Alice: Madness Returns

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Summary

Return to Wonderland and experience an all new nightmare as Alice fights to regain her sanity as she fights for the truth behind her past. Can Alice save Wonderland - and herself - from the madness that consumes them both?

Storyline

Within events of the first game, Alice Liddell, believing herself responsible for a fire that consumed her home and her family, escapes into a twisted version of Wonderland. While held at Rutledge Asylum for treatment, Alice was able to conquer her doubts, and eventually was released from the ward. Madness Returns takes place in 1875, a year after Alice's release. Alice, now 19 years old,[6] resides at an orphanage in Victorian London, under the care of Dr. Angus Bumby, a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to help his child patients forget their memories. Though she believes that she is fine, Alice still suffers from hallucinations of Wonderland.

During an errand, Alice is struck by a hallucination and believes herself to be in Wonderland again. Though initially idyllic, the peaceful land quickly becomes corrupted by the Infernal Train that rampages through it, leaving behind the Ruin, a force that attempts to stop Alice. Alice meets with the Cheshire Cat who affirms that it is some outside force, not Alice, that has caused this corruption, and urges her to seek out former friends and foes to discover the source of the Train. Throughout the rest of the game, Alice briefly returns to reality between episodes occurring within Wonderland. In the real world, Alice learns from the family lawyer that her sister, Elizabeth (nicknamed "Lizzie"), was first to die in the fire, despite being the farthest from its source, and had been locked in her room.

Within the corrupted Wonderland, Alice attempts to learn more from Wonderland's various citizens, including the Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle, the Walrus and the Carpenter, and the Caterpillar. She is ultimately told that the Queen of Hearts still lives despite her defeat at Alice's hands before, though in a diminished capacity. At the Queen's castle, Alice discovers the Queen's true form, which resembles her younger self. The Queen reveals that an entity called the Dollmaker has taken over the Infernal Train and is corrupting Wonderland.

Returning to London, Alice starts to recall her memories of the night of the fire and realizes that Dr. Bumby was there. He is responsible for the death of her sister and her whole family. She comes to the conclusion that Dr. Bumby is attempting to erase the memories of the fire from her mind and, as he has done with other children, trying to leave her as a "blank toy" to be taken by abusive masters and child molesters for a price. Furious, Alice confronts both Dr. Bumby in the real world at the Moorgate station and Dr. Bumby's Wonderland counterpart, the Dollmaker, in her fantasy on the Infernal Train. Dr. Bumby admits to his crimes, and even attests to setting Alice's home on fire after Lizzie refused his advances, removing any witnesses to his having raped her that night. He points out that by wiping out her Wonderland, he will make her forget the events of that night, while he will continue as a member of high society. Alice defeats the Dollmaker in Wonderland, giving her the strength in the real world and in her mind to push Dr. Bumby into the path of an oncoming train, killing him.

As Alice leaves the station, she finds herself in a hybrid vision of London mixed with Wonderland, Londerland. Alice wanders into the unknown terrain as the Cheshire Cat monologues that Alice has found the truth that was "worth the pain fighting for", and Wonderland, though damaged, is safe for the time being.


Alice: Madness Returns Activation Instructions

Alice: Madness Returns Reviews & Ratings

80
Review by shauntmw [user]
May 9, 2020

I played this on EA Origins, with an XBOX controller for PC.The graphics are gorgeous, it has its style, and each stages and themes areI played this on EA Origins, with an XBOX controller for PC.The graphics are gorgeous, it has its style, and each stages and themes are unique enough to be very interesting and nice to look at. The action and horror elements are very well implemented, the music and audio are also pretty great! The platforming and puzzle are pretty good as well. The story telling are pretty slow, and the revelation near the end becomes a pretty bad exposition dump that does not surprise me at all. But I do understand it is not the main focus of the game so it is forgivable.I do get some random 1-2 seconds hang every now and then. It's not game breaking nor unplayable, but it gets pretty annoying at times, causing you to fall mid-jump or get hit by enemies mid-battle.The battle mechanics are pretty good to play with at the start to the mid-game, but as late game progresses, the enemies become very repetitive, and instead of progressively giving newer better enemies, the game just dumps swarms of enemies or more bullet-sponges to you, which makes the battles become more annoyance than challenges.The puzzle and platforming challenges also suffers similar fate. From early to mid-game, the puzzles are nice and challenging, while satisfying to solve. But the late-game puzzles are just more or an annoyance, getting way too many annoying timing or invisible platforms, with too little new challenges.The mini-puzzle games are very bad. They do add something new and refreshing into the game, but the implementation are so bad that they breaks the immersion of the game flow. Fortunately some of them can be skipped if you want to.

90
Review by Fisch_Pez [user]
October 2, 2018

A very creepy story on this game, and totally different from most common games in an uncommon way. many physx cool effects graphics are okayA very creepy story on this game, and totally different from most common games in an uncommon way. many physx cool effects graphics are okay but textures are not so much . Game play is a bit hard with the excessive camera movement. controls on the keyboard are okay. the game itself is interesting it will for sure take you into it, because it will make you research some things, in order to achieve them you will have to fight monsters, solve some puzzles in "shrink" mode to go other places, go through hard ways where you will have to use your skills to avoid dying.I found this game Good enough to recommend it to play or buy. I give this game a 9 because of the annoying camera movement and the lack of information about the quests that let you sometimes without knowing what to do.

100
Review by JabberwocksBane [user]
August 24, 2015

Amazing gamethe art and visuals are beautifulvoice acting superbcombat is fluid, enjoyable but can be challenging in a good way andAmazing gamethe art and visuals are beautifulvoice acting superbcombat is fluid, enjoyable but can be challenging in a good way and finishing enemies is immensely satisfyingthe story follows up after the end of the original game and offers more to the story of the Liddell house fire then we expected and overall it is a great experiencethere are lots of outfits and weapon skins that you can pick from so every playthrough is to your liking (you can change the weapon skins and outfits anytime in the main menu)This is one of the games that you need a physical copy of so one day after many years when you see it on your shelf you can pop it in and enjoy the nostalgia of this masterpiece

100
Review by georgio [user]
June 10, 2014

Why 0? Two words: mouse acceleration. I hate the thing and this game has to the worst. Quick flick across my pad barely makes my cursor moveWhy 0? Two words: mouse acceleration. I hate the thing and this game has to the worst. Quick flick across my pad barely makes my cursor move while slowly moving my mouse the same distance makes Alice do several 360ies.Now before I will continue - I spent significant time trying to find solution for this. I browsed forums, changed values in several config files to no avail. In the end running with Alice seems more like sailing a tanker even for the most basic of things like going around the corner. In some situations the movement caused borderline nausea.Now several reviewers bash controls but say you can get used to it. You know what? I don't want to get used to it. I played hundreds of games over the years and never felt a need for mouse acceleration. Other people say Alice is best played with controller where the acceleration seems more natural. What the hell? If I wanted to play with controller I would play console version for Christ sakes!So that is it. I believe all the people that the game and content is great. Unfortunately I simply cannot enjoy it because of decision by developers to slam their idea of how to play PC games down my throat. Only for me it literally makes me vomit. So be cautious before making the purchase. You have been warned.

70
Review by LEVEL (Czech Republic)
July 30, 2011

Beautiful and rich fairy world is full of imaginative tasks and minigames. Excellent sound and visuals are spoiled by camera positioning and a weird checkpoint system but it should not discourage you from this interesting game.

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Game Information
Release Date June 14, 2011
Publisher Electronic Arts, Spicy Horse Games
Content Rated M (Mature)
Game Modes Single player
Player Perspectives Third person
Genres Platform, Puzzle, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, Quiz/Trivia
Themes Action, Horror
Platforms PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360