Alice: Madness Returns - Xbox 360

I will be the first to admit, this is not the best game ever. But what this is, is a great game that will get passed up by many. It does have a few flaws that I found. Some will say it's repetative, (but aren't all games?), and the platforming in the game is made a bit difficult becasue the depth is hard to gauge. But what it lacks in these fields it makes up for in terms of story beauty. This is the game I waited 10 years for and I find that it delivers. I though it was going to be a short game. Some might say it still is. This is the kind of game you play through for story and not so much for the game it self. A movie, if you will, where you play as the lead charater to go deeper into the rabbit hole. I was very surprise to find a decent combat system a breath of weapons to use and abilities that while I have seen in other games were given a uniqe twist here. The scenery changes enough, and for the type of game it is, there is a good bit of variaty. Just as you think they ran out of tricks something new (and from the world of Wonderland) creaps in making it oh so enjoyable, that you can't help but smerk. I find many will especially enjoy the Chesser Cat's attitude. Unbelievable enough "Madness Returns" picks up 10 years later from the events of the first game. Which if you haven't played, your are in luck. Buying a new copy of this game gives you a code to download the first game for free. It's worth a play thruogh. Be warn it is 10 years old as well and will be hard to play, due to a control scheme that was originally in place for PC, still palyable none the less. To contiune, what you'll find is a game that leads you down one path using familar charaters from Alice in wonderland, and some how managing to contue a story that ended with the first game. The story is one that I either haven't seen or played, or think that even hollywood hasn't come up with. It should provide you a few good, Oh My God moments, and earns it's M rating in a good way. All in all, what you really have is two games for the price of one, one may be a 10 year old relic but I find it still holds up, at least story wise, and a sequal that will shock you like no game has in a while. Fans of the Original "American McGee's Alice" are no doubt not reading this review as I'm sure their mind has been made up and already own a copy. But if you want an interesting story, and can deal with a few game flaws, you need to get this to see what the rest of us have been clamering about. [This review is based on having completed the first game twice. Once on PC and then again via the download code for my console, and Madness Returns to 100%.]

I've been waiting for this game to release since I first heard news of it last year and now that I'm playing it, it didn't disappoint. This is a platforming action game and both aspects are done really well. It's visually rich with tons of detail and the camera work is done well. The backgrounds vary from vivid and serenely beautiful to dark, gritty and gory. Even the costume changes as you make it to new locations are nice little touches that add to all the attention to detail that was paid to the graphics. Even when you fall and die it looks cool. Standing out are the parts with the motion comic-like cutscenes that are dark and violent. Sort of like reading rainbow on a very bad acid trip. Platforming feels solid. Double jumping not only looks beautiful with a cool graphical flourish but the "float" ability that allows you to glide and string multiple double jumps together is useful and cool to look at. The fighting is also done really well. I like dedicated melee and ranged buttons that allow the combat to flow seamlessly instead of constantly switching weapons back & forth as the situation and enemies demand a major improvement over the first. Theres also a dodge/dash ability that's both very useful and is awesome to look at. Locking on to enemies to and being able to change to another target during battle is very useful and also an upgrade from the first game. Exploration is rewarded and encouraged which I love. It's not just a straight road through the game. There are items & memories to find if you go off the beaten path. Your first power is "shrink sense" which is sort like detective mode from Batman Arkham Asylum. It lets you shrink down in size to access new paths that only your smaller size allows you to access, but also gives everything a UV glow so you can see hidden signs and platforms you normally would have missed. Collecting teeth to upgrade weapons, finding other items and snouts to unlock hidden paths feel very rewarding. You can go into first person mode for more precise aiming to take out enemies or to aim at pig snouts to unlock new paths. This game is everything I wanted from the first one and more. I bought the original when it first released and I'm on my second copy I just loved it so much. My only problem with the original was I"m not a PC gamer and using a keyboard and mouse was something I'm not use to. Being able to play the new game with a console controller and getting a free download of the original to play on my xbox with a controller is amazing.

10 years ago, Alice Liddell's house caught fire and her parents and older sister died in the blaze. Badly burned and on the brink of death, Alice fell into a catatonic state, punctuated by moments of screaming madness. She was moved to Rutledge Asylum in London where the doctors tried all kinds of treatments to bring her out of her trance-like state. The methods used in asylums in the 19th century were not based on very sound medical knowledge. For example, Alice was given shock treatments, doses of poisonous substances, and leeches were placed on her. But nothing seemed to work. While Alice appeared to be a soulless vegetable, the real cure for her ailment was inside her own mind. In her mind she could seek solace in Wonderland, the fantastical land she had visited in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. But as seen in the game Alice, which came out on PC in 2000, and is available for download for free with new copies of Madness Returns, Wonderland wasn't quite the weird but delightful place it once was. The maniacal Red Queen was waging total war against the inhabitants of Wonderland and it was up to Alice to stop her. The health of Wonderland was symbolic of Alice's mental health. With the defeat of the Red Queen, Alice was able to win back her sanity as well....or so she thinks. This game isn't called Madness Returns for nothing, you know. As the game opens, Alice has been released from the asylum and is working and boarding at an orphanage named Houndsditch Home and Refuge for Wayward Youth. I wouldn't say her sanity is 100%. She still sees visions and stuff but Alice is able to function pretty normally. She still has sessions with a Dr. Bumby in which she discusses her lost memories and visions. The thing that is really bothering her is her inability to remember what happened the night her family died in the fire. There are all kinds of different opinions about the fire's source. Some even say it was Alice that caused it! In order to find out the truth, Alice will have to return to Wonderland again in order to reclaim her lost memories. But just like her last visit, the threat to her mind has been made manifest by a new evil in Wonderland. A sinister train is winding its way through the environment, bringing death and destruction to those that live there. Once again, it's up to Alice to confront this threat, and again save her own soul in the process. Even though Madness Returns starts in grimy Dickensian London, it's not long before you fall, literally, into Wonderland, and I have to say, the sequence of Alice landing in the Vale of Tears is a very beautiful artistic vision. Which kind of raises expectations about the rest of the game that can probably never be met. The true Wonderland is one of lush vegetation and surreal elements like miniature winged cows and 2001 A Space Odyssey monolith sized dominoes floating and schooling in the sky. If I could have Alice just sit in a chair and look around at the environment I probably could have sat there for a couple of hours just taking in the beauty of the surroundings. Unfortunately, once the evil train gets introduced and the conflict begins, Wonderland begins to break apart and you are left with what looks like Hell: Lava, spider-webs, chunks of cold rock, Gothic castles, intestinal body cavities, blood by the buckets, zombie-like deformed children, monsters, fire, perilous falls, and shadowy underwater creatures, all want to kill you. I wish we had gotten to spend a little more time in the "nice" Wonderland before the whole thing went to decay, so I would know more what I was fighting for. It would be cool if someone could make a game based more on the books and somehow make it a Kinect or Move compatible. It's almost like you need to have read the books or seen movie adaptations to know what Wonderland used to be like. While I might complain a bit about the darkness of the game, I guess really that's what the gamemakers were shooting for. I could have done with a little break from the dreariness of the atmosphere, but the artistic design of the world and its characters were first rate. Of course, I have to start at the top with Alice. As she progresses to different areas of Wonderland, she has different dresses which reflect their theme. For instance, when she goes to the factory of the Mad Hatter, who is either a cyborg or and android, she sports a steampunk dress or when she travels to "The Mysterious East", she puts on a kimono inspired version of her classic blue and whites. I loved it when she would float or jump and you could have her drift for a bit and her dress and hair would move very realistically. Alice always had grace, even during combat. Her movements were fluid and she moved like a real person, not a digital one. You could tell a lot of love went into her just by how the wind would blow her long hair. To me, all the exteriors of the game were pretty good, but interiors were kinda dull. Yes, Alice Madness Returns is at its heart a platformer. If anything, the game it most reminded me of was the original Tomb Raider. Having just finished Tomb Raider Anniversary a couple weeks ago, I know what I'm talking about. The thing about Tomb Raider that stands out to me is that a lot of that game was "OK, I need to get to point B from point A. Now, given the environmental aids at my disposal, how do I get there?". The same is true of Madness. You have to get from one side of the level to the other but you are given some leeway as to how to do it. The jumping is a little awkward at the beginning of the game but is easily mastered. You have to be precise about what you're doing, but the game is by no means insane in its demands. One thing I did not like is some of the time, you have to jump to moving platforms which are also INVISIBLE. Sometimes you have to even do a sequence of timed jumps to invisible moving platforms which can be a little trying because you can only see them while you are holding the L button and you can't jump at the same time. Luckily, after you release the button, the platforms stay visible for a couple of extra seconds. This almost broke the game only once for me. I would suggest buying the downloadable content for Alice, which was only 160 Microsoft Points, which gave you new power-up dresses and weapons. One of those dresses allowed you to see invisible platforms at all times, not just when you held the button down. I don't think I would have made it past a certain point without that dress. There are some neat little 2D platforming sections that will surprise, along with a little bit of Marble Madness. There's a bit of puzzling as well. In fact I would say this game could be divided into about 60% platforming and puzzling and 40% combat. As for combat, I thought it was pretty well done. Again, Alice's moves were fluid, especially with the Vorpal Blade. You collect teeth which which are used to upgrade your weapons. With more upgrades, your weapons not only become more powerful, but faster. With full power, the Vorpal Blade, leaving black and red line blurs of motion, almost reminds me of Nariko's Heavenly Sword. You can utilize the Pepper Grinder as a stand-in for a machine gun and a Teapot Cannon which fires tea grenades for more powerful but slower rate of fire area effect attacks. Then, finally, there's the Hobby Horse, which functions as a war hammer. There can be an issue with targeting when you have multiple enemies but it wasn't a big deal except maybe in two instances, and it just made it harder or more annoying, not a gamebreaker. Overall, the fighting was exciting and interesting visually, and you were equipped with weapons that served you well, if you also used your brain. Now we come to what I think is the weakest link of this game: the voice acting. The voice acting is really divided into in-game interactions between characters and then cutscenes with highly stylized paper doll-like representations of the characters. As far as the in-game scenes, these were acted pretty well. The cutscenes where the most dramatic reveals are done are horrible. The voice actors read their parts really fast and no matter what they were talking about they were completely deadpan. It was a real shame. Due to this poor voice acting I didn't get very immersed in the story. I had to learn to care about the character of Alice from her design and movements alone. So I guess I admire the work of Alice's motion capture actress, Ana Swanson, more that her voice actress, Susie Brann. Why is it that EVERY English videogame voice actress sounds like Lara Croft? They just sound so generic. So overall, I liked this game. Again, it reminded me a lot of the original Tomb Raider. Graceful character motion, precise woman vs. environment platforming with elements of free will. Puzzles that are interesting without being frustrating. There are also collectibles in the game in the form of your memories, teeth (which you use to upgrade your weapons), and bottles (which don't seem to serve any function in the game). I, for one, like to collect stuff. Some reviewers have complained that the game is one big fetch quest. I didn't feel like that at all. Could this game have been better? Of course. No game is perfect. I would have liked to have spent more time in the beautiful wonderland before it starts to slip into the horror aspect of the game. The voice acting, to me, was the biggest problem with the game. Another complaint I've heard is that the game is too long. I thought the length was just about right. Definitely worth playing.

ive quite the video game review here so i know what im talking about. if you want a good review look for ones by me. ive done quite a few. trust me here. this game has little likeness to the orignal alice for the pc. while purchasing a new copy you recieve an online digital code for consoles and pcs to recieve a free version of the original alice for free. food for thought. if you are an achievement hunter the original does give gamerscore points and trophies. that being said you dont have to play the first one to enjoy and understand this one (madness returns). okay. for fans of: Kingdom hearts series. Darksiders series. and virtually and platformer with a large emphasis on button masher style rpg weapon upgrade system. that being said the gameplay is awesome. its a bit blotchy in some scenes but rarely noticed. expect invisible walls. its not super aggravating but it does get a bit tedious. there really isnt a quest locator in the real world but when teleported to wonderland just follow the teeth. youll know what i mean. immediately when you recieve the pepper grinder start looking for flying nostils. youll see. the vorpal blade is pretty much the basic square, X command and the Triandle, Y is a hobby horse. a basic slow heavy hammer style weapon. large damage. i wont say too much more but you definitely get an arsenal. the music okay. not a soundtrack id buy or download but it fits with the tone. dresses the best. they all grant power ups. for console users, heres a tip for item hunters and collectors; for 160 microsoft points or 1.99 at PSN you get a plus one level max upgrade to all weapons. and you get ALOT of dresses. all with powerups. to be honest, some are lame, but for the a weapon level boost and like 6 or 7 dresses its worth it. they all have ups and downs. pretty much its basic DLC costume rule. the sicker they look the lamer the power up. that being said there are 5 (out of all dresses collectible) dresses that i switch through regularly during sessions. heres a hint, one grants you more teeth. have fun. ;-P

I've been waiting for this game to release since I first heard news of it last year and now that I'm playing it, it didn't disappoint. This is a platforming action game and both aspects are done really well. It's visually rich with tons of detail and the camera work is done well. The backgrounds vary from vivid and serenely beautiful to dark, gritty and gory. Even the costume changes as you make it to new locations are nice little touches that add to all the attention to detail that was paid to the graphics. Even when you fall and die it looks cool. Standing out are the parts with the motion comic-like cutscenes that are dark and violent. Sort of like reading rainbow on a very bad acid trip. Platforming feels solid. Double jumping not only looks beautiful with a cool graphical flourish but the "float" ability that allows you to glide and string multiple double jumps together is useful and cool to look at. The fighting is also done really well. I like dedicated melee and ranged buttons that allow the combat to flow seamlessly instead of constantly switching weapons back & forth as the situation and enemies demand a major improvement over the first. Theres also a dodge/dash ability that's both very useful and is awesome to look at. Locking on to enemies to and being able to change to another target during battle is very useful and also an upgrade from the first game. Exploration is rewarded and encouraged which I love. It's not just a straight road through the game. There are items & memories to find if you go off the beaten path. Your first power is "shrink sense" which is sort like detective mode from Batman Arkham Asylum. It lets you shrink down in size to access new paths that only your smaller size allows you to access, but also gives everything a UV glow so you can see hidden signs and platforms you normally would have missed. Collecting teeth to upgrade weapons, finding other items and snouts to unlock hidden paths feel very rewarding. You can go into first person mode for more precise aiming to take out enemies or to aim at pig snouts to unlock new paths. This game is everything I wanted from the first one and more. I bought the original when it first released and I'm on my second copy I just loved it so much. My only problem with the original was I"m not a PC gamer and using a keyboard and mouse was something I'm not use to. Being able to play the new game with a console controller and getting a free download of the original to play on my xbox with a controller is amazing.

I was a fan of the first game, a dark, twisted take on Alice in Wonderland. The sequel deals with Alice's Madness as she attempts to solve a mystery. Story: 9/10 A mysterious fire started, burning her house to the ground and incinerating her family. Alice was framed for the crime and it doesn't help that she can't remember what happened either. As Alice slips into madness, Wonderland slips into corruption. Alice must battle her way through Wonderland as she finds memories which will uncover the truth! The story is really well done and this would have made a great book, movie, anime, graphic novel, etc... Unfortunately, this story drives a lackluster game. Graphics: 6/10 Alice looks great and the concepts behind each of the levels: Steam Punk, Japan, Storybook, Queen of Hearts, etc... are very interesting. But the execution is pretty weak. The game looks like it's 5 years old. The levels are low polygon-low res textures. The lighting and camera are also pretty bad, too. As I was playing through the game, a mystery began to form in my own mind. Why does this game look so bad? Gameplay: 6/10 12 hours of Platform Jumping, 3 hours of basic combat, 1 hour of really bad puzzles. This is mostly a platformer where Alice can triple jump and glide. It's fairly easy and if you do miss a platform, they start you where you last touched solid ground. Unfortunately, the camera is not always your friend and you have to struggle to get it pointed in the right direction. The Combat is easy and straightforward. Hit or shoot enemies. Some enemies must be hit first, some must be shot first. When you kill them, they drop teeth and health. The teeth are used to upgrade the weapons. But there are no jumping attacks and aside from YYY or XXX, there aren't any combos. The mini-games are just plain bad. Slider Puzzles with the same solution and sometimes the same image across puzzles. A pinball game with awful physics. etc... The gameplay is so bad, I'm surprised 3DO didn't publish it... I started asking myself, why is this game so bad? Sound: 7/10 The Voice Acting is OK. The music is well done and highlights the combat and creepy atmosphere. Overall, it's pretty good. Maturity: M This is NOT FOR KIDS! This is a very dark story in a game which features gore and horror elements! It's more like Silent Hill than Crash Bandicoot. Overall: 6.5/10 When I finished the game and saw the ending credits, my mystery was solved. Nearly everyone was Chinese. So, EA took this Alice Madness Concept and farmed it out to a cheap rookie development house in China. This is why everything looks blah, and the gameplay is clunky. I really wish EA spent more resources on this game because it could have been really cool. I'd like to see the story continued, by a real developer. Alice deserves better!

There's a movement in gaming recently that tries to push "disturbing subject matter" with a bland array of dull colors and graphics meant to incite a sense of gritty realism. This has gone on so long we may have forgotten a game can have bright lush surroundings and flamboyant cartoon-like characters while still addressing deeper mature issues. First an foremost Alice: Madness returns is an old school plat former. In the vein of titles such as Mario 64, and Kameo you will do a lot of jumping, sliding, lever pulling, and even shrinking to traverse areas that are a little larger than those found in more straightforward action romps such as Lollipop Chainsaw. If you get queasy around pitfalls and high heights Alice: Madness returns will definitely pour on the pressure and elevate your pulse! The game's effortless ability to induce a sense of panicky vertigo is admirable though there were moments I thought certain scenarios with their unforgiving relentless barrage of fast moving and disappearing floating foot-rests dragged on to the point of excess tedium. The enemies in A:MR are not pushovers either. Running in hacking & slashing will get you killed often. Whether you are fighting giant cannon totting crabs, armored zombie card solders, samurai wasps, spectral sailors, giant dollies, or hulking fireball tossing gooey tar abominations adorned with multiple porcelain baby heads , chances are you will have to stun them or knock them over with one weapon before finishing them off with another. Luckily A:MR gives you plenty of destructive implements. The hobby horse is akin to a heavy mace. It can stun enemies and break through weakened obstructions. The pepper grinder is a machine gun. "Rabbit bombs" explode when prompted to by a stop watch. Likewise they can temporarily be applied on weight sensitive tiles to buy Alice precious seconds to traverse her terrain. The vorpal blade is a fast moving knife and the tea kettle packs the punch of a makeshift grenade launcher. All these can be upgraded with teeth you find throughout your journey. It's true the first Alice game had more weapons but the sequel makes up for it with a few nice added incentives. Alice can now break down into butterflies and blur in any direction to evade attacks. She can shrink in order to travel through small key-holes or to see details her big-self would otherwise miss. Additionally Alice has nice double jump and float maneuvers to make the plat forming just a tad less hectic. If you're still not "sold" there's also "hysteria mode" that transforms Alice into a creepier version of the white-queen when her health is low. Attacks do more damage during this burst of adrenaline and psychotic rage but Alice's hysteria gauge will tick down swiftly to prevent confrontations from becoming a complete cakewalk. Of course next up are the graphics. Let me get something off my chest right now. A little abrupt pop in texturing never bothered me much. It's no secret the Unreal 3 engine has issues with this sort of thing but when everything is so beautiful to look at as it is in A: MR I could care less. Each area has a theme and they all "shift" between whimsical and nostalgic to macabre and psychologically twisted. It's ironic A:MR surprised me more with its' environmental transitions than the latest Silent Hill games. I could rarely predict "when" the world around me would suddenly flip upside down. Whoever scripted these events that gradually descended into complete insanity and pandemonium should be applauded! A gripe some people may have is a lack of boss battles up until the very end of the game. However, for me the problem is we "expect" these over-the-top encounters and because of this it breaks the immersion. At least for me each place in wonderland was more unpredictable and more suspenseful because it lacked the usual hulking monstrosities guarding each exit point to the next stage. The only certainties we have are there will be more monsters to fight and more puzzles to solve. Beyond that we're very much left in the dark and we are completely clueless as to "when" a chapter will officially wrap itself up. This lent itself to the "horror atmosphere" of A:MR quite nicely. Whether or not it was a deliberate design choice or was due to lack of funding is anyone's guess. The music is fantastic! Each track varies to fit the mood of each place ant there's a nice range amongst creepy industrial compositions, melancholy oriental tunes, and fittingly sinister violin pieces. The composer reminds me a bit of Akira Yamaoka and I mean that in the most flattering way imaginable! However, there are a few qualms that pop up. First of all, A:MR is rife with puzzles and mini games. While most of these can be skipped there are certain ones that cannot. In truth many of these diversions are refreshingly artistic with old-school arcade conventions! The problem is not that they exist but rather how often certain ones are repeated. It gets to the point they feel like padding as opposed to well thought out side quests. Secondly, both the camera and some extra tough plat-forming segments will conspire against the fun you're having. Neither quibble is so blatantly bad it leaves the game broken but they are noticeable all the same. In the end I found Alice's return to wonderland to be an adventure worth undertaking. Much of the story continues the events of its' predecessor but because it's supposed to be a mystery my lips are sealed! If you're tired of military fpses, macho brochismo derp-a-herping, and soulless dungeon loot acquisition, A:MR may refresh that retro-gamer part of your inner psyche which has been neglected far too long! Pros + Many secrets to find + Game plus mode +Compelling story with a mystery thriller slant to it + Adult material handled with tasteful subtlety + Gorgeous sprawling areas with imaginative scenery + Fantastic sound track + Enemies require strategy to beat + Challenging enough to give you a sense of accomplishment after you see the credits roll + First Alice game included as a free download if you buy Maness Returns brand new. + Inexpensive dlc that's actually helpful +Alice has good motivations as a protagonist and her cause is a noble one worth fighting for +It's delightful to stomp around the Red Queen's domain as "Godzilla Alice". Cons -Certain mini games are repeated too many times -Sometimes the camera goes wonky and makes a few platforming segments and a few battles more frustrating than they should be - Other gamers maybe distraught there's only one actual boss in the whole game -Play each chapter after an extensive cool-down break lest you end up punching your controller and shouting obscenities at your television screen -Texture blur and texture pop-in issues rear their ugly heads - The lock-on targeting feature is easy to understand but difficult to master For you if: If you're a psychology buff who loves things laid out to you in fanciful metaphor you'll adore A:MR. Likewise if you count Psychonauts, Kameo, Mario 64, and Silent Hill amongst your favorite games then A:MR should find its' way to your collection as soon as possible! A:MR is also for the old-school-fools who yearn for a challenge and who like to be rewarded for exploring off the beaten path! Not for you if: If you're afraid of heights, prefer slaying enemies over jumping around on moving platforms, get nauseated upon being exposed to re-imaginings of famous literature, and think Lewis Carroll was a talentless hack you should steer clear of this one! Admittedly A:MR is also on the grim and serious side so if you want a gaming experience with a sense of humor you will not find any "comedy gold" here. Certain people may also be offended by the content in A:MR. There are suggestive themes centered around brainwashing, prostitution, rape, and child slave labor. Closing thoughts At a further date I'd like to research on why we are so enamored with completely vilifying the Victorian era. Even self professed fans of this era always portray it as a grim hopeless place rife with classicism, misogyny, dirty back allies, serial killers, rapists, pedophiles, children slave labor, witch hunts, repressed sexuality, courtroom corruption, and billowing dark smoke spewing forth from monstrous trains and industrial factories. While I'm sure Victorian England had these problems to some degree it seems to be we only focus on that negative side of the equation. Heck, if I were to dwell only on modern society's "bad qualities" we'd be very much "Neo-Victorian" according to the works of Tim Burton and Zack Snyder. However, one thing I like about Alice:MR is it's not steeped in complete pessimism, cynicism, and nihilism. Unlike say "Sucker Punch" that tries to pass itself off as female empowerment yet has a "wtf ending" that completely contradicts with its` initially positive message, Alice's conclusion is one that is satisfactory where true justice prevails. Unlike Tim Burton's recent tamer-than-expected trip back to Wonderland McGee's version isn't afraid to hold back nor does it pull any punches. (Though admittedly I enjoyed Burton's Through The Looking Glass adaptation for what it was. We all knew going into the theatres Disney wasn't going to let the man make it rated "R". ) It's also refreshing Alice can lay down the hurt in attire that's a touch more modest and befitting than a string bikini or a burlesque gothic Lolita outfit that`s two sizes too small. While I'm not against sexy titillation and I do not get morally outraged by its' presence , I do respect game developers who manage to make their leading heroine "pretty" without showing off excess amounts of her skin. When it comes to steam-punk Victorian fiction American McGee and Spicy horse really nailed it for me. I'd love to see Alice get a third game in her series! Hopefully the sales figures for A:MR were not completely abysmal!

I just recieved my copy of Alice: Return to Madness on xbox and it is amazing! I just played for 9 hours straight. As other reviewers have said, the graphics and the details are incredible. The game is very visually appealing. My husband happened to walk by while I was playing- he had been in another room playing his game- he ended up sitting with me and watching me play. Alice's attire changed throughout the game. From what I've read, each dress has a bonus to it. Weapons can be upgraded. Collect teeth to upgrade weapons. The game automatically saves your progress. Another thing that I love is the little cutesy additions. While American Mcgee's Alice was all dark and morbid, this one isn't. For example, double jump is called twirling and feather and butterflies surround Alice when she does. When Alice dies, she's brought back in an array of butterflies. Other reviewers have said that there are not enough enemies in the game. It's true that it does seem to focus more on strategy and storyline than on killing things. However, there are difficulty levels and I'm sure increasing the difficulty will result in more or more difficult enemies. I have not yet played with this feature yet so I'm not sure. IMO, there are plenty of enemies and at times, too many! The only complaint that I have is that the view finder is inverted though I'm sure it's a user error. I went into configuration and tried changing it there but that had no effect. I'm sure eventually I'll either figure out how to change it or get used to it. A sidenote: I'm not sure about other platforms (though I can only imagine- And hope- that it would be the same), the xbox version includes a free download of American Mcgee's Alice, the prequel to this game.