American McGee's Alice
does for Lewis Carroll what Nirvana did for music hall.
Alice has been summoned back to Wonderland but things have changed for the
worse with bizarre and macabre overtones, although it still features some of
the familiar characters such as the white rabbit and a certain grinning
Cheshire cat.
After seeing the game played on TV on various programmes this was one I was
most looking forward to. Alas, disappointment was on the schedule. While you're
presented with stylish graphics demonstrating a wickedly dark behaviour and
based upon a tweaked version of the Quake III engine, it's
let down by Alice's movement, particularly when jumping, which is jerky and as
you leap from platform to platform it's all too easy to fall between the cracks
and hit the ground below, unless you're unlucky enough to tumble into a
bottomless pit.
A smart and atmospheric score has been created by Nine Inch Nails'
founder member Chris Vrenna. At times it can be a tad overbearing
though.
If it wasn't
enough to control Alice as she stilts her way about the screen,
it's compounded by the difficulty level which is too high even early on, one
such screen involving you to hop across a semi-collapsed floor, climb a
staircase and walk back across a tilting platform. Might not be so bad if
it wasn't blowing a force 10 gale while two spooks shoot at you.
Overall, if you get a chance to try before you buy then do so. However, it's
the playability and the basic linear style of the game just sees you travelling
from point A to point B ad infinitum which lets everything down and puts me
off.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
American McGee's Alice
does for Lewis Carroll what Nirvana did for music hall.
A smart and atmospheric score has been created by Nine Inch Nails'
founder member Chris Vrenna. At times it can be a tad overbearing
though.
