given a knife that is none other than the Vorpal Blade and you're also given several other types of weapons that have their own advantages such as throwing cards, a croquet mallet and even dice.
While the graphics are quite crude by today's standards, it still served to show off the technology of the time. The ID Tech 3 is shown in great potential with such imaginative backdrops and very dynamic terrains, even water physics. This is also a very graphically violent game. Even if the characters aren't technically human, they still bleed quite a bit. You're able to sever limbs and even see some heads explode.
Alice was a very difficult game. There are swimming sections and platforming that can be a little difficult, especially if you're using a keyboard rather than a controller. While the first installment was originally on the PC, it is far better with a controller, especially with some of the harder platforming sections where you have to fight both the enemies and some of the physics.
Where the game really thrives, aside from the surrealistic atmosphere, is in its boss battles. While some of them have mechanics that can be hard to figure out, you are up against some of the more nightmarish creatures reimagined in very dark images. The Duchess is probably one of the more graphic reimagining through her extreme allergy to pepper which causes very violent repercussions. Nightmarish enemies can be seen through Tweedledee and Tweedledum in very uncanny proportions and even a chess piece in the Red King is eerie in his character design.
The Queen of Hearts is the most infamous from this game, as she is seen with a mask on where the lips don't move when she speaks, giving her a bit more nightmare fuel with an already gruesome visage. She is the main antagonist and is rightfully the most difficult but also one of the more fun and fulfilling to defeat as a result.
The first game was divisive among the public, but it garnered a very loyal following and was a brilliant precursor to an arguably more solid game in Alice: Madness Returns. With a much more powerful engine, Wonderland is brought back with a much broader appeal and more gruesome outlook. Alice returns to Wonderland, still feeling very guilty in having survived the fire while her family perished. The real problem that I had with this installment was the retconning it did in not only changing how the fire occurred, but also some of the darker themes it detailed in human trafficking and the implications it introduced in its main antagonist.
The story aside, Alice is fleshed out a lot better as a character. While she is rather bitter toward the rest of the world, she still holds to a great integrity in holding onto what little of her child-like grace she still possesses in her midteens. She takes to the task of reviving Wonderland and taking up the Vorpal Blade once again when a dark, mysterious steam engine train rolls through the world, causing it to further decay along with Alice's sanity.
While the first level details Wonderland in a more traditional sense with its corruption, the later levels also bring about different themes. There is a horrific rendition of Feudal Japan, complete with praying mantis samurais and cherry blossoms. There is also a very horrific world of dollhouses and an undersea levels where you need to bring oysters to a play for the Walrus and the Carpenter. Among these levels is the most beautiful of them in the Kingdom of Hearts, where you meet the new Queen. The card guards are zombified and there is a giant one who is nigh indestructible.
The game is much more polished and graphically superior to the first title, but one very large gaping problem with the sequels that many agree are the lack of boss battles. The game seems to know this, as it attempts to tease one with a giant mech constructed by the Doormouse and Marsh Hare, but it breaks down before you even get any gameplay out of it. There is only one boss battle in the final level and that really is a shame. There are mini-bosses here and there in the form of the doll-headed enemies, which require a few extra maneuvers and breaking their shields.
One element to the second game that is lauded by fans is the level progression in the form of teeth. Yes, collecting teeth allows you to upgrade your weaponry. You find more of these through secrets hidden within small doorways that require you grow small and explore more of the levels in secrets and out of the way paths that require extra perception on your part. The puzzles and some of the sidescrolling sections can be rather frustrating at times, especially in the Dollhouse and Asian themed sections.
The dark themes of American Mcgee's Alice games can get to be a bit cumbersome, especially if you are not partial to child abuse and things that it entails. Sometimes, the game can lean a little heavily into these themes, especially when you start finding some of the darker memories and further into the plot. These have been cited as a detriment to the series, but they are not so heavily depicted. The game can get heavy handed with its story, but it also casts a deeper light on Alice's psychological trauma that she has had to endure.
Where the game has always shined was its imaginative level design and very dark creatures born from the original story. The Cheshire Cat is also seen as an ally who offers you advice and clues as to how to progress. Many of the characters from the original tale can be seen throughout and while many of them meet gruesome deaths in the first game, many of them return for the sequel. The game makes you want to progress and stop the corruption of Alice's mental illness and repair what remains of her beautiful dream world.
Sadly, the planned third installment, Alice Asylum, never came about aside from a great deal of lore elements and images made by American Mcgee himself. Throughout the 2010's, he attempted to regain the rights to the games in order to bring this to fruition, but he was unsuccessful and decided that it simply was not worth it. The games' followers tried very hard to help him regain the copyright to the title, but E.A. Games denied him and decided it was more important to sit on the property while it wasted away into obscurity because that's the gaming industry for you. If they weren't making any money off of it, then no one was going to enjoy it. Do I sound a little bitter? Yeah, I might be a bit. This was American Mcgee's creation and it just goes to show you that greed can be a true detriment to creativity.
It would have been nice to see a spiritual successor to the series, much like Mega Man with Mighty Number N--- you know what, that's a bad example. Castlevania had Bloodstained and it brought about much of the same themes as the original series. Alice could have been made into a different character with a different type of world, but in the end, I can also understand why American became somewhat disolutioned with the notion after so long of fighting those greedy beaurocrats of the industry. It's really no wonder the gaming industry is in the state it's in with corporations having such a stranglehold on beloved franchises they're willing to let go to the wayside in favor of live service looter shooters with predatory loot crate systems. Creativity can birth monetary value much better than microtransactions and gambling addictions, but it also requires a lot more work and patience in order to do so.
Alice is a sad tale in many respects and it would be nice to see a resurgence of the franchise, but it is also good that it went out on a high note with two very solid entries. You could do a lot worse than trying to find these two gems, but they are also part of a bygone era, so you'll need some old school systems like the Playstation 3 just for the second entry. The first entry is extensively hard to find now, even when it was coupled with Madness Returns in many of its iterations. These editions are expensive now, but if you're a big collector, they are worth a look if you're even mildly curious. It's a very dark story, but the game mechanics and creativity of the games themselves are worth a closer look. Walk into the dream world or look upon them with the looking glass. Virtua Cheshire Grin.
