American McGee's Alice

Who the hell is American Mcgee? And is there maybe a British McGee somewhere or something? This I asked myself before reading the Wikipedia article of American McGee's Alice. Evidently, American is actually the guy's first name. Huh.

McGee's Wonderland is darker and more macabre than in the original story. The imaginary world has been broken as Alice's mental health has taken a toll due to her family dying in an accident. Alice has been put into an asylum and the game's journey is a metaphor of her recovery. (I like how your progress can be observed from the compiling image in loading screens.)

I played the game in Medium difficulty and found it quite challenging at times. Often due to to bad controls. Alice's movement is bit floaty but not nearly as bad as her jumping; I died countless times because I didn't land where I wanted. Double-jump would've been a great benefit to the game, as well as rolling or any other way to avoid being hit in melee combat.

Actual combat was reasonably satisfying. The weapons felt bit weak, though, as even on Medium enemies seemed to have quite a few hit points -- and do quite much damage as well -- making each encounter a challenge. No hacking and slashing through waves of mobs in this game. None of the weapons really become my favorite. Most of them did have their uses, though.

AMA is a very straightforward in its progression. The majority of levels involve just getting from the start to the end, sometimes through a puzzle. Couple mazes with respawning enemies got me to the brink of giving up, but I managed to make through the whole game without the help of a walkthrough -- a thing I'm pretty satisfied with.

I feel the soundtrack could've used more variation. It got repetitive very fast with its simple (even if atmospheric) constantly looping tracks. Graphics are what you would expect from a ten year old game. I must mention the Pale Realm, though (see the screenshot), for it was amazing in its grayscale style. The few colorful objects on the screen really jumped out. Also, Alice's voice actress was spot-on; she sounded exactly like the character looks like.

American McGee's Alice is an entertaining and amusing game that could have been better with improved controls and more rewarding (melee) combat. The concept is cool, even if I've never been much of an Alice in Wonderland fan. Alice: Madness Returns, a sequel to the game, was released a while ago as well. Improvements in many fields of playabiliy except in camera-angles (which have gone bad from fine) from what I've seen.