Eleven years is a long time in any industry. In the period between American Mcgee's Alice and its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, we had an entire console generation, the birth of Steam, the collapse of Sega as a first part developer, the rise of Microsoft as a first party developer, and the near collapse and resurrection of Nintendo.

We had Grand Theft Auto III and IV, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Pokemon solidifying itself as more than just a fan, Call of Duty, and many amazing titles. How would Alice, a game full of innovation, hope to compete in this climate?

The answer apparently was backslide. Set one year after the events of Alice, the titular character, while out of the asylum, is still being treated for her illness by a psychiatrist named Dr. Bumby. While she is thankful for being out the asylum, something doesn't feel right in her mind. Like she is forgetting something important. It is then that she is drawn back into Wonderland, to discover that an outside force called the Infernal Train is wreaking havoc. The rest of the game is trying to stop the train and to reclaim Alice's lost memories. The story carries this game, if I'm being completely honest. It takes things that were merely implied in the first game and extrapolates on them to a great degree. Without spoiling too much, this game is even darker than the first in terms of subject matter and it really messed with me at times. The dialogue and writing is even more polished than ever. It's a good thing the story is as well told and crafted, because the gameplay is objectively worse.

Before I write about that though, I want to give mention to graphics and sound. Most of the cast returns from the original game and continue their spectacular work. While the music of this game can't compare to Vrenna's work on the original, Jason Tai and Marshall Crutcher do a good job (though Vrenna did contribute one track to the game, and it's admittedly one of the better tracks).

Graphically this game uses Unreal Engine 3, and it's a great representation of what the engine could do when it wasn't being a slave to brown. The excellent art direction shines through. That being said, it pains me to say that this game has serious performance issues. I have an AMD Ryzen 5600G processor with 16 GB of RAM. I shouldn't have this much slowdown, especially from a game that runs on Xbox 360. And if you have an older system, the only thing that solved my stuttering problem was playing the game 640x480.

In terms of gameplay, this game is a bit of a collectathon in the vein of Banjo-Kazooie with the combat of a Zelda game. While it is fun, the camera's lock on feature has some difficulty targeting what you want to actually want to attack. There's a lot of variety in stages to spice things up, too. The problem is there's not a task in this game that doesn't repeat itself multiple times. I lost count of how many Mario 64 style slides I went down. It got to the point where if I had to solve one more sliding block puzzle, I was going to puke. As soon as the story begins to pick up steam, it feels like the game pulls you away to do some non sequitor. The result is a 7 hour game stretched out to about 15 hours of content. By the time I got to the game's final (and only) boss, I just wanted it to be over. Which is a shame, because the ending sets up a sequel that will never come. Thank you for that, EA.

It's worth one playthrough, at least. But I don't see myself coming back to this one the way I did the first game anytime soon. That being said, if by some miracle we ever get a third Alice game, I'll be there with open arms. There are few game series with as much untapped potential as this one. As I mentioned in my review for the first game, buying this game is the only surefire way to get the first game. So I say pick it up. And who knows? You may fall in love with it the same way so many cosplayers and goth subculture has.

American McGee is from what I've seen a pretty cool and down-to-earth kind of guy. With the exception of maybe Sandy Peterson or possibly Tom Hall, he's probably the one of the Doom 1 and 2 team that takes themselves the least seriously. After being fired from id shortly after Quake II finished development, and was quickly scooped up by Electronic Arts. This game was the first game he had full control over. It is also his best work.

Set in 1870s Britain, Alice, a survivor of a fire that killed her parents (and sister, as the sequel relates) is left catatonic. When exposed to her rabbit doll from her childhood, her mind drags her back into Wonderland, which has become a distorted and demented place. To save Wonderland and reclaim her sanity, she must find the Queen of Hearts.

There must have been something in the air with game developers in the late 90s and early 2000s, as many games from this era delve into the psychology of the characters. Few do it as well as Alice. The story is an intriguing mix of horror, characters study, and fantasy that shouldn't work, but does. There are some excellent lines in this game, and if you've ever experienced depression or some from of mental illness, you might find comfort in what this game has to say. It is a story that'll stick with you for years to come.

This is in no small part to Susie Brann as Alice and Roger Jackson as the Cheshire Cat. Though the entire voice cast does an excellent job.

In fact, the whole sound design of this game is great. Besides the voice acting, the sound effects are punchy which is important for this kind of third person shooter. Special attention should also be given to Chris Vrenna's soundtrack. Many people know about Trent Reznor composing the music for Quake 1, but not as many people know Chris Vrenna's work on Alice. And they should. His work really heightens the mood of some these levels. This game is downright sinister in places thanks to his music.

In terms of graphics, this game uses the Quake III engine to great effect. In a time when video games were beginning to veer towards brown and realism that would come to dominate the industry, American McGee's Alice shows just what the Quake III engine could do, with its greens and blues and reds. But the major heavy lifting of the game's graphics come from the art style, which Tim Burton absolutely ripped off for his Disney movies. Though it could be argued that American McGee was imitating Burton's style. Either way, you're gonna get Hot Topic merch.

So good story, good music, good characters, and good graphics. How's the gameplay? While admittedly the weakest aspect of the game, it's still excellent. Alice controls great on the ground, and all of the weapons are fun to use and you can really bring the pain. My personal favorite weapon is the ice staff. It's a good thing the weapons are so good, because you'll need all the help you can get. This is a hard game. Fortunately, you can quicksave, and this game seems to be built around it. Alice has some of that old Doom and Quake DNA and it's better for it. Unfortunately, this game relies on a lot of platforming which just isn't that fun to control. Banjo Kazooie this ain't. However, it never bothered me to the point that it made me want to stop.

Sadly, this game can be awful to get running on modern hardware. Not that modern computers can't run it. Merely that EA has decided not to sell it. Thankfully, you can access it still if you buy a copy of Alice: Madness Returns on Steam or the EA app. I'll have a link at the bottom of this review with instructions on how to set it up.

You might have to jump through a few hurdles to get it working, but it's worth your time. American McGee's Alice is a work from a real auteur, which is quite rare in this medium. The fact that it was published by EA makes it all the more unique. I say give it a shot.

How to get American McGee's Alice working on modern systems:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2881785983

Eleven years is a long time in any industry. In the period between American Mcgee's Alice and its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, we had an entire console generation, the birth of Steam, the collapse of Sega as a first part developer, the rise of Microsoft as a first party developer, and the near collapse and resurrection of Nintendo.

We had Grand Theft Auto III and IV, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Pokemon solidifying itself as more than just a fan, Call of Duty, and many amazing titles. How would Alice, a game full of innovation, hope to compete in this climate?

The answer apparently was backslide. Set one year after the events of Alice, the titular character, while out of the asylum, is still being treated for her illness by a psychiatrist named Dr. Bumby. While she is thankful for being out the asylum, something doesn't feel right in her mind. Like she is forgetting something important. It is then that she is drawn back into Wonderland, to discover that an outside force called the Infernal Train is wreaking havoc. The rest of the game is trying to stop the train and to reclaim Alice's lost memories. The story carries this game, if I'm being completely honest. It takes things that were merely implied in the first game and extrapolates on them to a great degree. Without spoiling too much, this game is even darker than the first in terms of subject matter and it really messed with me at times. The dialogue and writing is even more polished than ever. It's a good thing the story is as well told and crafted, because the gameplay is objectively worse.

Before I write about that though, I want to give mention to graphics and sound. Most of the cast returns from the original game and continue their spectacular work. While the music of this game can't compare to Vrenna's work on the original, Jason Tai and Marshall Crutcher do a good job (though Vrenna did contribute one track to the game, and it's admittedly one of the better tracks).

Graphically this game uses Unreal Engine 3, and it's a great representation of what the engine could do when it wasn't being a slave to brown. The excellent art direction shines through. That being said, it pains me to say that this game has serious performance issues. I have an AMD Ryzen 5600G processor with 16 GB of RAM. I shouldn't have this much slowdown, especially from a game that runs on Xbox 360. And if you have an older system, the only thing that solved my stuttering problem was playing the game 640x480.

In terms of gameplay, this game is a bit of a collectathon in the vein of Banjo-Kazooie with the combat of a Zelda game. While it is fun, the camera's lock on feature has some difficulty targeting what you want to actually want to attack. There's a lot of variety in stages to spice things up, too. The problem is there's not a task in this game that doesn't repeat itself multiple times. I lost count of how many Mario 64 style slides I went down. It got to the point where if I had to solve one more sliding block puzzle, I was going to puke. As soon as the story begins to pick up steam, it feels like the game pulls you away to do some non sequitor. The result is a 7 hour game stretched out to about 15 hours of content. By the time I got to the game's final (and only) boss, I just wanted it to be over. Which is a shame, because the ending sets up a sequel that will never come. Thank you for that, EA.

It's worth one playthrough, at least. But I don't see myself coming back to this one the way I did the first game anytime soon. That being said, if by some miracle we ever get a third Alice game, I'll be there with open arms. There are few game series with as much untapped potential as this one. As I mentioned in my review for the first game, buying this game is the only surefire way to get the first game. So I say pick it up. And who knows? You may fall in love with it the same way so many cosplayers and goth subculture has.

So, after finishing World Tour Mode, several of the characters arcade mode stories, and getting myself to Silver ranking online, I feel like I can comfortably say something about this game. And what I can say about this game is that it's a massive return to form for Capcom fighting games, which had been in a slump since I would say about 2012 or so.

This game is a love letter to fans of Capcom games. The World Tour mode is stuffed with easter eggs and references to past games. Heck, past games are baked into it. Players have access to several games from Capcom's back catalog just by playing Street Fighter 6. The World Tour mode builds on the RPG mechanics of Street Fighter Alpha 3's PS1 port, and it also lets you create and customize your own fighter, mixing and matching various fighting styles from the main roster. Just being in the world of Street Fighter, as a longterm fan of the series, was a real treat.

The Battle Hub attempts to recreate what going to the arcade must have been like back in the day. I was too young for those days, but if it was anything like Battle Hub, it must have been a special time.

In terms of graphics and art, these are some of my favorite versions of these characters. Capcom tastefully aged up the World Warriors, and I love the hip hop inspired graffiti art style. The balance and matchmaking are on point. Some rightfully complain about the game's microtransactions, but it's all priced in a comparative way to other fighters. I'm not sure how else you would get other fighters into the game other than doing what Capcom did in the past and do re-releases of the game, and I personally don't like the idea. Capcom has consistently refused to give away new characters. Nor should they be expected to give them away.

The game also sounds great. The hits sound really meaty, and when you land counters. it really sounds like it hurts. I also love the music. It's probably the second best OST in the whole series.

The storyline sets up for interesting twists that are sure to built on in later updates and entries, but as it stands right now, this is probably the best fighting game in a very long time. While I don't think it'll unseat Third Strike in terms of popularity, I think it could very well join its ranks and see tournament play well past its viability. The future is bright for this series.