American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns

Deleted user 19 February 2009 22:43:57

First concept art of the sequel to Alice named, er, Alice.

I'll play wait and see on this one, McGee's utterly failed of late to produce anything worth playing.

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sanctusmortis 19 Feb 2009 22:48:45 8,616 posts
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I'm truly puzzled, TBH - don't see how a sequel would work really. I mean, both main books are in the original, so does it just use the world?

It'd be awesome if it followed the "Looking Glass Wars" series. Damn cool books.

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Caspar_Esq. 19 Feb 2009 23:22:56 3,274 posts
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May well just be a remake.

Never played the original and always liked the concept so might be worth keeping an eye on I guess.

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Ged42 20 Feb 2009 11:25:15 7,407 posts
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Loved the look of the original, so with current gen graphics it's going to look stunning. Heck the steampunk snail has me sold.

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TakeTheVeil 20 Feb 2009 11:30:35 5,058 posts
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Im in the same position as Casper. Never played the original but love the concept and art direction.

Worth picking up the original these days?

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Blerk Moderator 20 Feb 2009 11:33:30 47,755 posts
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I hope this turns out well. The original looked great, but PC-only meant I couldn't play it.

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GreyScale 20 Feb 2009 11:38:44 389 posts
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The original game for me was a prime example of rose-tinted glasses in effect. I can't seem to find anyone that agrees with me on this, everyone loved it, but for me:

I thought it was a pretty and mildly interesting aesthetic papered over what was essentially a rubbish game. It was simplistic, repetitive, unwieldy and dull, but this seemed to have been forgotten about. The weapons were rubbish and underpowered, the combat was just straightforward shooting/melee, it had cheap bosses and incredibly crap platformy bits, and massive maze corridor sections.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less impressed I am with the concept...the hook is that they just took the Alice story and 'gothed' it up. Get a character design, add some knives, bit of blood, darken down the colours, job done, big wow. I dunno what American McGee has ever done to have had his name (and continue to have his name, by the sounds of it) as a prefix on several games. Designed some Doom levels? Again, big wow.

Rah.

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Deleted user 20 February 2009 11:44:24

It was pretty broken but I still finished and enjoyed it.

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thefilthandthefury 20 Feb 2009 11:46:49 24,477 posts
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I loved the first one. Absolutely bonkers!

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Ciaran 20 Feb 2009 12:11:11 1,070 posts
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I remember really loving the setting and world of the first one, but never getting further than the first few levels. So I suspect Grey may be right.

/here's hoping it's not a straight remake.

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kalel 20 Feb 2009 12:18:04 76,470 posts
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One of the best examples of a 'style over substance' game. Would be great it they could actually get the bones right this time.

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ComradePete 20 Feb 2009 14:41:59 418 posts
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GreyScale wrote:

In fact, the more I think about it, the less impressed I am with the concept...the hook is that they just took the Alice story and 'gothed' it up.

Pretty much sums it up - it all seems a bit 'sixth-form' to me...

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warlockuk 20 Feb 2009 14:48:39 18,614 posts
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I tried playing it again last year, I found it to be a _little_ bit shit. Maybe a remake will be not shit.

I'm a grumpy bastard.

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Cappy 20 Feb 2009 14:51:10 11,077 posts
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American McGee deserves to go to Turkish prison* for debasing a classic like Alice in Wonderland.

* Or somewhere worse if that turns out to be his idea of a good time.

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thefilthandthefury 20 Feb 2009 14:59:23 24,477 posts
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But he made Alice good!

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Cappy 20 Feb 2009 15:02:44 11,077 posts
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American McGee wiped his arse on part of your cultural heritage.

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Machetazo 20 Feb 2009 15:17:50 6,372 posts
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It's not like the man ever claimed his vision of Alice, and the Wonderland concept, was anything more than that. If Wonderland exists in the girl's mind, and her mind just isn't right, then why should Wonderland (or this representation of it) be? It's a play on the original idea, not a defacement of it.
I appreciate the creativity and quality of the elements included in that first game.

Are you just as annoyed with the makers of the Prince of Persia series, for basing their world around a take-off concept from The Arabian Nights?

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Salaman 20 Feb 2009 15:33:27 16,589 posts
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Cool. Quite enjoyed the first mostly because of the lovely trippy visuals and all than.

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warlockuk 20 Feb 2009 16:00:49 18,614 posts
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Visuals were grand. It was just the gameplay that was a bit wank :/

I'm a grumpy bastard.

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Hicksy 20 Feb 2009 19:50:52 2,585 posts
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One of the most stylish games I ever played. Was mesmirised by it despite the sometimes patchy game play

Hooray for the sequel!

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sanctusmortis 20 Feb 2009 23:35:27 8,616 posts
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ComradePete wrote:
GreyScale wrote:

In fact, the more I think about it, the less impressed I am with the concept...the hook is that they just took the Alice story and 'gothed' it up.

Pretty much sums it up - it all seems a bit 'sixth-form' to me...

No, steampunked. VERY different cultures.

Seriously, read Looking Glass Wars, there are many very interesting takes on the world of the books.

Anyway... the more I think about it, the more's left uncovered.

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Obiwanshinobi 21 Feb 2009 02:12:50 866 posts
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Cappy wrote:
American McGee wiped his arse on part of your cultural heritage.

Sure, the same way Square did on the pride of PC-only gamers with FFIX. They used to be pretty vocal on the Internet about Square raping cultural heritage of Final Fantasy.
I still am fairly disgusted by philistian amputation of The Little Mermaid's bad ending by Disney, but at least I saw freaking movie to the very end and I know what I'm talking about.

Machetazo wrote:
Are you just as annoyed with the makers of the Prince of Persia series, for basing their world around a take-off concept from The Arabian Nights?

Wait, there's more! What about Zoroastrians, their beliefs, their cultural heritage and the latest Prince of Persia, huh?

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JinTypeNoir 21 Feb 2009 03:45:21 4,211 posts
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Isn't American McGee the guy behind Bad Day in LA?

If so, well...when you know something bad is going to happen in the future, you can either think about the bad thing or joke about it and I prefer the latter.

So I hope this is cancelled in favor of a collaboration with Japan McJima that is a turn-based strategy game where the Empire of Pretentious Art Direction fights the Colonies of Pretentious Story-Telling.

There, I feel much better now.