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Alice: Madness Returns Review

Alice battles her own warped Wonderland in an attempt to restore sanity. Clever combat and simple platforming ensures Alice doesn't lose her head.

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When in combat the repetition is reduced because the game throws different enemies types at you. You will be fighting slugs, dolls, wasps, crabs, card guards, sailors and some who use crockery for shields. Very few of the enemies are frustrating due to obvious counters. Drifting Ruin, flying doll faces hidden in black goo, were my most hated enemy type. After being shot down they occasionally landed on unreachable platforms completely avoiding the taste of my Vorpal blade. Enemy combinations are mixed so you can’t just rely on one tactic and will need to prioritize or distract creatures.
 
Float like a butterfly, sting like a Daimyo Wasp
Float like a butterfly, sting like a Daimyo Wasp

Alice: Madness Returns is a smooth platformer with engaging combat and at 15 hours you are going to be doing a lot of jumping. Spicy Horse have created healthy, repeatable combat and made the platforming simple but elegant. This adventure does play things a little too safe with working mechanics that rarely change from the first few hours. Being a bit more daring with design may have resulted in a great adventure instead of just a good one. Madness Returns has enough tricks to keep you amused until Alice finishes with her own bizarre Wonderland.
 
Our ratings for Alice: Madness Returns on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
Presentation
79
Good art and balanced level design although not technically impressive. Alice's hair and dress physics look great. Many levels have atrocious musical themes.
Gameplay
79
Combat remains interesting as you use specific weapons against unique enemies. Platforming is free flowing although a tad clinical in some sections.
Single Player
73
The 15 hour journey of Alice through her own mind gets more interesting toward the end. There are long sections without story and some laborious exposition. Merging of fantasy with reality is infrequent but refreshing.
Multiplayer
NR
N/A
Performance
(Show PC Specs)
CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 @ 3.2GHz
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB
RAM: 4GB DDR3
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
PC Specs

79
Fast loads with very few bugs. There are a few camera issues in combat, button configuration problems and some strange pauses.
Overall
77
Madness Returns is a slick platformer with involving combat. Sensible design helps it flow from one jump to the next. Enemy idiosyncrasies get the most out of Alice's weaponry. This Wonderland is a place worth visiting.
Comments
Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns box art Platform:
PC
Our Review of Alice: Madness Returns
77%
Good
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
Alice: Madness Returns is ranked #697 out of 1957 total reviewed games. It is ranked #69 out of 103 games reviewed in 2011.
696. MotorStorm: Apocalypse
PlayStation 3
697. Alice: Madness Returns
698. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
PlayStation 3
Screenshots

Alice: Madness Returns
24 images added Jul 2, 2011 06:18
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