Alice : Madness returns (EPIC)

Mr E

Yup, I'm playing the xbox version. You get a code to download the original Alice too, so two games for the price of one.

Healium

Mr E wrote: »

The bad reviews are bizarre, to be honest.

I don't think so. The metacritic score is about spot on, maybe 5 points too low. What's bizarre is the complaints of reviewers. I've played through the game twice, and I'd have very different complaints.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, I did. The problem is that people are turned off by a review score of 75. Maybe because Brink and Homefront, two awful games, scored that or higher. Alice is a much better game than those two, but I wouldn't rate it any higher than 8/10

Mr E

8/10 sounds about right.
It's reviews like 5/10 on Edge and Eurogamer I was referring to.

Chairman Meow

Mr E wrote: »

8/10 sounds about right.
It's reviews like 5/10 on Edge and Eurogamer I was referring to.

Even more bizarre when you consider some ridiculous scores the hand out like 10/10 for GTA4 from edge, 9/10 for resistance 2 from EG....yet this is a 5. Its unreal. I have trawled a few alice threads, including the biggest one, the 20+ page neogaf thread and i have yet to find one single poster that agrees with those scores. Not one.

Healium

Mr E wrote: »

8/10 sounds about right.
It's reviews like 5/10 on Edge and Eurogamer I was referring to.

Yeah, well, Eurogamer gave Brink an 8/10, soooooo... :pac: I find their recent reviews are getting more ridiculous by the day

Just off the top of my head, some complaints....

I thought the later level designs were literally too dark. At times, it felt more like Dante's Inferno. I understand that Wonderland is in ruins, but it's still Wonderland. I felt that the later levels didn't really capture "Wonderland In Ruins", they were just "in ruins".

I just thought that nothing really grabbed me as much as the first chapter, and the epilogue. There were moments, such as

when you stumble upon all the slaughtered fish in chapter 2, or when you're first entering Queensland on the cards in the sky,

but those were short highs. Someone quoted a review a few pages back, which I kind of agreed with: I was playing just to see what happened next, and to see the new levels, but nothing was more fascinating or exciting than the first level, and the game just ended up really dragging on in one or two chapters.

I also thought that the Ruin enemies were a bit boring and just lifeless. Yeah, it ties into the story, but they were just too monotonous for me. Less Ruins, more frequent battles with Wonderland creatures would have been nice. In fact, an extra Wonderland enemy or two would have been great.

The minigames start to get really tiring by chapter 4 or 5.

The game also really steps into "weird Asian game" territory at times i.e. when you have to

walk through a giant doll's ass/vagina

The game needed a lot more polish. Lots of invisible walls, graphical glitches. Constantly got stuck just walking up stairs/ramps.



TL;DR - The game starts amazing, and the later levels feel like they've had less work, less imagination, and they lose the wonder of Wonderland

Chairman Meow

Healium wrote: »

Yeah, well, Eurogamer gave Brink an 8/10, soooooo... :pac: I find their recent reviews are getting more ridiculous by the day

Just off the top of my head, some complaints....

I thought the later level designs were literally too dark. At times, it felt more like Dante's Inferno. I understand that Wonderland is in ruins, but it's still Wonderland. I felt that the later levels didn't really capture "Wonderland In Ruins", they were just "in ruins".

I just thought that nothing really grabbed me as much as the first chapter, and the epilogue. There were moments, such as

when you stumble upon all the slaughtered fish in chapter 2, or when you're first entering Queensland on the cards in the sky,

but those were short highs. Someone quoted a review a few pages back, which I kind of agreed with: I was playing just to see what happened next, and to see the new levels, but nothing was more fascinating or exciting than the first level, and the game just ended up really dragging on in one or two chapters.

I also thought that the Ruin enemies were a bit boring and just lifeless. Yeah, it ties into the story, but they were just too monotonous for me. Less Ruins, more frequent battles with Wonderland creatures would have been nice. In fact, an extra Wonderland enemy or two would have been great.

The minigames start to get really tiring by chapter 4 or 5.

The game also really steps into "weird Asian game" territory at times i.e. when you have to

walk through a giant doll's ass/vagina

The game needed a lot more polish. Lots of invisible walls, graphical glitches. Constantly got stuck just walking up stairs/ramps.



TL;DR - The game starts amazing, and the later levels feel like they've had less work, less imagination, and they lose the wonder of Wonderland

well thats your opinion and thats fine, but, i just cant agree with msot of those complaints at all. I found chapter 4 & 5 so far to be possibly the best ones yet. And the weird asian game bit doesnt make much sense, its very western, if it was asian it would take place in outer space and Alice would fire rockets from her arse or soemthing

Genghiz Cohen

Chairman Meow wrote: »

if it was asian it would take place in outer space and Alice would fire rockets from her arse or soemthing

And have cat ears and only be able to say "Nya?".

ShadowHearth

is it me, or there was irish reference and dublin pub too?

Sesudra

ShadowHearth wrote: »

is it me, or there was irish reference and dublin pub too?

"more bottles than a Dublin brewery" or words to that effect!:D

Chairman Meow

Sesudra wrote: »

"more bottles than a Dublin brewery" or words to that effect!:D

more empties than a dublin brewery

Just finished it last night, overall, an excellent game, 8/10.

Complaints? The pacing for definite. Its quite overlong at times. Some of the mini games fall completely flat (the side scrolling shooting one and the rolling head one). The muddy textures in the console version are a bit **** too. But thats about the only complaints id have.

The good? Everything else. The settings and locations were always incredibly imaginative. The art is amazing. The core gameplay of platforming and combat was always enjoyable. The story was an actual, proper, mature story. Incredibly dark, and downright disturbing at times (the asylum section :eek:). Probably the best story ive seen in game in a long time, its wilfully obtuse, but by the end, when the whole reason for the fire is revealed, i actually really felt quite unsettled at the scene where

Alice is in bed and sees Dr. Bumby sneaking into Lizzies room.

An absolutely excellent game, and i hope spicy horse and McGee take the palyers reactions to heart rather than the bafflingly bad reviews and reconsider their decision to make shovelware games for facebook instead of titles like this.

chrislad

Just finished! Great game! Just stuck at it for the last 4 hours to finish it off. Enjoyed all of it, bar those stupid doll head mini games. Went through it on Nightmare, so some very sticky parts, but it actually got easier after Chapter 3, once I leveled up and got a bit more skilled.

Now to replay the first Alice!!

Mr E

Finished it last night.

Positives - It showed some amazing imagination (I really liked some of the settings, which actually got better towards the end of the game), some of the puzzles were really good (like the timed platforming puzzles with the bombs), and there was a good mixture of weapons and enemies.

Negatives - I think it was a bit too long, it needed some big epic boss battles, the radula rooms should all have been horde-type levels (the quiz challenges seemed pointless), the mini-games seemed out of place, and it was one of the worst games for collectibles I've seen in a while (too many).

Having said all that, I'm not going to do a new game+ for a while.

Who wants Alice 3 to be a metroidvania game?

Potential-Monke

So finished it 2 days ago, and even though it was a complete breath of fresh air and an excellent game, i felt well sickened

when it just abruptly ended. It was building and building up and then you have a "meh" boss battle and a couple of cut scenes, letting you think there's more and... end.

But, other than that, it was very enjoyable, reminded me how much fun platformers can be. At times i thought it couldn't decide if it was going to be a spooky horror game or an all out gorefest (

slaughtered fish and insane children

), but it was very well put together and very enjoyable (even if some of the narrative was way over my head!).

deathrider

Finally got my grubby little hands on this one. Just installing it now, and can't wait to get into it! I'm also listening to this tune to get me in the mood :cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTYHYglem-M

chrislad

The original Alice has not aged particularly well...

ShadowHearth

I still haven't fi ished it yet (((

Damn work/after work stuff and when I turn on pc I get a call On skype and inv to group with these words: " log in LoL you noobcake! And let's gogogogo!! " ....

I need to cut Internet cable for a day so I just could enjoy some sp games

Clover

Finished this last night and was disappointed with the way it ended, overall it was an enjoyable game but not without it's flaws.

I had to quit to main menu twice in the game due to platforms not materializing, but would appear when I continued the game from the main menu.

Not an epic game but a decent game, going to replay the first Alice game next before I do a new game+.

deathrider

Finished the third chapter yesterday. The chapters are fcuking HUGE! So big, in fact, that I've decided to only play one chapter per day. I'm definitely loving it though. One of the best games I've played in quite some time.
Alice herself is amazingly done. I haven't seen that kind of grace an elegance in a video game girl since Chun-Li first reared her pretty head back waaaaaaaaay back in Street Fighter II.

Chairman Meow

deathrider wrote: »

Finished the third chapter yesterday. The chapters are fcuking HUGE! So big, in fact, that I've decided to only play one chapter per day. I'm definitely loving it though. One of the best games I've played in quite some time.
Alice herself is amazingly done. I haven't seen that kind of grace an elegance in a video game girl since Chun-Li first reared her pretty head back waaaaaaaaay back in Street Fighter II.

Ch 3 is the biggest, but tbh youd be doing well to finish a chapter per night!!

Sarky

Flatmate's girlfriend immediately took to the original Alice. She seems to really like the main character. I'm not sure if that's cute or whether I should be locking my door at night and hiding all the knives.

ShadowHearth

Sarky wrote: »

Flatmate's girlfriend immediately took to the original Alice. She seems to really like the main character. I'm not sure if that's cute or whether I should be locking my door at night and hiding all the knives.

Lol. She will come over to drink so tea maybe?

deathrider

Chairman Meow wrote: »

Ch 3 is the biggest, but tbh youd be doing well to finish a chapter per night!!

One per night seems to be doing grand, as I don't have a whole lot else to be doing. Anything more than one per night though, and my brain will melt, and I'll wind up like The Mad Hatter.

Anyways, just finished Chapter 4 and

I absolutely loved the giant scene. That was fantastic fun.

richymcdermott

deathrider wrote: »

Finished the third chapter yesterday. The chapters are fcuking HUGE! So big, in fact, that I've decided to only play one chapter per day. I'm definitely loving it though. One of the best games I've played in quite some time.
Alice herself is amazingly done. I haven't seen that kind of grace an elegance in a video game girl since Chun-Li first reared her pretty head back waaaaaaaaay back in Street Fighter II.

Have to pick this up one of these days

deathrider

richymcdermott wrote: »

Have to pick this up one of these days

Do it, man. You won't be disappointed.

richymcdermott

deathrider wrote: »

Do it, man. You won't be disappointed.

Reviews kinda put me off it , at least till a price drop a darker alice game is always a brilliant way taking money out of my wallet :pac:

deathrider

richymcdermott wrote: »

Reviews kinda put me off it , at least till a price drop a darker alice game is always a brilliant way taking money out of my wallet :pac:

I really can't understand the bed/medicore reviews, as I think it's a stunning game and many of the posters here seem to agree. But then again, each to their own

richymcdermott

deathrider wrote: »

I really can't understand the bed/medicore reviews, as I think it's a stunning game and many of the posters here seem to agree. But then again, each to their own

I do hardly take notice of them but ign did a video just showing the games bugs and thought the whole game was like that , rather listen to people like yourself here.

deathrider

richymcdermott wrote: »

I do hardly take notice of them but ign did a video just showing the games bugs and thought the whole game was like that , rather listen to people like yourself here.

Only bug I've found personally is that Alice has a tendency to get stuck on stairs/hills if she reverts from shunken to normal size while walking up them. This can be a wee bit annoying, but making her step back a space or two swiftly sorts it out. There could be tons of others, but I really can't say because I haven't come across any.

calex71

deathrider wrote: »

Only bug I've found personally is that Alice has a tendency to get stuck on stairs/hills if she reverts from shunken to normal size while walking up them. This can be a wee bit annoying, but making her step back a space or two swiftly sorts it out. There could be tons of others, but I really can't say because I haven't come across any.

Yeah had that loads too, a jump or backstep sorted it so was a minor annoyance for me.

ShadowHearth

Hmmm I finished 2 chapters and there were only very few places buggy. Actuolly it was twice that step bug, that's it.

Comsiderring awefull game releases like it was with bc2, crysis 2 etc, it is flawless game.