Alice
ALICE (American McGee's that is)Intro
Unlike
John Romero's Daikatana, this is a game, with the creator's name in it, which
doesn't give an immediate reason to go to the deed-poll office. This is an
'adult' game, not in the sense of late night channel 5, but in the sense of
disturbed, well, everything really. It could so easily have been pigeon holed as
a schlock standard 3rd person adventure like FAKK 2 or the endless Tomb-Raider-em-ups.
But it isn't.
The
intro pre-rendered scenes give you an insight into the dark world of Alice's
mind. This is the Lewis Carrol fairltale at its darkest. Parents burn to death,
Alice gets locked up in the asylum, all done with slick high-budget feel twisted
scenes. The graphics turn to in-game Q3-engine scenes, but follow on with the
same look. Alice has to go back to Wonderland for a second time, this time to
kill the Queen.
Graphics
The
game is frankly the best looking game ever. No argument in my mind. It uses the
Quake 3 engine, but it is the superly outlandish architecture, moody lighting
and odd effects that cut it. Everything either moves in a disturbing manner,
sits at and odd angle, is the wrong scale, or is somewhere it shouldn't be.
Colours and the Q3's curved surface effects are used really well throughout. The
way things move are all part of it too: old grandfather clocks rock backwards
and forwards with the look of a madman in a straightjacket. Superb. The
artisitic director of this lot deserves a medal. If you're into arty movies like
Bladerunner or Brazil you'll be gobsmacked.
Music
and sound
These
are also superb. The voice-acting is slick and not the usual in-game cheese. The
voice of the Cheshire cat, who gives you sly advice throughout, has this amazing
upperclass-toff-choirboy-molestor tinge to it. Music is done by someone or other
from Nine Inch Nails, but sounds nothing like NiN. It sounds a bit like
background music from Peter Greenaway films (Drowning By Numbers etc), and mixes
kids lullabys with classical and horror-flick weirdness. Never overpowering, and
in itself worth listening to. Oh, and the sound is 3D courtest of Miles ausio,
and it works well on my SB Live.
Performance
/ engine
On
my Geforce 2 MX with everything cranked up to max detail, 32 bit etc etc it runs
pretty smooth at 1024x768 and amazingly smooth at 960x720. N oreal probs. I have
only had one bug, which is tha a passage which was meant to materialise didn't.
But it did when I reloaded the level. Unlike many of this kind of game it also
has a proper working savegame system. I don't see why I should be subjected to
doing the same thing over and over in ANY game. Project IGI and Giants makers
take note.
Gameplay
The
game is a 3rd person over-the-shoulder affair. not like rubbish tombraider
controls but slick like Heretic 2. The game has three main elements in play
1
Jump around the strange landscape: working out how not to get killed by walls
which slip off into spinning vortexes, floor tiles that rotate, low flying
ceilings, rolling boulders, killer chesspieces. This would be naff as I normally
hate this stuff, but it isn't down to split-second jump timing. There is more
thinking how to use the bizarre landscapes to your advantage.
2
Combat: this is okay but to be honest probably the weakest part of the game.
Lucky therefore that it is generally rarely too much of it, and it is more
symbolic than anything. Weapons include a knife, croquet mallet that either
bashes or fires incendiary balls, wierd cards that shoot things, dice, lots of
odd stuff. Enemies are the ubiquitouscard guards (cannon-fodder), giant locust
things, vampirey flying type things, animated chesspieces, and lots more.
3
Cutscenes: Not everything is an enemy - often there are bystanders who either
don't do much or will give you advice / say something. At the start these are a
bit too frequent and can get in the way, but they thin out later so as not to
disrupt things so much. All done with the Q3 engine and are very, very slick.
Overall
I have to say I still enjoy the gameplay, even though the combat isn't the best.
But you are always wanting to know what comes next, which is how it should be.
And the sheer variety of types of levels is amazing. There are constantly new
things to see and do.
Overall
I
normally don't play 3rd person action-adventure games, but picked this up as one
of my Xmas treats to myself. And I wasn't disappointed. While it may not have
enough gibbing to suit the true hardcore bunch, or enough puzzles to suit the
TombRaider squad, this game is good for different reasons. It is original,
beautiful, full of surprises and variety.
Highly
recommended.
