American McGee's Alice: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Here's a riddle: When is a croquet mallet like a billy club? I'll tell you: Whenever you want it to be.''|'''The Cheshire Cat'''}}

 

In February 2009, roughly eight or so years after the game was released, EA announced that American McGee got the band back together, so to speak, and the sequel, titled ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]'' was released on June 14, 2011. The first game ended with Alice escaping her insanity and leaving Rutledge Asylum with a smile. Now, Alice is a [[Orphan's Ordeal|downtrodden orphan]] living in [[Victorian London]] under the care of Dr. Bumby. She suffers from hallucinations of Wonderland which make her sense of reality confusing. She eventually tumbles down the rabbit hole and returns to Wonderland, finding once again under threat from another corrupting influence which takes the form of the [[Afterlife Express|Infernal Train]]. Armed with new weapons, Alice must save Wonderland with [[Heel Face Revolving Door|new and old friends and enemies.]] However, it appears the house fire may have not been an accident after all.

* [[Action Girl]]: Alice.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: The manual here including [[Alice in Wonderland|Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass]], as well as the journal of the staff psychiatrist. It's clear that a certain degree of real life is getting through to the catatonic Alice.

** Alice's response to the Jabberwock's [[Hannibal Lecture]].

** Also when {{spoiler|the Cheshire Cat dies.}}

* [[Body Horror]]: The {{spoiler|March Hare and the Dormouse}}. Good ''God''.

** The Queen of Hearts' appearance and {{spoiler|her true form}} are horrific.

** Not to mention the various deformed children running around, some of whom have the ''tops of their skulls'' sawed off.

* [[Boring but Practical]]: The Flamingo club/mallet. Hits harder than the Vorpal Blade, has a ranged projectile that uses only moderate amount of will. The 52 Deck Cards also count mainly for its high hit probability, if not damage. Both are found early in-game.

* [[Bottomless Pit]]: Many levels have dark voids in which Alice can fall to her doom.

* [[Cats Are Snarkers]]: Guess who's responsible for this trope.

* [[Clockwork Creature]]: The automatons are made from random spare clockwork parts and insane children. Oddly enough, the bomb-dropping ladybugs look to be mechanical too. {{spoiler|The Mad Hatter turns out to be one of these as well, to go along with the [[Clock Punk|clockwork theme]] of his level. To top it all off, the March Hare and Dormouse are at least halfway this.}}

* [[Common Knowledge]]: The game seems to assume that the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts are the same person, a popular misconception.

* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Areas like the Land of Fire and Brimstone.

* [[Crazy People Play Chess]]: Alice has some adventures on a city of chess boards, including turning into different pieces and only being able to move according to those rules.

* [[Exposition Fairy]] / [[Stop Helping Me!]]: The Cheshire Cat. Less annoying than other examples since you actually have to summon his help but, the character's eponymous quirks being what they are, his "help" is often enigmatic to the point of uselessness.

* [[Eye Scream]]: Guess what makes up the business end of the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Jabberwock's Eye Staff?]]

* [[Follow the Leader]]: The entire plot is about an institutionalized Alice returning to a darker, trippier, overthrown Wonderland, which is very similar to Dorothy's adventures in the '80s film ''[[Return to Oz]]''. Despite that fact, it managed to be popular with the public (unlike the movie). Also more awesome.

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: The Bishop chess piece uses this. Also the Eye Staff emits a continuous beam of massive damage.

* [[Gusty Glade]]: Inverted in one area of the Hatter's Domain, where you can get sucked into machinery drawing in air. Played straight inside Queensland where visible gusts can blow you off while riding steam vents.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: The Jabberwock, The Mad Hatter, and the Queen Of Hearts especially.

* [[Idle Animation]] - Looking down the barrel of the blunderbuss, prying open a jackbomb, burying a card in her own skull, playing with knives ... Alice is ''dangerous'' when she's bored.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Alice's "toys" are mighty lethal. Decks of cards, flamingo-shaped croquet mallets, explosive Jack-in-the-boxes, dice which summon demons... the list goes on.

* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: Though it's more like an asylum full of crazy; look at the walls in the Hatter level and you can faintly see he's been scribbling on them. (And there's the bloody "You're Next" warnings to boot.)

* [[Sanity Meter]]: You get more sane by drinking the ''essence'' of your kills! Try explaining this to your therapist after you finish the game. (Well, if what she's killing is a representation of her mental illness, then it makes a twisted... sort of... sense...)

* [[Scenery as You Go]]: A few of the puzzles work this way.

* [[Scenery Porn]]/[[Scenery Gorn]]: Madness Return's level designs look ''fantastic''.

* [[Super Mode]]: In the first game, Alice can occasionally find an atomizer that sprays... Something in her face which painfully transforms her into a demon.

** There are also other items, like a rarely found cricket filled with tea (Just go with it) that turns Alice into some kind of fairy with super agility, and even rarer hand mirror that makes Alice into... something you don't get a proper look at because it turns her invisible.

* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: The game [[All There in the Manual|comes with the journal]] of Alice's psychiatrist, who's gradually drawn into her descriptions of Wonderland and their disturbing synchronicity with the asylum's own mysterious characters.

* [[Tractor Beam]]: The Queen Of Hearts has such an ability, if not the actual weapon.

* [[Truth in Television]]: Sort of. The manual describes what you'd think were imagined and torturous treatments for various patients in the asylum, from pricking fingers, to bullying, to experimentation. A patient dies and the Doctor comments on it rather casually. But lunatics in Victorian England were third-class citizens and it all happened with nobody batting an eyelid.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: The basis of the Jabberwock's [[Hannibal Lecture]].

* [[Where I Was Born and Razed]]: Essentially the backstory.

* [[Womb Level]]: The Queen Of Hearts' castle. Creepily organic, it's like you're working your body up through some intestines, through a ribcage, and up a cerebral column into the 'brain'. In fact most of the features of that section resemble a body part.

 

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[[Category:Platform Game]]

[[Category:Horror Video Games]]

[[Category:Action Adventure]]

[[Category:Third-Person Shooter]]