American McGee's Alice impressed a whole generation of gamers back in 2000, offering a gritty take on the popular fantasy tale written by Lewis Carroll. Now, 11 years later, a sequel has finally emerged, with McGee and his new studio, Spicy Horse, offering gamers Alice: Madness Returns.

+Good platforming mechanics; +Many combat options; +Many quirky environments

-A bit too long for its own good; -Glitchy textures; -Washed out graphics

Alice and Kevin return to Wonderland in this video review for Alice: Madness Returns.

Beautifully dark and creepy version of Wonderland; Smooth; graceful controls; Unusual weapons make for fun combat; A good length; with lots of hidden objects and areas to locate; Beautifully dark and creepy version of Wonderland; Smooth; graceful controls; Unusual weapons make for fun combat; A good...

Gameplay doesn't evolve; leading to tedium; Puzzles and other attempts to vary the pace are rarely fun; Audiovisual glitches can distract; Gameplay doesn't evolve; leading to tedium; Puzzles and other attempts to vary the pace are rarely fun; Audiovisual glitches can distract; The other versions...

There have always been many sides to the Alice in Wonderland fairy tale. There's the loving, happy Disney version, the slightly skewed book version by Lewis Carol; and then there's American McGee's Alice .

I'll say it right now. I'm a fan of EA's recent infatuation with classic literature. While their titles based on classic works like Alice in Wonderland or Dante's Inferno may not be the most original games in the world gameplay wise, the mere fact that they're thinking outside the box for their...

Spectacular graphics and presentation help create a twisted Wonderland; varied gameplay keeps things fresh throughout; stylish and fun combat and platforming; good length and tons of items to find; comes with a free copy of the original Alice

Some camera problems; Alice can't grab onto ledges; storytelling doesn't live up to the presentation

I'm not sure I should like Alice: Madness Returns as much as I do. Spicy Horse's Xbox 360, PS3 and PC follow-up to 2000's original twisted tale at times feels a few months of QA Testing away from release, graphically struggling to compete with anything that's hit stores in the last two years, and...

Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to 2000's American McGee's Alice, a third person action game released for Windows that added an extra dash of strange to the surreal world created by Lewis Carroll in his classic books.

And let me tell you, it comes as a bit of a shock to those of us who grew up with the (original cartoon) Disney version! See, I never played the original game but was intrigued by the sequel. I had no idea what I was getting into!

We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.

Back Down the Rabbit Hole

Madness is the first major PC game I've played in years, and it looks and plays great on my new setup (I don't like having to set up an online account either, but it only takes a few minutes).