The game begins with a cinematic showing Alice fleeing a house fire than consumes her parents as they scream. If you find this image too repulsive to accept, then this game is almost certainly not for you and you can stop reading because the entire game continues in this vein. A booklet that comes with the game is the diary of a 19th century psychologist that explains that Alice has been catatonic in an insane asylum since the death of her parents. The game itself is the journey of Alice through various realms of Wonderland that are now a dark reflection of the Lewis Carroll book, and is representative of Alice's subconscious attempt to regain her sanity.

The game screen is a `follow' view of Alice, with Sanity (aka life) and Willpower represented by tubes on the sides. Alice can jump, climb, swim, etc as you would expect from the Quake engine. In the course of the journey Alice finds various "Toys" such as a Vorpal Blade, a deck of Cards, and Demon Dice. The Vorpal Blade (a large broken knife) is the standard weapon while all other Toys require Willpower to use. The Toys are usually fantastically twisted, i.e. when the Demon Dice is rolled it creates a portal that a demon comes through and fights your enemies, but if there are no enemies the demon must still feed so it attacks Alice. The Toys all have very different properties and the choice of Toy can make the difference between death and survival.

I am in awe of how well done the world is. Alice is not a parody of the original book, but more like a loving sequel and the world is all the more interesting for being so like the familiar Wonderland. The game is divided into a number of chapters that have distinct looks and feels, so the Skool is a demented version of English boarding school with huge bookshelves and insane children while the forest is inhabited by soldier ants (with muskets!) and killer mushrooms. I really enjoy each new environment.

I've never died so regularly in a game despite the fact that I'm only playing at standard difficulty. Alice has the most perilous environment I've every seen in a game, in particular from falling. The developers are not only inspired but also sadists. This is a recurring thought I have while playing: "I wonder what THAT is... Oops, dead again. Good thing I save every five minutes." Fortunately, the developers gave Alice different ways to die to entertain the player before loading a saved game. My persistence is amazing because normally I favor strategy and role playing games, and found Rune and Alien vs. Predator frustrating and boring very quickly.

So why am I not giving this game four stars? Mainly on technical issues. A patch is available on the Apple website, but for some reason the patch caused the sound on my game to become corrupted. After many reinstalls and calls to technical support I just reinstalled without the patch, which means that all the known issues are uncorrected. This has not been a major problem thus far, but it is annoying. The enemy AI is decent but sometimes enemies continue to fire ranged weapons into walls when taking a step to the side would give them a clear shot at Alice. Enemy pathfinding is also fair, though I did see a couple of Queen's guards caught on staircases.

All in all, I recommend this game highly. There's enough combat and gore to people looking for hack-and-slash. There are a huge number of mazes and other puzzles that require problem-solving skills. The voice acting is some of the best I've heard in years. The graphics, background music and environmental sounds are above average. The overall storyline gets a little fuzzy at places, but that can be forgiven in a game set in Wonderland, though it is lamentably linear. And most of all is the fantastic demented game world with a underpinned with a gripping story about the struggle for sanity.


Sheer Demented Fun   June 15, 2003
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I can't think of a wierder, more enjoyable adaptation of a classic literary work, except maybe for "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." "American McGee's Alice" is a bizarre, surreal, and utterly fantastic game that stands out from the endless sea of violent, slice-'n'-dice video games with tough-as-nails female protagonists. I mean, this is ALICE we're talking about. As in, Wonderland. As in, cute bouncy blue dress and apron. As in, butcher knife. This ain't the Disney movie.

This game functions sort of like an unofficial sequel to Lewis Carroll's books. When it opens, Alice is comatose in a mental institution. She's been there for years, ever since the fire that destroyed her house and killed her parents. (she had to listen to their screams -- traumatic, huh?) One day, a well-meaning nurse gives Alice an old, battered stuffed rabbit...and the next thing you know, she's back in Wonderland. Only it's different. The landscape is dark, ugly, and riddled with loathsome tentacular growths. Her former friends are gaunt, unhealthy shadows of their old selves. The evil Red Queen has taken over, and it's up to Alice to restore Wonderland and save her sanity. Very symbolic.

"Alice" manages to be faithful to the original books and still fling lots of cool visuals in your face. At one point, Alice gets shrunk and has to fight buzz-bombing ladybugs and flesh-eating mushrooms. Later on, she goes mano a mano with the Mad Hatter in a nightmarish, floating clockwork fortress. Most of the characters from the books make return appearances, although you'll be rather unsettled when you see what's happened to the March Hare and the Dormouse. The Cheshire Cat acts as Alice's guide, spouting cryptic yet useful sound bites ("If a ferret were about to dart up MY dress, I'd run.") Alice gets to use some cool weapons and power-ups, including an electrified croquet mallet, a potion that turns her into a grasshopper, and a set of dice that summon demons. The dialogue sounds like it was written by Lewis Carroll (White Rabbit: "There's so very much to do, and so very little time to do it in.") but still has room for wisecracks (Duchess: "Over my dead body!" Alice: "I'll try to accomodate you.") Despite the rating, there isn't a huge amount of blood in the game, although the Card Guards spout like fountains when you chop them in half. Trust me, the gorgeous graphics totally distract away from the violence; I sometimes wished the bad guys would stop trying to eat my face so I could take a longer, more appreciative look at them. Oh, well.

If "Alice" has one major flaw, it's the massive amount of memory needed to run it. Unless you've got Mac OS X (which I don't), be prepared for the game to stutter like mad and take forever to load levels. Desite this annoyance, this is a fantastic game that I think both fans of the books and fans of violent video games will enjoy. Buy this game. For once, you won't feel bad about losing your mind.


beautiful and disturbing third-person adaptation   February 28, 2003
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

First and foremost, the graphics are a marvel both in concept and execution. The setup and introduction tell us that Alice is the survivor of an accident that killed her parents, and she has spent a long time in an asylum; the gameplay takes place in Alice's mind as she defeats, or is defeated by, her dementia.

Settings and objects perfectly capture the mood and tone of nightmarish delusion. The characters Alice meets as she proceeds to a final showdown with the Red Queen are very good -- the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, etc. I thought their visual representations were good and creepy, and I thought the voice work was excellent, particularly for Alice and the Cat. Cutscenes are seamless, and the game was very stable. Running on a G4 tower, I had no problems at all. It's easy to change the controls, and you can save any number of games at any time during play.

The story cleverly parallels the literary work, and reading the books (as well as Alice's journal that comes with the game) will add to your enjoyment. There are too many nice touches to list: the music is haunting and gorgeous, the Saved Games screen is captivating, the Load Game graphic is beautiful and changes as you progress, etc. This is fine work by a talented team.

You will jump, climb, swim, float on drafts of air and slide on ice. Weapons are well-suited to the theme, if not always terribly exciting. Enemies are varied and interesting, and powerups are plentiful. My only complaint would be with the strict linearity of play. This is the most fun I've had with a new game for a long time.

Caveat: Despite its association with a beloved work of children's literature, this is NOT a game for kids. Themes and visuals are graphic and disturbing.