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Alice: Madness Returns is a dark, and occasionally disturbing journey into the psychotic mind of Alice, a deeply depressed, and disturbed teenager, who's been in a mental asylum since a very young age, when she lost her entire family in a house fire. Wonderland is her escape valve from the trauma of everyday life - a place where she goes with her mind - but it's recently come under attack. As the line between reality and Wonderland blurs, and enthralling, mature storyline unveils, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you playing.
As a third person action/platform game, the gameplay's not all that dissimilar to Mario, although a stronger comparison can be drawn with Tomb Raider. The game's fully voiced, so reading isn't a problem, and the puzzles in the game are mostly simply observation based, rather than being true brain teasers. For those who're likely to get bored without any action, there's a good mix of exploration and combat here too, meaning those who need a bit of button mashing to go with their adventures will be well catered for.
A dark fantasy adventure, Alice is a game which isn't afraid to be disturbing, violent, or even delve into themes with sexual overtones in its attempt to recreate Alice's troubled mind.
The opening of the game, in fact, is possibly one of the most disturbing bits. Seeing you sailing down a river with a rabbit, in a hand drawn cutscene, the rabbits eyes suddenly fall out, as black, sludgy blood trickles from its sockets, and its head pops off. The game starts as it means to go on, and varies between being dark, and slightly disturbing, but never ventures into the Saw territory of normal rated 18 games, and "torture porn" style depictions.
With plenty of strong, bloody violence, Alice isn't a game that's shy in its depictions of combat. With Alice herself wielding a large knife, her blade can make short work of enemies, with blood splattering the ground, and heads rolling, as the knife decapitates her foes. That said, we've seen much more violent games, and Alice is more creepy than overtly gory.
The sexual overtones come from later on in the game, where there are references to prostitutes, pimps, and sex. In terms of bad language, the game features regular use of "f**k" and "c*nt".
Sadly, Alice: Madness Returns has no specific multiplayer mode, and is an entirely single player experience.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
