American McGee's Alice

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 236 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 171 out of 236
  2. Mixed: 42 out of 236
  3. Negative: 23 out of 236
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  1. Steeldude
    Aug 25, 2015
    4
    Horrible controls (I mean it) and brutal difficulty make this game super annoying to play.
    Also, if you were looking for a pure platformer, you made a wrong choice, as this game is full of action and almost feels like a shooter a lot of times, you even use the mouse to aim and shoot stuff at enemies.
    Nah, cannot recommend this game. Still looks decent but unless you are a fan of    Horrible controls (I mean it) and brutal difficulty make this game super annoying to play.
    Also, if you were looking for a pure platformer, you made a wrong choice, as this game is full of action and almost feels like a shooter a lot of times, you even use the mouse to aim and shoot stuff at enemies.

    Nah, cannot recommend this game. Still looks decent but unless you are a fan of Alice's world, you will not get any satisfaction from the experience found in this game. Even as far as 3D action adventures go, there are far better choices, such as the first Harry Potter game or even Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, keep in mind that both of those games are not that great either, but still better.    … Expand
  2. ChaosHydrA
    Nov 2, 2014
    3
    A game that has aestethically aged well but thats pretty much all there is to Alice. The games biggest asset is the great amount of detail to the levels, great voices for the most part and probably best a amazing soundtrack here 14 years later.

    The games gameplay and core mechanics however feels like something from a bygone era and since its based on the engine for some of the Quake    A game that has aestethically aged well but thats pretty much all there is to Alice. The games biggest asset is the great amount of detail to the levels, great voices for the most part and probably best a amazing soundtrack here 14 years later.

    The games gameplay and core mechanics however feels like something from a bygone era and since its based on the engine for some of the Quake games it feels quite similar aswell in both its explosions and jagged level design.

    The problem with this game is 2 of the most important aspects:

    1. The combat is absolutely atrocious, after about 5-7 of the areas most of the combat you are pretty much underpowered in battle for the rest of the game even on Normal which i played it through with. Your weapons and quick switch system simply doesnt work well with the enemies movement patterns and amount of health. 95% of the time you will find yourself constantly charging up weapons or readying the preferred one ready before entering a area filled with enemies. having to constantly wait for your throwable knife to spawn which is the only weapon in the game that doesnt use your blue "mana" bar turns the combat into a complete chore where you will throw it once and then retreat so you can get it again after a while, and with most enemies requiring about 4-5 hits with the throwable blade it makes even the mundane 1on1 enemy battle a 1-1½ minute borefest since all your mana weapons deplete way too quick pretty much after 1-2 enemies max. Going into combat with more than 1 enemy around is also ppretty much suicide with the weaker weapons as the later enemies can manage to not only deal alot of damage but push you off the many ledges the level design consists of with their blasts. Theres about 5 boss battles in the game and all of em feel trivial where you just spin around the level and keep your distance to them while using your weapons.

    2. The Jumping/Platform mechanics. This game has alot of platforming besides combat, sadly i would have preferred more weight on puzzles while there are some they all feel shallow and easy. The platforming however in this game is even worse than the combat, simly due to outdated sluggish movements that can be best described as the jumping in the old early Tomb Raider games. The game has alot of narrow ledges and alot of em are shaped in triangles which makes it frustrating to navigate your jumps perfectly and often throws you into pits, combine this with some of the later enemies that can make you bounce around from their hits and you got yourself a really annoying platformer thats reminiscent from the early 3D/platformer attempts of the 32-bit/PSX(1) era.

    Overall the game has a good atmosphere that holds up pretty well even in 2014 but its a game thats best left as a relic nowadays, i cant recommend it due to the poor gameplay mechanics simply outweighing the other parts like the great music. The game simply feels like a chore and dull to play, it might have been a amazing experience playing it on the release but its hard to see what alot of people were thinking considering how bad the core gameplay is like. I was hoping this was a PC gem i had missed out on, i tried it a level or 2 about 5-6 years back and enjoyed it, and the feeling was similar on my playthrough this time but as soon as youve made a couple levels into it it starts to detoriate very quickly with non developing simple gameplay and a story told in small amounts of dialogue every now and then without and good build up like you see in more modern games nowadays.

    Rating: 5.0 /10    … Expand
  3. max3290
    Apr 18, 2022
    0
    I know this game is old and I only recently played it, but the game had possibly the worst controls of any game I have played in my life. I needed three hands to effectively use the controls as they were setup. Playing on PS3, save times were long and I needed to do it so often because of the poor controls. I was angry playing it and happy when the torture was finally over.
  4. guiletheguiles
    Aug 23, 2023
    3
    I decided to play this game before Madness Returns and my god what a mistake.

    This game fails in nearly everything it tries to accomplish. Platforming feels terribly imprecise and janky, combat is stiff and lacks any kind of impact, the soundtrack is repetitive, puzzles have no fun factor and it might have some of the worst boss encounters ever designed. Not to mention the level    I decided to play this game before Madness Returns and my god what a mistake.

    This game fails in nearly everything it tries to accomplish. Platforming feels terribly imprecise and janky, combat is stiff and lacks any kind of impact, the soundtrack is repetitive, puzzles have no fun factor and it might have some of the worst boss encounters ever designed. Not to mention the level design...

    The writing is fine, but doesn't save how shallow the story feels. The idea is actually good, but it doesn't go as deep as it should, it seems. Not to mention how hard it is to actually care for anything happening to the plot when the gameplay feels so abysmal.

    Sisuals and tone were the only good things to come out of it. I wasn't expecting to be creeped out by some of the visual design in this game. Enemy variety helps as well. Boss fights were atrocious, but they were cool to look at, at least. And the soundtrack may suck, but the actual sound of the game feels freaky.

    But style, on its own, couldn't save Alice. I'd recommend this to no one.
    I finished this game out of spite and hope that the sequel is good.    … Expand
  5. ElectroNick
    Jun 5, 2016
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Considering my past experience with the first game I was surprised when it had gotten praise. At least I did wonder that until I figured out that it was originally released for the PC. In that case than it would be safe to assume that the PS3 port was badly optimized. The story line is a loose sequel to the original novel by Louis Carol . Alice has gone insane and the main goal of the game is to restore her fragile mind. The main premise alone had potential to be an intriguing game but the story and game play are as loose as the titular heroine's mind. Aside from the opening and closing cutscenes the story is only there just to give context to the game play. Voice acting is pretty flat with the exception of the Red Queen and the characters are visually interesting but they are barely given much depth. The appeal of Wonderland's inhabitants have always been appealing due to the fact that they are a visual representation of Victorian London- Society and Alice's Psyche. It is fairly obvious what each character is a representation in fact what the part they play in Alice's mind is blatantly said to the player like they cannot figure it out themselves. The ending also feels rushed as it shows Alice going straight out of the Asylum as soon as she defeats the Red Queen. Where the game really stumbles is in the game play. I'm unsure what it is like on the PC but on the PS3 the jumping controls feel very stiff. It is hard to describe how many times I have died just because I could not Jump at the right time since Alice likes to jump without bending her knees. It seems like the game is requiring you to take giant leaps of faith even though you are only able of taking little hops. It is admirable that the game gives you a variety of weapons but with the exception of the killer dice they all are unreliable. You will mostly be using your vorpal blade to fight off against the enemies. Said enemies are annoying at best and frustrating at worst especially if they are flying above you since it i hard to see where they are. There are interesting power ups but they are rendered useless since you still take the same amount of damage as you would without those powers. The boss fights range from simplistic to irritating the fights are poorly implemented and tacted on at best. The biggest error for the game play is the camera itself since it is fixed on Alice and you can barely point it t where you want to which leads to so many frustrating deaths. This game had a lot of potential but it needed to be fleshed out more before getting shifted towards release. The gothic atmosphere and the intriguing atmosphere is not enough to clear this game's short comings.… Expand
  6. sebastianali
    Aug 10, 2019
    4
    Este juego carece de rejugabilidad, exploración y un buen sistema de combate, por no decir que se vuelve repetitivo y si bien me gusta que la historia de Alicia sea mas "adulta", es una mala suerte que se haya hecho con el motor de Quake 3... Con eso solo se consiguen extraños bugs, caídas de rendimiento y una calidad gráfica inferior a Rayman 2 que salio solo 1 año antes.
  7. ZangBang
    Feb 1, 2023
    3
    The perilous journey through the artistically-inspired, visceral wonderland of Alice is very entertaining: while maintaining a general simplicity, level design morphs constantly as each area develops distinctly: descending, rising and twisting on itself while introducing new platform challenges, environmental features and gimmicks. However, combat is excruciatingly bad, annoyingly chaoticThe perilous journey through the artistically-inspired, visceral wonderland of Alice is very entertaining: while maintaining a general simplicity, level design morphs constantly as each area develops distinctly: descending, rising and twisting on itself while introducing new platform challenges, environmental features and gimmicks. However, combat is excruciatingly bad, annoyingly chaotic and tedious due to disproportionate hitboxes, erratic enemy animations and bosses with repetitive, dull attack patterns.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

29
#29 Best PC Game of 2000
10
#10 Most Discussed PC Game of 2000
14
#14 Most Shared PC Game of 2000

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. Adrenaline Vault
    70
    The action falls short of amazing because certain elements, such as the poor A.I., do not hold up their end of the bargain, but Alice is still a fascinating trip that is well worth the tumble down the rabbit hole.
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  2. ActionTrip
    90
    What really impressed me about Alice's visuals is the imaginativeness of the designers, and the highly thematic environments, which completely differ from one level to another and are brought to life with some crisp and detailed textures.
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  3. FiringSquad
    87
    The levels, the characters - everything about this game is beautiful. The levels are easily the prettiest and most creative I have ever seen, each one designed in its own unique style. You couldn't get a better result if you threw Tim Burton or Clive Barker into the mix.
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