A game review or something
My LJ is lonely. A REVIEW-KINDOF of American Mcgee's Alice: ZE MADNESS RETURNS
WHEEEW okay I just finished the game, some thoughts:
Pros:
Gorgeous art direction and settings - each section of Wonderland goes through a series of changes, which reflect both Alice's mindset and the goings-on in reality. Prettyprettypretty. Character designs were eye-catching as well.
Combat system worked fine, though takes some getting used to. The weapons customization worked well, and the distribution of weapons throughout the game was nicely-paced.
Overall atmosphere and nostalgia factor for fans of the original game= pretty ace, in most parts. (Each world starts out strong and with a lot of impact, but the chapters drag on just a /little/ too long, and the progression gets a little stale.)
Platforming isn't horrible, and enjoyable in most stages. Had no issues with progressing, aside from places where it is intentionally difficult. (Also no issue with the "timed" challenges-- you're given plenty time to complete whatever needs to be done.)
Music isn't as memorable as the first, but still good.
There's really some great sequences in here-- a few standing out are the asylum trek, most of Queensland, and the beginning of caterpillar's... opium... land, idk what that was.
Lacking:
Only real boss battle is at the end-- would have liked to see more of those strewn throughout the game, as in the first.
No mid-air attack. Oh how I wanted you, so dearly.
Story progresses pretty slow at first-- it only began to quickly wrap up at the end. Would have liked to have seen more coherency regarding that, because it seemed interesting enough towards the end. Although the settings presented Alice's madness pretty well, she herself seemed a /bit/ too sane. (Maybe I'm just bitter that they took out her crazy idles, but that's just me.) The transitions were also really hard to follow, and I gave up trying to really make sense of most of them. (If that was the game's intention, then yay, I guess. XD)
Couple glitches there and there. Mid-screen loads, some slow-popping textures, occasionally getting stuck in a mountain. A jump usually cleared up any freezing though, and it never happened during platforming or combat so it wasn't that HUGE of a deal-breaker.
Luckily most of the little side games were optional-- each of them were interesting and fun at first, but replaying them gets old quickly. I think shortening the chapters or breaking them up with more character interaction/actual cutscenes and more story exposition would have fixed this problem. Wasn't much pay-off for a lot of the progression.
But, overall, I enjoyed it. Would I recommend it to the die-hard gamer? Probably not. This game is either for fans of the first who can deal with some of the same issues, or people who can appreciate the art direction above all else, because it's freaking awesome, and that alone made it a solid experience for me. It's been a good 4-5 years since I've played the first game, which is what I actually plan on doing now. Afterwards I'll be able to completely say how well Madness Returns owns up to its predecessor.
also I love like all of her outfits okay
WHEEEW okay I just finished the game, some thoughts:
Pros:
Gorgeous art direction and settings - each section of Wonderland goes through a series of changes, which reflect both Alice's mindset and the goings-on in reality. Prettyprettypretty. Character designs were eye-catching as well.
Combat system worked fine, though takes some getting used to. The weapons customization worked well, and the distribution of weapons throughout the game was nicely-paced.
Overall atmosphere and nostalgia factor for fans of the original game= pretty ace, in most parts. (Each world starts out strong and with a lot of impact, but the chapters drag on just a /little/ too long, and the progression gets a little stale.)
Platforming isn't horrible, and enjoyable in most stages. Had no issues with progressing, aside from places where it is intentionally difficult. (Also no issue with the "timed" challenges-- you're given plenty time to complete whatever needs to be done.)
Music isn't as memorable as the first, but still good.
There's really some great sequences in here-- a few standing out are the asylum trek, most of Queensland, and the beginning of caterpillar's... opium... land, idk what that was.
Lacking:
Only real boss battle is at the end-- would have liked to see more of those strewn throughout the game, as in the first.
No mid-air attack. Oh how I wanted you, so dearly.
Story progresses pretty slow at first-- it only began to quickly wrap up at the end. Would have liked to have seen more coherency regarding that, because it seemed interesting enough towards the end. Although the settings presented Alice's madness pretty well, she herself seemed a /bit/ too sane. (Maybe I'm just bitter that they took out her crazy idles, but that's just me.) The transitions were also really hard to follow, and I gave up trying to really make sense of most of them. (If that was the game's intention, then yay, I guess. XD)
Couple glitches there and there. Mid-screen loads, some slow-popping textures, occasionally getting stuck in a mountain. A jump usually cleared up any freezing though, and it never happened during platforming or combat so it wasn't that HUGE of a deal-breaker.
Luckily most of the little side games were optional-- each of them were interesting and fun at first, but replaying them gets old quickly. I think shortening the chapters or breaking them up with more character interaction/actual cutscenes and more story exposition would have fixed this problem. Wasn't much pay-off for a lot of the progression.
But, overall, I enjoyed it. Would I recommend it to the die-hard gamer? Probably not. This game is either for fans of the first who can deal with some of the same issues, or people who can appreciate the art direction above all else, because it's freaking awesome, and that alone made it a solid experience for me. It's been a good 4-5 years since I've played the first game, which is what I actually plan on doing now. Afterwards I'll be able to completely say how well Madness Returns owns up to its predecessor.
also I love like all of her outfits okay