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Alice has a winning combination of great graphics (thanks to the power of the Quake 3 engine) and wonderful gameplay. I'll start off with the graphics. The textures are highly detailed, and perfectly fit the atmosphere of the game, which is dark. However, what really makes this game shine is the originality and detail of the levels. Each level is much different from any other. You'll walk on huge chess boards rendered in black and white, where you Alice will be the only thing of color on the screen. You'll go through castles that have clocks that sway from side to side. Other places will have tables flying and twirling all about. No other game has levels quite like Alice, and no other game has the originality of Alice. I suppose the best way to describe it would be a 3D Castlevania game done right.
Now onto gameplay. The problem with most third-person games is that many leaps of faith are required. Jumps become tiresome and just plain hard. Alice avoids this with a very nice "lock-on" jump system. You'll land right where you want to. It is a great addition, and jumps never seem tedious. The combat is quite a bit similar to Rune's. Most weapons are melee, but there are some projection weapons. All weapons have a secondary fire, which usually projects something. The game also has a "lock-on" system for combat, which avoids the frustration of continually missing an enemy.
Alice also has quite a few nice touches that make the gameplay more enjoyable. There is a cat character (the one on the cover, standing right next to Alice) who helps you out on your journey. He only speaks in riddles, which gives him a nice personality. The sound is quite nice, and you're in for a real treat if you have a Soundblaster Live! card. The music is great, and perfectly fits the game.
Another thing that makes Alice great is its atmosphere. If you just look at the pictures, you'd think that the game tries to induce nightmares. This is very wrong. The atmosphere is more...well, it is hard to describe, but you should have no problem playing it with the lights off. I guess you could say that the game really "feels" like Wonderland. Great job by the developers there.
The game run's nicely on my middle of the road P3 500 MHz with 128 megs of RAM, and a now outdated TNT card.
The bottom line: this game does to third-person action/adventures what Half-Life did for first-person shooters. Get it now. If you can't get it now, make sure it is the first thing on your want list for the Holidays.
The game sports very nice dark brooding graphics suitable to Wonderland. The controls are very nice and solid given time to get used to the unusual third person view. (This is the same view and control found in Rune and MDK2) The levels are nice and detailed, however, I wonder why better use of curved surfaces is not utilized, since the Alice engine is based on the fantastic Quake 3 engine. Interestingly enough, the same curved surfaces are in use during the "Psychedelic" levels with twisting and warping backgrounds and what not. (I recommend a bucket next to the PC if you suffer from motion sickness.) All of these special effects require hefty PC power.
The PC requirements are bit steep, but no worse then when Unreal was first released. Follow them like the bible since fine tuning Alice is very difficult. I'm also severely disappointed that the advanced features are poorly documented and that some of the advanced command issues do not work (strangely enough). And worse, Alice does NOT come with a level editor, this alone shortens the life of Alice down to mere months. A very unusual move since American McGee did work at ID software and knows the value of throwing in the editing package along with the game. (look at games like Doom, Quake I, II, III, Half-Life, Unreal, and Rune)
The minor drawbacks do little to outweigh the game as whole, get the game or "borrow" your friend's. You'll certainly enjoy the game. If not, well . . . You're too old to be playing games. You should be sitting on your couch reading the media's latest attack on violent games and how it causes the youth of America (snicker) to be violent.
So the question is did Alice live up to the hype? Yes and no. Is it as good or as bad as people claim? Well, both.
The object of the game is simple: save Wonderland. Alice returns to Wonderland--a more dark, twisted Wonderland than she knew before. It is now ruled by the evil Queen of Hearts. Alice must destroy the Queen and bring Wonderland back to it's natural glory.
I found McGee's vision of Wonderland fantastic. I think the best adaption I've seen. Way better than the fluffy Disney verison. The characters are even more mad than they were before. Instead of just "harmless" madness, it's now to the point where the madness is just...well, murder. We meet farmilar characters such as the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Dum, the Catepillar, and even the beloved With Rabbit.
The graphics and sound are superior. Nice, dark jingles that run through the game as you discover Wonderland. And the graphics...whoa. What can I say? Wonderful! At times you just have to look around and enjoy the view. Maybe even Carroll would approve, eh?
But where there are pros, there are cons. I must agree with the the people and critics that say this game is too linear. And this is from a person who prefers linear games! But...at times I do like to rack my brain, get lost, or have to think of a way out of a sitution. In this game you don't do that. You go here, you go there. A to Z. You don't have to really think as you progress. There are no secrets worlds, no extra places to go, no extra weapons/objects, no altnerative endings or paths, none of that (or very, very little of it). Once you finish Alice, that's it. Nothing else to do. Nothing else to see. Put the game in the drawer.
The game boasts puzzles on the box and hinting on a challenge but I found none. The very few puzzles they had were average at best. This is if you don't include jumping puzzles--which are a pain in this game. Not as bad as Tomb Raider but bad enough. Let me tell you a secret: you will die more often falling off cliffs than you die in combat.
Basically, it's your choice. If you're looking for this game to be revolutionary with hours and hours of fun gameplay, it's not. If you're looking for a game with good graphics and sound that presents you with a fun, creative adaption of Alice in Wonderland, this game for you.
It's a toss up.
