I bought this game on sale for $5 and it sat in my library for a couple weeks. After starting to play it, however, it quickly found a spot on my favorite games list. Even though some parts were tedious, the story kept me engaged untill the very end.
Prepare yourselves for an exceedingly long wall of text (go to the TL:DR if you wish to skip).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=638015953
Alice: Madness Returns is a psychological horror game developed by Spicy Horse and published by Electronic Arts in 2011 for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to America Mcghee’s Alice, made in 2000.


First: the umbrella to block projectiles might not work (it didn’t for me) and if so, you will have to change some files to get it to work right.

Next: the combat focus mechanic is far from perfect and has many flaws. It feels awkward to use at first and could use some polishing. Love it or hate it, this mechanic is essential for fighting certain monsters. I got used to it eventually, but it was hard starting out (because you have to hold down the CAPSLOCK key to stay focused).

You will also need an EA account for a brief activation (as far as I can remember) but then you don’t need it for the rest of the game.

• Varied environments: from dark castles, underwater cities, Victorian London, an asylum, and even a train. All of these settings make for an interesting experience as you travel throughout Alice’s now twisted version of wonderland.
  
  
• Platforming: Satisfying and well designed (albeit repetitive) embodied by unique jumping mechanics (I will explain later). Something that would make the platforming better would be to include the edge grabbing mechanic originally shown in America Mcghee’s Alice.
  
  
• Story: I won’t spoil it for you but here is a brief summary: Alice tries to piece together memories of the night that her family died in a fire and ultimately finds out who is truly behind her madness… The story is presented in an interesting way, mostly told by cut scenes, brief dialogue and memory shards that are hidden throughout the levels. The story is very thought-provoking and I recommend that you go into the game as blind as possible because of how captivating the story is, especially towards the very end.
  
  
• Challenge rooms, puzzles, and game modes: There are several puzzles in environment, needing to be solved to more on (they can also be skipped). They vary from playing musical notes, finding blocks that need to be arranged to form a picture, and chess. I enjoyed most of them, but the finding the blocks for a picture is repeated around 6 times, which got repetitive. There are also multiple challenge rooms where the goal is to survive waves of enemies or complete a certain objective. When a challenge is completed, you are rewarded with some red paint. Each time you collect this paint, a part of a rose is filled in. Once you fill in a rose 4 times, you gain an extra rose container (like a heart). Lastly, there are a few game modes, each unique to its environment. An underwater side scrolling shooter, 2D platformer, and baby head rolling course (which is by far the most bizarre of them all).
  
  
• Weapons: There are 4 of them, not including the clock work bomb which you will collect as you progress through the story. In order of appearance they are: Vorpal Blade, Pepper Grinder, Hobby Horse, and Teapot Cannon. (there is also an additional variant for each of these included in the unlockable DLC). The Vorpal blade is your first weapon and used for fast melee slashing. Next, The Pepper Grinder is used rapid, medium to long range assault (and for triggering switches). The Hobby Horse is a slow but powerful short range weapon that is effective against groups of enemies (and is my favorite). The last weapon you get is the Teapot Cannon, is long ranged weapon of high damage and large radius (can be used to break some walls).
  
  
• Character customization: There are several outfits for Alice, her original outfit that changes depending on which environment you are in, a few others, and the DLC outfits. The DLC outfits and weapons each have buffs (or debuffs) that can fit your playstyle. Also, the Teeth you collect can be used to upgrade your base weapons, changing their look and empowering them.
  
  
• Mechanics: many of them stood out to me, aside from the combat focus.
  Shrinking: used to get through small keyholes and reveal hidden paths. Activated by holding down left control.
  Health system represented by roses. You can regenerate health by picking up roses that enemies drop or finding a purple flower (if you shrink on top of a purple flower, it will regenerate your health). You can increase your health capacity by completing challenge rooms.
  Hysteria (my favorite) where Alice taps into her insanity for several seconds to become invincible and gain increased damage. This can only be activated at extremely low health by pressing enter.
  Jumping: you can jump 3(?) times in midair, losing height with each consecutive jump. If you jump and hold down space in midair, you will slowly float. Also, while we are talking about movement, you can dodge by pressing left shift.
  
  
• Enemies: Small leech-like slimes to massively destructive blobs with baby faces and flamethrowers. Nuff said. Each monster has their own attack pattern and vulnerabilities, which you will need to recognize in order to be victorious. The enemies vary from environment to environment.
  
  
• Level design: predominantly linear with multitudes of secret memories, bottles, and challenge rooms to be found. A few puzzles (mentioned above) are included, but the vast majority of each level relies on platforming. This may get repetitive, but this is up to personal opinion. Although there are no steam achievements (wish there were), you progress is recorded and you can see how many secrets you have found (no one but you can see).
  
  
• Graphics/art style: Surprisingly stunning, detailed environments. One of the selling points for me. I was constantly taking screenshots and have 350 of them (200 uploaded). Half the time playing I was looking for the perfect place to take a screenshot (I got some pretty good ones).
  
  
• Performance: Mouse sensitivity takes getting used to, controls are clunky at first, but after playing for an hour or so, you’ll get used to it. The FPS and a few other things can be changed by editing some game files. You can find guides on how to do this if you look on the Community Hub.
  
  
• Free DLC: Although it is not enabled by default, you can enable the DLC (that includes outfits and weapons) for free by changing the value of GIsSpecialPCEdition from FALSE to TRUE.

Due to how much I liked this game, I decided to check out the earlier game, America Mcghee’s Alice. For a game made in 2000, it really impressed me. If you want to play Alice: Madness returns or have enjoyed playing it I strongly recommend you get a copy of America Mcghee’s Alice. It even has slightly better controls (sensitivity wise).

To summarize: Alice: Madness Returns features a unique atmosphere, impressive soundtrack (which I forgot to mention), surreal story, decent platforming, weapon appearance customization, interesting mechanics, linear level designs, vibrant and dark art style, and average performance.

On sale this is a must buy and at $20 I would still recommend it (if you understand some of the flaws).
For personal enjoyment I’m giving it a 9/10 and for review purposes, I give it a 8.5/10 because of its flaws. Just be prepared to troubleshoot any potential problems that could arise.

[h1]Introduction[/h1] I bought this game on sale for $5 and it sat in my library for a couple weeks. After starting to play it, however, it quickly found a spot on my favorite games list. Even though some parts were tedious, the story kept me engaged untill the very end. Prepare yourselves for an exceedingly long wall of text (go to the TL:DR if you wish to skip). http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=638015953 [h1]Overview[/h1] Alice: Madness Returns is a psychological horror game developed by Spicy Horse and published by Electronic Arts in 2011 for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to America Mcghee’s Alice, made in 2000. [h1]Before I ramble on about everything that I enjoyed about this game, I would like to point out a few flaws with this version on steam.[/h1] First: the umbrella to block projectiles might not work (it didn’t for me) and if so, you will have to change some files to get it to work right. Next: the combat focus mechanic is far from perfect and has many flaws. It feels awkward to use at first and could use some polishing. Love it or hate it, this mechanic is essential for fighting certain monsters. I got used to it eventually, but it was hard starting out (because you have to hold down the CAPSLOCK key to stay focused). You will also need an EA account for a brief activation (as far as I can remember) but then you don’t need it for the rest of the game. [h1]Now on to things I enjoy about Alice: Madness returns:[/h1] [list][*]Varied environments: from dark castles, underwater cities, Victorian London, an asylum, and even a train. All of these settings make for an interesting experience as you travel throughout Alice’s now twisted version of wonderland. [*]Platforming: Satisfying and well designed (albeit repetitive) embodied by unique jumping mechanics (I will explain later). Something that would make the platforming better would be to include the edge grabbing mechanic originally shown in America Mcghee’s Alice. [*]Story: I won’t spoil it for you but here is a brief summary: Alice tries to piece together memories of the night that her family died in a fire and ultimately finds out who is truly behind her madness… The story is presented in an interesting way, mostly told by cut scenes, brief dialogue and memory shards that are hidden throughout the levels. The story is very thought-provoking and I recommend that you go into the game as blind as possible because of how captivating the story is, especially towards the very end. [*]Challenge rooms, puzzles, and game modes: There are several puzzles in environment, needing to be solved to more on (they can also be skipped). They vary from playing musical notes, finding blocks that need to be arranged to form a picture, and chess. I enjoyed most of them, but the finding the blocks for a picture is repeated around 6 times, which got repetitive. There are also multiple challenge rooms where the goal is to survive waves of enemies or complete a certain objective. When a challenge is completed, you are rewarded with some red paint. Each time you collect this paint, a part of a rose is filled in. Once you fill in a rose 4 times, you gain an extra rose container (like a heart). Lastly, there are a few game modes, each unique to its environment. An underwater side scrolling shooter, 2D platformer, and baby head rolling course (which is by far the most bizarre of them all). [*]Weapons: There are 4 of them, not including the clock work bomb which you will collect as you progress through the story. In order of appearance they are: Vorpal Blade, Pepper Grinder, Hobby Horse, and Teapot Cannon. (there is also an additional variant for each of these included in the unlockable DLC). The Vorpal blade is your first weapon and used for fast melee slashing. Next, The Pepper Grinder is used rapid, medium to long range assault (and for triggering switches). The Hobby Horse is a slow but powerful short range weapon that is effective against groups of enemies (and is my favorite). The last weapon you get is the Teapot Cannon, is long ranged weapon of high damage and large radius (can be used to break some walls). [*]Character customization: There are several outfits for Alice, her original outfit that changes depending on which environment you are in, a few others, and the DLC outfits. The DLC outfits and weapons each have buffs (or debuffs) that can fit your playstyle. Also, the Teeth you collect can be used to upgrade your base weapons, changing their look and empowering them. [*]Mechanics: many of them stood out to me, aside from the combat focus. Shrinking: used to get through small keyholes and reveal hidden paths. Activated by holding down left control. Health system represented by roses. You can regenerate health by picking up roses that enemies drop or finding a purple flower (if you shrink on top of a purple flower, it will regenerate your health). You can increase your health capacity by completing challenge rooms. Hysteria (my favorite) where Alice taps into her insanity for several seconds to become invincible and gain increased damage. This can only be activated at extremely low health by pressing enter. Jumping: you can jump 3(?) times in midair, losing height with each consecutive jump. If you jump and hold down space in midair, you will slowly float. Also, while we are talking about movement, you can dodge by pressing left shift. [*]Enemies: Small leech-like slimes to massively destructive blobs with baby faces and flamethrowers. Nuff said. Each monster has their own attack pattern and vulnerabilities, which you will need to recognize in order to be victorious. The enemies vary from environment to environment. [*]Level design: predominantly linear with multitudes of secret memories, bottles, and challenge rooms to be found. A few puzzles (mentioned above) are included, but the vast majority of each level relies on platforming. This may get repetitive, but this is up to personal opinion. Although there are no steam achievements (wish there were), you progress is recorded and you can see how many secrets you have found (no one but you can see). [*]Graphics/art style: Surprisingly stunning, detailed environments. One of the selling points for me. I was constantly taking screenshots and have 350 of them (200 uploaded). Half the time playing I was looking for the perfect place to take a screenshot (I got some pretty good ones). [*]Performance: Mouse sensitivity takes getting used to, controls are clunky at first, but after playing for an hour or so, you’ll get used to it. The FPS and a few other things can be changed by editing some game files. You can find guides on how to do this if you look on the Community Hub. [*]Free DLC: Although it is not enabled by default, you can enable the DLC (that includes outfits and weapons) for free by changing the value of GIsSpecialPCEdition from FALSE to TRUE. [/list]Due to how much I liked this game, I decided to check out the earlier game, America Mcghee’s Alice. For a game made in 2000, it really impressed me. If you want to play Alice: Madness returns or have enjoyed playing it I strongly recommend you get a copy of America Mcghee’s Alice. It even has slightly better controls (sensitivity wise). [h1]TL:DR[/h1] To summarize: Alice: Madness Returns features a unique atmosphere, impressive soundtrack (which I forgot to mention), surreal story, decent platforming, weapon appearance customization, interesting mechanics, linear level designs, vibrant and dark art style, and average performance. On sale this is a must buy and at $20 I would still recommend it (if you understand some of the flaws). For personal enjoyment I’m giving it a 9/10 and for review purposes, I give it a 8.5/10 because of its flaws. Just be prepared to troubleshoot any potential problems that could arise.