AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE
Developer: Rogue Entertainment
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Game Type: Third Person Shooter
Similar To: Rune

Date: 12/21/2000
By: Rice

    The one thing I've always stressed in my games is gameplay. Without gameplay, all the snazzy bells and whistles that come attached with the game is essentially useless. That's why Minesweeper is one of my all time favorites. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you with an exception to that rule: American McGee's Alice.

    Alice is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most beautiful Quake 3 Arena engine rendered game to date. On the other side of the fence sits the Unreal Tournament engine powered Rune. Quite honestly, I can't tell which is more gorgeous, since they're both head and shoulders above any other game in terms of graphics. Alice is, however, much more unique than the Viking slasher. While the latter is set in static environments we're all relatively familiar with (castles, snowy mountain passes, beaches, etc.), the former allows the imagination to run free in Wonderland. And oh my, what an imagination former id level designer American McGee has.

Hey look! It's... the Cheshire Cat?!

    As a renegade immigrant from another country who just got his citizenship a couple years ago, I was unfamiliar with the story of Alice in Wonderland. As a form of preparation in playing this game, I went ahead and spent a whole day reading the original Lewis Carroll novel online (thanks to Project Gutenberg, and yes, I am a freak). Comfortable with the knowledge of characters such as the cheshire cat, the mad hatter, and the Queen, I eagerly dove into American McGee's rendition of Alice.

    The excellent intro cutscene shows something's gone wrong with Alice, and in effect, Wonderland's been flipped head over arse. Thus we're introduced to this slim gothic, Victorian teenage girl with straight, dark brown hair complete with a skull waist-broach. Oh, and did I mention the razor-sharp knife? Yes indeedy, something's gone terribly wrong.

Whoa... cool portal, dude...

    Alice's bread and butter is its graphics. Not just pretty graphics, but also creative and imaginative graphics. Life-sized chess pieces that will grunt and fight, gigantic floating hand watches in the sky, oozing tenticles protruding out of walls, and psychadelic portals complete with a cockeyed door frame. The Rogue artists most likely inhaled a dose of Angel Dust or something before going to work each day, because what I've mentioned is but a mere fraction of the creepily bizarre, yet freaking beautiful environments you will encounter in this game.

    The level architects likewise deserve mad props, because without proper maps, all those textures drawn would've been a waste. Fortunately, they know what they're doing, and we're treated to amazing designs such as a black and white world that sounds dull, but perhaps mark the pinnacle of graphical excellence in Alice. In addition, there's also jigsaw floor tiles that fly up and down, huge rotating gears, and a lush Wonderland forest. These words and screenshots really do no justice to the marvel you'll experience as you move through the game progressively.

Black and white has never looked prettier.

    Alice also brings back memorable boss matches, where you have to fight disgusting bad guys that are 3-4 times your size. You know, guys that can take every ounce of your current arsenal times 2. It makes for franatic battles that seems to be lacking in the brain-over-brawn boss fights in games these days.

    I usually don't mention much about music in my reviews, but I can't help but heap more laud in this category. Chris Vrenna, former Nine Inch Nail rocker, composes a memorable score that includes xylephones, bells, toy piano's, and whatnot. Vrenna basically took all those nursery instruments and mixed them into a classic soundtrack that adds a twsited and menacing atompshere to the overall feel. I can boldly claim that sans music, Alice wouldn't have had the same effect it had on me.

*Gulp*......... Eeek!

    If you negate everything I said above regarding all the pretty flash and bang and focus on the gameplay, this is merely mediocre. You progress through the levels linearly with an occasional simple puzzle here and there to solve. Pull this lever, create this effect, now go there and take advantage of it. Rinse, lather, and repeat. Plus there are a lot of jumping puzzles. Alice the character is rather difficult to control at first because she has such mad hops. Until you get used to it later, be prepared to wear down your quick load key. Yeah, I can see that sour look on your face already.

    Okay, now that I've more than thoroughly established the level of technical and artistic excellence that Alice achieves, I can explain why I think that all of that has transcended even the gameplay itself. You see, the graphics become the sole matter that is driving me to play on. I could care less about the storyline, which is as linear as the gameplay itself. Instead, I couldn't get enough of this twisted Wonderland. I wanted to gawk at what else American McGee's imagination has stored for me around the corner as I pressed on and mowed down the hoard of enemies the game threw at me. And by golly, gawk I did.

Honey, I shrunk the Alice.

    This reminds me of another exception to the gameplay rule, which was Doom. There are a lot of parallels to Doom in Alice if you think about it. Back then, it represented the best graphics technology had to offer. The plot was thinner than paper: save the Earth from the minions of Hell, and the gameplay consisted of nothing more than blasting through baddies. However, it was such a technological marvel that no one really cared! Doom was freaking awesome, not thought provoking. It was cool, not deep, much like Alice here. It's like an interactive art gallery. Now let's move onto the next slide..... Oooh! Ahhh! Drool, slobber....

    If you have an adequate system (I'm talking 450 MHz and TNT2 class video card or above here), give Alice a whirl. If you've got warm blood running through your veins and you ain't from the future where VR is the current fad and all this 3D on a 2D screen is rubbish, you will be floored by what this game presents to you. Please, keep some tissues next to you too to wipe away your imminent saliva. I learned the hard way. =)

That's it, she's pissed............

Final Grade: A-
Summary: Best artistic creativy I've ever seen in a 3D shooter. I was wrong when I said graphics couldn't make a game. Gameplay is strictly linear, though.

Gratuitous Screenshots:

Books, books, everwhere!

Oh dear... it's way past my bed time.

Hey look! It's... the white rabbit?!

Toto, we ain't in Kansas no mo'.

These little crazy kids are freaky...