Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

The new Alice game is pretty fucking awesome.

Cool name

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
2,147
"Hey, let's make Oz with zombies!"

Ok. Sounds... cool, I guess.

"No, no. Wait! Let's make a new Alice game!"

Uh... Alright.

"No, no. Wait! Let's better make a short animation movie about Alice!"

Ehm... Whatever.

/interest.
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
So, I've completed the game finally and...
The new Alice game is pretty fucking bad. Here's why.

1) Good:

- graphics are nice and have a distinctive atmosphere,
- combat is demanding and satisfactory most of the time, despite some serious technical problems (see below),
- level design in some sections is fun; sadly, these sections are in minority...
- game is long; too bad that most of it is damn boring.

And that's all I can think of, unfortunately...

2) Totally inexcusable:

- game-breaking bugs in final version of the game (umbrella bug),
- save mechanics: there's only an auto-save but it's shit: failing a jump brings you back to the nearest ledge (the one you started from) BUT failing a combat section (HP=0) sometimes forces you to repeat 20 minutes of gameplay; plus there's no "save on quit" feature, so at least a couple of times I had to replay a huge part of the level after quitting and then coming back to the game,
- caching mechanics: the game loads textures / assets very often, which unfortunately also means DURING jumps (you fail the jump and die) and/or timed events (time runs out); it may have something to do with me unlocking the 60 FPP next-gen feature, but I doubt it somehow,
- jumping mechanics: you can jump up to three times in a row + glide, but the mechanics is unresponsive, imprecise and clunky: you can never tell which combination of jump+glide (how many jumps and glides) certain jump requires - in many cases you have to fail a jump 2-3 times to realize what to do; and gameplay is 95% jumps...
- camera sometimes changes its position during long jumps (allowing you to "admire the art") - too bad that the devs did not realize that it means falling to death in most cases...

3) Simply bad:

- gameplay and level design is extremely linear/boring: jumping section, combat section, puzzle section - repeat at nauseam; and don't you faggots start with the "but it's a platformer, what more do you want?" shit - play Rayman 2 or Crash Bandicoot 1-3 or Psychonauts to see that platformers can have varied gameplay AND level design,
- level design prevents you from going back (one-directional sections, doors closing right behind you) - this plus auto-save feature makes looking for collectables/secrets a pain in the ass,
- the devs tried to rip-off 2 games in particular: Prince of Persia 2008 (gameplay consisting of jumping (95%) and combat (5%), "black ooze" enemies) and Psychonauts (collectibles, some level design). Too bad that both these games are much better than Alice 2...
- there's only one level I truly liked from the design perspective (#5 The Dollhouse) - others are just long corridors, where you have to move from point A to point Z,
- final level and final boss-fight were a total (unfunny) joke,
- shitty lock-on system: camera often chooses the worst possible position (you don't see shit and enemies can rape you) + switching enemies is totally unresponsive (you have to keep switching enemies till you lock on the desired one),
- bad collision detection: missing clearly accessible ledges during jumps, falling off the cliffs, etc,
- jumping platforms (the red ones) launch you straight up, instead of up + the direction you were moving when stepping on them (as in most of 3D platformers) - this makes long jumps very difficult (launch, glide, jump, glide, jump, glide... die - "Sorry, but the 3rd jump is currently not available".
- weapons are totally imbalanced: once you get the teapot cannon, the grinder becomes obsolete; on the other hand, the horsie is so slow that you'll be using it only to break the walls/obstacles - the knife is the only useful close-combat weapon,
- enemy encounters are imbalanced as well: some are extremely difficult, some are totally easy - there's no difficulty progression at all: combat in initial and final levels is quite easy, while the middle of the game (Oriental Grove) is IMO the most difficult,
- minigames are repetitive, recycled, uninteresting and totally detached from the regular gameplay; some of them are so bad (2D sections in "Oriental Grove", "stomping" sections in "The Queensland", "head" sections in "The Dollhouse") that you'll be praying for them to end ASAP,
- "playing some music piece" minigame: each section has 3 parts, and failing even a single tune forces you to restart the entire section - brilliant idea,
- "sliding down the slope" minigame: each section is damn long (and not particulary hard), but... Yeah - failing even the last fricking segment (Fuck year unexpected jump at the end!) means that you have to repeat the entire section.
- timed sections utilizing invisible platforms are fucking retarded. Period.
- plenty of invisible barriers and unreachable sections: many times I was trying to reach a ledge (looking totally reachable) only to fall and die - "Sorry mang, it's just a decoration this time. Lulz. The Devs. Don't forget to buy our next game!".
- writing and story are simply bad: totally convoluted, "artsy" and EXTREME - the game tries to be deep and mature and shit, but fails horribly,

To sum up, it's a 3D platform game, made by devs who don't have a slightest clue how to make a goddamn GAME (gameplay is more important than graphics). Not to mention a platformer (jump mechanics is the most important part of it), or a 3D platformer (making good jump mechanics in 3D is much more difficult to do than in 2D).

tl;dr

:2/5: , would not bang again.

:rpgcodex:
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
I only read the inexcusable ones. I never had a bug, glitch or control issue, so that kills most of those. I don't remember checkpoints being that bad, though it's hard to remember.

The game ain't great either way, it's just a pretty platformer.
 

Sukhāvatī

a.k.a. Mañjuśṛī
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
Messages
5,874
Location
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
karoliner said:
You fucking degenerate i thought the bump was for a new game.
:argh:
McGee's looking for developers to bolster his team.



We're building a new game development studio around projects like "OZ: Adventures" and the potential "Alice: Asylum" project. Our existing team of 20+ artists, designers, and developers is looking for experienced development partners - small studios, tech teams, Unreal experts, and 3D art/animation teams that can join a distributed network of developers working on AAA action-adventure games.

We are NOT currently seeking inquiries from VO actors, musicians/composers, individual artists, or those seeking entry into the industry. Our focus is on small established studios and experienced individuals. Opportunities for everyone else will be presented in the future.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
IIRC there were talks of a prequel of Madness Returns, but no idea what happened with it. I'm not sure if even Alice would be spared from the pozz nowadays.
 

Nikanuur

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,484
Location
Ngranek
Excuse me, am I here correctly as a guy having 7 of these t-shirts wearing them almost exclusively?

7TM14b2_cf9b030a-74af-479b-a032-61f894f8b4d9_750x.jpg


I'll throw in the fact, I've helped to convince at least three girls to play Alice: Madness Returns?
 

Semiurge

Cipher
Joined
Apr 11, 2020
Messages
6,074
Location
Asp Hole
They should put that^ Alice into the game. Much cooler than the current animu model.

Bloated just the right way, from all the brain medicine you see.

So, I finally managed to finish this game. As said, it becomes quite repetitive very quickly, but luckily it starts becoming interesting again at the Castle of the Red Queen or whatever was called that level. There's evidence that lots of stuff was cut, which would explain why it was so repetitive. Ffor example, in one of the trailers when the game was currently in beta there was a new, whip-like weapon and what seemed to be underwater levels, then there's the absolute lack of bosses except the final one, even if it everything pointed at a boss fight only to be cockblocked at the last second (speaking of which, the last level was literally a straight line with a few cutscenes). There's also a bunch of stuff that doesn't appear in the main game, but can be found in the concept art that the game kindly includes.
In any case, truly a fun game, it has some flaws but it's quite good for what it is.

McGee's Alice had cut content as well. The game shipped with unused assets such as sound files for frog soldiers (an enemy that didn't make it into the release version), there was an unused portal in one of the vale of tears areas and some of the pre-release screenshots were taken in locations that didn't make the cut.
 
Last edited:

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
Agreed, but the cut content in Alice 2 was more obvious IMO. Or perhaps not. I dunno. It's been nearly a decade...
 

Nikanuur

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,484
Location
Ngranek
Lower at the Mc'Gee's Patreon page are the new artworks for the third instalnment. Also, they state, that story is now complete, yay. One thing I don't get. The game is to be published by the ever-so-terrible EA. Is the new day dawning upon this company? I mean, they've already produced a pretty awsome single-player game from the SW universe. Now this?

https://www.patreon.com/americanmcgee
 

samuraigaiden

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
1,954
Location
Harare
RPG Wokedex
I played Madness Returns. Might the best looking game. Like, ever. But the platforming is horse shit
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom