American McGee's Alice

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American McGee's Alice
"Let your need guide your behavior. Suppress your instinct to lead. Pursue Rabbit." - Cheshire Cat
Protagonist(s): Alice Liddell Genre(s): Action-adventure Rating(s): ESRB:M Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Mac OS PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Release Date: PC December 5, 2000 Mac OS July 13, 2001 PS3, Xbox 360 June 14, 2011 Engine: id Tech 3 Developer(s): Rogue Entertainment Publisher(s): Electronic Arts Country: United States Series: American McGee's Alice Successor: Alice: Madness Returns

American McGee's Alice (not to be confused with Alice in Wonderland (1951) or its 2010 remake by Disney) is a 2000 third-person action-adventure dark fantasy/horror game developed by Rogue Entertainment under the direction of designer American McGee and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Games banner. The game was originally released for Windows and Mac OS. Although a planned PlayStation 2 port was cancelled, the game was later released digitally for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, via downloadable content for its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns. The Xbox 360 versions of both games are playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility.

It is based on the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) by the late Lewis Carroll.

Why It's Mad Here (But in a Good Way)

1. To get the Cheshire Cat out of the bag first: the very concept of reimaging a popular children's novel as a macabre, adult-oriented game is a brilliant idea since it deals with dark, heavy subject matter such as violence, gore, cannibalism (albeit attempted), family death, cruelty, dictatorship, slavery, child abuse (albeit implied), and mental health and disorders, all of which the novels it's based on never explored.
   • To be fair, the novels (and, to a lesser extent, Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951) and its 2010 live-action remake, despite the former film's mostly lighthearted, child-friendly tone) do have a few dark themes like madness and implied decapitation, but definitely not at the similar level of this game.
2. On the subject of mental illnesses, the game does an excellent job at portraying people with poor mental health in a positive light instead of treating them as offensive stereotypes of mentally insane people, akin to what Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and its sequel, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II have done.
   • A good example would be the Insane Children. As unsettling as they are, they're only portrayed as harmless victims rather than enemies.
   • The best part about this is that the game absolutely never treats Alice's post-traumatic stress disorder as a joke nor does it glamorize or promote mental illnesses in general, which just proves that it's meant to be taken very seriously.
3. Absolutely gorgeous visuals by 2000s standards thanks to the id Tech 3 graphics engine, which was also used for Quake III Arena. The game completely removes the psychedelic color scheme in favor of a dark art direction in terms of environments and character designs to befit its already gloomy tone.
4. The game's rendition of the novels' characters are memorably macabre, suitably creepy, and unforgettably nightmarish. Notable examples are:
   • Alice Liddell has changed from an innocent, yet curious young girl to a edgy, cynical, yet intelligent young adult woman who's dealing with PTSD from losing her family to a house fire. But even so, she still cares deeply for her Wonderland friends.
     • It also helps that she's one of the few female video game protagonists of the 21st century not to be hypersexualized or objectified in any official marketing, unlike Lara Croft from the original Tomb Raider series or Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark (both of which have been criticized for being depicted as sexist stereotypes of women in marketing). This, along with the aforementioned portrayal of her mental issues, makes her one of the most positively portrayed female characters in gaming history.
   • The Cheshire Cat has been turned from a pudgy, mischievous, troublemaking feline to a disturbingly emaciated, mangy, snarky, yet helpful Sphynx cat who sports an incredibly creepy, human-like grin and has an occasionally dark sense of humor (which is evident in the sequel).
     • In fact, had the ability to summon him to fight along with you not been scrapped from the final version, he would've doubled as a cool party member.
   • The Mad Hatter has gone from a delightfully mad, yet jolly man who throws tea parties (and so-called "unbirthdays", in the case of the aforementioned 1951 Disney adaption) to an cruel, sadistic, psychotic, incredibly deranged cyborg psychopath who's AZ levels of tall, is obsessed with time and turns his victims (yes, even his own tea party friends, the March Hare and the Dormouse) into automatons to do his evil bidding.
     • Fortunately, he sides with Alice in Madness Returns.
   • The Queen of Hearts (aka the Red Queen) has been transformed from an ill-tempered human monarch to an absolutely hideous, cruel, vile, remorseless, horrifically mutated monster (especially her true form) that wouldn't feel too out of place in any body horror media like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, The Thing and especially Scorn.
     • Though like the Mad Hatter, she eventually assists Alice in the sequel.
5. Fantastic, terrifying music (courtesy of former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna) that fits the game's aesthetic extremely well, which is really speaks for itself.
6. Top-notch, Hollywood-quality voice acting, especially from Roger L Jackson (who voices the Cheshire Cat).
7. Surprisingly great optimization.
8. Memorable quotes, especially the ones from Alice and the Cheshire Cat.
9. Some levels have plenty of puzzles to solve.
10. Boss fights can be challenging and will keep you on your toes.
11. Many weapons and power-ups to find here and there, including the playing cards, the croquet mallet, the Looking Glass, and, of course, Alice's trusty Vorpal Blade.
12. Excellent plot that's very much an interesting twist on the novels' story (as evident above).
13. Terrific production values. In fact, McGee states it costed him over a whooping $3 million to make.
14. The 2011 remaster proved that the game aged considerably well, with improved controls, widescreen support, slightly updated character model textures, compatibility with newer Windows versions, and controller support (on the PC version).
    • Even better, the PS3 and X360 versions are free with Madness Returns via PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace respectively. Plus, the Xbox version is backwards compatible with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
15. Good ending: After killing the Queen of Hearts and restoring Wonderland's state, Alice regains her sanity and is released from Rutledge Asylum.
16. By popular demand, the game spawned a sequel called Alice: Madness Returns in 2011, which is then followed by Alice: Otherlands (which is a pair of animated short films).
    • There's even a planned TV series based on this game, though no official release date is given so far.
17. Thanks to this game, its franchise as a whole is one of the most recognizable, most fan-favorite horror franchises in the world, and it really shows!

Bad Qualities

1. Gameplay is linear at best.
2. The original 2000 PC version has some issues:
   • Clunky, twitchy controls and camera.
   • Awful platforming. If an enemy hits you while jumping, you'll be flung off the level and into bottomless pits, resulting in cheap deaths.
   • Occasionally frustrating combat system.
   • Problematic release date: the game is released during Christmas season, which led to controversy and McGee later regret making that decision, stating that the game's violence isn't enough to warrant a Mature rating from the ESRB and that parents should always be careful about what games to buy for their children (citing his concern that parents might accidentally buy this game as a Christmas gift for their children while not realizing that this is a game aimed at mature audiences. Sound familiar?).
   • Thankfully, these issues have been fixed in the 2011 remaster.
3. Minor plot hole: Why the Wonderland characters haven't been turn back to their original forms after Wonderland has turned back to normal after the Red Queen's demise is never explained.
   • Though this can be excused by the fact that Alice still hasn't gotten over her trauma, the loss of her family and the psychological abuse she received from Dr. Angus Bumby in Madness Returns.
4. Similar to Black & White, it makes no sense why this game never saw a Steam release when its 2011 remaster should by now.
5. Lack of replay value or unlockables. Heck, even McGee himself stated that the game is very much a "one and done" game.
6. Executive Meddling:
   • EA altered the game's box art by replacing the Vorpal Blade with an Ice Wand and made the Cheshire Cat look less skeletal, with their excuse stating that "complaints from various consumer groups" is the reason for that. However, McGee pointed out that the alteration was made due to internal concerns at EA.
   • McGee wanted to make a PS2 port of the game, but EA ultimately cancelled it in favor of the PC version and shut down Rogue Entertainment in 2001. This results in McGee to cut ties with EA until the development of Madness Returns started.
   • The worst part of all is that EA put the developers through crunch time around the final three months of development, which resulted in some employees working 20 hours a day and sleeping on the floor. This could explain the issue stated in BQ#5.
     • It's worth noting that the game's development took a year and a half to finish.

Trivia

• Prior to Alice, McGee worked on other id Tech-based games such as the Doom and Quake series.
• The game was first conceptualized when McGee heard the word "wonder" uttered in "Trip Like I Do" by The Crystal Method while he was listening to the radio, which reminded him of Wonderland. This is basically the major reason why he deliberately made the game as a dark reimaging of Lewis Carroll's novels.
• The lava levels in this game are entirely made by McGee because he claims that lava is cool.
• While recording the screaming sounds for the game, someone in a nearby office assumed that someone is being tortured and called the police about it. This is because the team did not have a proper sound booth.

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