Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Alice: Madness Returns

I've been playing this for the past week, and I'm loving this game. It's the sequel to American McGee's Alice (a game known for its unique take on Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland) which came out ten years ago and is pretty great as well.

It's a platforming game with some combat sequences thrown in at certain points. The art design and level design are simply fantastic, and the combat is quite fun as well (better than the first game).

As expected from Wonderland, it features quite some colourful characters, all adequately voiced.

Anyone else playing it?

Not yet, but it's on my list as I loved the first one.

Still not sure whether to get in on XBOX or PC.

This game is incredible. Possibly my favorite game of 2011 to date. The worlds are rich and detailed, the platforming is fun and interesting, the combat is satisfying, the graphics and artistic direction are breathtaking, etc.

I really loved American McGee's Alice, but this game is head and shoulders above it in every single way. The gameplay mechanics in Alice: Madness Returns will make you never want to go back to American McGee's Alice.

Macbeth,

Unless you like abusive DRM, you should probably get it on X-Box.

You only need to activate the game online once, after that you're not bothered anymore at all.

Fallout: New Vegas and other games that come with Steam are much more a nuisance.



What's also amazing is that the game is in fact an 'indie' game, since it was mostly developed in China. Spicy Horse is based in Shanghai.

In many ways, this game is a middle-finger to the so-called "AAA" games of today, with their multi-million budgets, but shallow and short gameplay.

You're quite correct, virumor. Spicy Horse did a brilliant job on it.

I wasn't impressed with Grimm, but Madness Returns blew me away.

Considering that they're an independent Chinese studio that's been compared to mediocre outsourcing houses, I'm shocked how richly detailed and finely crafted everything in Madness Returns is.

It's a shame that they're moving into the mobile market now, but I guess it's hard to spend a lot more money making great games like Madness Returns and not having it sell as well as it deserves to.

Well, hopefully there will be some more "distractions" then.

Considering how big free-to-play MMOs are in China, it's understandable that they'd focus on that.

Cheers
I also hear that on console you get the original Alice as well. That sounds nice!

I believe so, yes

I only played the demo of that, back in the day, as I missed it in the shops, but it was weird and wonderful and completely crazy - in a good way!

Between this and Shadows of the Damned, EA has made this gamer a pretty happy camper. What fantastic games. Spicy Horse and Grasshopper Manufacture definitely didn't disappoint with these two.

I played this today at a friends house and it pissed me off at first because I kept dying (This was at the end of Chap 2) fighting 3 teapots and that sludge baby thing, then 4 teapots spawned and another sludge baby thing. Granted, I had never played the game before, nor it's predecessors. Took me and her rotating like 5 tries to finally get it done. It was on Easy however, so I don't feel very accomplished. But, once I got the hang of the game, it was rather enjoyable. The graphics are just stunning. I would rather watch someone play this than have a go myself however.

And just because I'm curious now, how far is everyone?

Also, favorite weapon? In my short time playing I became very talented with the Pepper Grinder, but I love the speed and animations of the knife. <3