That's me, the greatest Hardcore Gamer you'll ever find (at least here in Uruguay:arcade: ) and these are reviews of games I've finished, judge by yourself:
American McGee's Alice.
A bit straightforward but check out those environments!! And the music!! that's what I call an immersive game.
First the upsides of the game:
- Great lookings, the graphics are outstanding for a game from 2000, the environments are spectacular, the imaginative artwork really does an impressive job at inmersing you into "Gothic" Wonderland, it's just a shame that I didn't got the game 'till it was a litlle outdated so the looks didn't had the same impact that they would've caused on me back when it was released.
But just as said by Erik Wolpaw on his review of the game: "It seems that the designers' inspiration dissipated a little by the later levels" maybe it's because the first sorroundings were too impressive that the later ones couldn't make the same effect, but sadly as it is the best feature of the game slightly vanishes by the end of the game (keyword: slightly).
- The sound, along with the graphics the other outstanding feature of the game, my congratulations to Chris Vrenna for an excellent soundtrack, that really sets the mood of Alice own "Gothic Wonderland".
The Grey Spots:
- Gameplay, it's ok, easy controls that while being more complex than the ones of other plataformers, just doesn't get to the point of most action games.
- Puzzles and level exploration, though there are puzzles on almost every level, they're just too simple, to the point that it doesn't even require mental effort to solve them. As for level exploration, that's a feature that developers worked really well, because at first you'll get the impression that the levels are huge, but that's just an illusion, product of the smart use of the environments, such as multiple corridors that lead to the same place, dozens of door of wich only a few open, but in the end the illussion fades and you realize that the levels are all kinda short and greatly straightforward, so it balance itself to stay as a "grey spot".
The Downsides:
- Combat, by no means fast paced nor immersive, it gets xtremely repetitive, and allows almost no strategy, except for the fact that you'll find a few weapons to be more effective against some foes, but probably you'll just use the same weapon 'till you get one better.
- Just way too straighforward, no open ended, you don't get to choose the outcome of the history, while the story it's really interesting, the game just railroadyou through it, and the story itself it's at the same time interesting enough and xtremely linear, there's no backsteps on it, there's no deception, no deadends, no surprises. It's a shame the developers didn't emphazice on this aspect of the game, for they would've got Classic on their shoulders.
The Veredict:
A fun straighforward plataformer, with impressive graphics, outstanding background music & sound, and an interesting premise that didn't reach it's potential. So if you don't mind the lack of open ending on the story, the unappealing combat system, nor the simple puzzles, then you'll love American McGee's Alice.
So my veredict is: "Worth playing".
Alice is a great game... download it and played it when it came out...
got no social life for a week and finished it...
great game... i love the sadistic humor to it... a great game to play!
I remember enjoying the voice acting a bit, which is rare. Computer-game voice-acting is usually wretched, but Alice was well-cast and the dialogue well-written.
Mechanically, yeah; it's just the Quake III engine and doesn't do much to change from Quake. But such interesting and evocative scenery ... It's impressive that it manages to create a convincing and engaging illusion of being an adventure title when it's really just a shooter.
Quote from: S. John RossI remember enjoying the voice acting a bit, which is rare. Computer-game voice-acting is usually wretched, but Alice was well-cast and the dialogue well-written.
Indeed, unlike most Pc games, Alice had great dialogues, and good acting, being the Chessire Cat my favourite.