Quote from Mr. HappyWhy is there no alice 1+2 on steam!I missed out on the first one, well, I watched my brother play alot of it. Really excited to get myself into this series of games!
Because it's probably gonna be released on Origin I suppose? It's an EA title after all.
Might get a release on steam as well though...?
I haven't used origin before but they do have a combo!
Yes, it is origin exclusive. Origin kinda sucks... but it gets the job done. And yes, you get the original Alice with purchase 
Anyways.. I was a bit worried because I saw some poor reviews on metacritic. I'm only an hour or so into the game, but it is stellar so far. Exactly what it should be - same mechanics as the first with a bit of new flavor added. Third person platformer, small but diverse arsenal... it is a tad clumsy at times, but not to the point to frustration. I've fallen a few times, but hey... its not a good platformer if you hit every jump every time, right? I'm still getting used to the controls, I'm sure I'll improve as I progress.
The combat system is actually rather good imho - the vorpal blade swings in a wide arc so your aim doesn't have to be perfect. The (ranged) peppergrinder has a crosshair while firing, and the camera is locked w/ crosshair in center. Alice has a dodge move which is quite handy. There is also an auto-aim/lock-on function, but I've only used it a couple of times, so far it hasn't been necessary.
The art is superb. I couldn't find a screenshot button in the options... but I'll get fraps on here in case anyone is interested. Just delicious. The voice acting is good, the story is interesting so far. I've been through at least 4 distinct environments in only the first hour or so, and I stopped as I entered the fourth... I'm actually hoping it slows down because I want to enjoy each more, they are all interesting!
tl;dr:
So far, so good. Worth it even if just for the art, but so far there is no sign the gameplay or story will be a letdown.
I'm waiting a bit before I buy this one. I'm a huge fan of the original game and I don't want to be disappointed.
What I've seen so far has been really great so I have high hopes nonetheless. And Chris Vrenna did the soundtrack again.
This game is more or less getting bashed by critics, has pretty poor metacritic scores - although they run from a few 60s up to a few 90s, so its a pretty wide spread. I can see how the controls could be frustrating with a controller, but with a mouse/keyboard it is painless. Get the PC version. User reviews for the PC version on metacritic are stellar.
I think it's getting harsh reviews because it is not groudbreaking, but I never expected or wanted it to be. I loved the original and that is what I wanted from the sequel. I was expecting a dark, imaginative, classic 3rd person action/platformer with beautiful art, a great story - and that is what it is. Mechanics-wise, they took the original and added in a few new features that fit in seamlessly.
If you loved the original, you will love this. I keep thinking - if McGee and team had the technology to do this for the original, it is exactly what they would have done. Glad to see time hasn't spoiled the concept.
Skacky: Chris Vrenna only did one song, but the soundtrack is great nonetheless!
Origin was fairly painless, perhaps 1 - 2 too many steps but vastly better than some other download platforms out there, and it seems perfectly stable.
For me games are about immersion in the story and the world. The critics seem to be upset that the game mechanics are basic tried and true platformer fair and that the level design is very linear. This is true. However, what they fail to realize is that the immersion DOES! make up for any failing.
I disagree about the controls, at first I really liked them, but the shooting is a little absurd. By default they want you to hold down caps lock while pressing tab to use the focus, is that even possible? I tried changing the button and now it sometimes doesn't work. And I don't know what you mean about the crosshair getting locked twiz...it floats! Plus you have to right click to shoot, which kind of makes sense since you have 2 weapons, but is very unorthodox that left clicking switches you back to knife it's sometimes confusing!
All in all I'm loving it, played until it locked up my computer and I'm going back for more. Probably will be one of the few games I finish.
you press caps lock once to enter "aiming mode" then tab switches focus between enemies. You don't hold caps lock. Press it again to exit aiming mode. The screen gets a frame around it when in aiming mode.
I'm about 5 or so hours in, and I'm maybe a third of the way through the second "world", of five.
Yeah, the switching between pepper grinder and other weapons takes a bit of getting used to. I'm still not entirely used to it, in big battles I get crossed up sometimes.
For me the screen goes to sort of a over-the-shoulder view when shooting, with the crosshair more or less stationary in the middle of the screen. Aiming the pepper grinder is a bit sluggish and draggy, I agree. Makes aiming a bit difficult. Like your mouse speed drastically changes between running around/camera and aiming. It gets a bit cluster-fucky when in big battles, trying to switch between aiming mode/regular, different weapons, pepper grinding, blocking, and dodging. It can be frustrating and rewarding. Often you have to be paying attention to multiple enemies/natural dangers/jumping puzzles simultaneously, and I definitely get crossed up from time to time - but there are also those times when I nail it just right and don't take a single hit; it almost makes up for the frustration!
I like how nearly all enemies have their own weaknesses, and it isn't explained to you - you find out through some experimentation (and some deaths, probably ) what works best. Many of them require a combination of attacks/dodges/blocks.. Then put three or four different enemies together in a battle, and you have some good fun I think with more comfort with controls, those big battles will get more fun and less frustrating!
There have been some pretty epic battles and running/jumping/dodging puzzles so far! The art just continues to astound.
I agree, the immersion is complete. I'd even venture to say nearly HL-levels of immersion. Fantastic environments, interesting NPCs, great storytelling = immersion.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:ALICE MADNESS RETURNS ON PC SUFFERS FROM AN EXTREME CASE OF CONSOLITIS.
IN ORDER TO FIX THAT YOU MUST DO THE FOLLOWING:
1-INI-files here: \Users\\Documents\My Games\Alice Madness Returns\AliceGame\Config\
2-Disable capped 30fps:
In file AliceEngine.ini change bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE to FALSE
3-Disable mouse acceleration:
In file AliceInput.ini change bEnableMouseSmoothing=TRUE to FALSE
IF YOU WANT TO BE ABSOLUTELY SURE ABOUT THE FRAMERATE CAP, BUT THIS ISN'T NECESSARY ONCE YOU'VE DISABLE SMOOTH FRAMERATE:
4-In file AliceEngine.ini change MaxSmoothedFrameRate=31 to any value you want
Well, I have never played the previous game and this one neither.
But I have seen the artbook of this game. It's fabulous.
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I will probably buy this game, I'm still waiting for tests.
Quote from Gloglebag
Thanks! That helped indeed! Although the peppergrinder/teapot aiming is still laggy, I think they meant for it to be that way 
The concept art and the in game art are both amazing. Several times so far my expression has been : 
The quality and variety is just mindblowing.
Just entering the third world now. To complicate the controls further, they've introduced a second ranged weapon - the firing key is the same(right click) and you switch between the two with the scroll wheel... urghh shitty. I was just getting comfortable with the first ranged weapon's controls, now I have to deal with two?! ahh! I don't think their decisions on bindings are particularly bad, it is just a byproduct of putting such a variety of weapons and moves in, and requiring you to switch between them on the fly. Except for your basic encounters, you pretty much can NOT make it through a battle with a single weapon. Often you can't make it through a single enemy with a single weapon! Most game have more weapons than Alice, but few have weapons which require so much thinking to use effectively.
The statement I made earlier about enemies having their own weaknesses is a blessing and a curse - prepare to be madly switching between weapons using two different methods - number keys for melee and scroll wheel for ranged, plus two different firing methods, plus one ranged weapon you have to hold fire... Its quite the clusterfuck. Without dodge this game would be impossible. At least you can just dodge like mad and give you some time to get your weaponry straight. I'm playing on medium difficulty, and I'm not a terrible gamer, and I've died a handful of times. Can't imagine what the harder difficulties are like.
It does give a good sense of progress and accomplishment though; this is how it usually goes:
First encounter, usually one of the enemy: "holy FUCK, I hope I don't see THAT guy again! sonofabitch!"
An hour later: "Only four of those guys? Cmon, challenge me!"
2 seconds later: "Oh shit, where'd those other guys come from? And those guys!? FUCK! *switching weapons and dodging* aaahhHHHHH!"
It really is pretty smart.. each battle is a puzzle, just by mixing different enemies requires a different approach. Although all approaches include abundant use of dodge :cop:
It was a timed exclusive on Origin for the first 3 days, it's now available on Steam.
Yeah, I went fffff. Though, the original one isn't there though, I think that was an exclusive to Origin.
Quote from deceiverYeah, I went fffff. Though, the original one isn't there though, I think that was an exclusive to Origin.
The original game's a menu option inside the new one.
My verdict from playing through the first couple areas: Prettiest game so far this year. Terrible dialog, even worse than Pathologic's babblefish, with no excuse for Alice because American McGee's british and should know better. Shit controls on PC: left click swings knife, right click gets out and shoots pepper gun, which is insanely awkward to aim, jumping and aiming drops is based on analog controls with absolutely no work done to translate that to WASD, have to hold down left control for a bunch of stuff while you're moving around and exploring, etc. Get it in the bargain bin so you can see the spectacle, and mourn that the pretty shit's wasted on bad design.
Just finished it. It just keeps getting prettier the further along it goes. The variety and complexity of each setting is astounding. Level design is excellent.
Really, I think the controls are the only weak point. Towards the end, I got used to them and had no issues. The hobby horse is the major control gremlin. It imparts a serious delay, which creates a problem since you need to dodge quite often. It also "remembers" your keystrokes for a while, which is an issue in button-mashy brawls. For example, if you click attack three times, then dodge, it will do that - unfortunately each attack takes a second with the hobby horse, so your dodge comes a couple seconds too late. Otherwise the combat is pretty fluid and fun. I ended up not bothering with manual aiming with the ranged weapons, just using the autotarget feature for that stuff. Manual aiming was just too slow and clumsy, and some air enemies are too damn dangerous to mess around with. Especially since they're usually supporting some fearsome land creatures which require attention.
Also, you can select weapons with the 1-4 buttons, which is better than the silly scroll-to-switch ranged weapons. There is only two of them, so why they made it so scroll up selects the pepper grinder and scroll down selects teapot is beyond me. Why not just scroll any direction changes to the other weapon? You still have to right click to fire ranged weapons, which I grew to like as it went on. It lets you easily switch between ranged and melee, which is very useful in battles with flying and ground enemies. It's really no different than many other games which use right-click as alternate attack.
In any case, teapot cannon is so powerful it makes pepper grinder only useful if your teapot needs to recharge or for long-range shooting. Really, the teapot is by far the best weapon in the game, and it may be why the game gets easy towards the end. High damage, breaks enemy defenses, ranged weapon, and splash damage. It has to recharge, but that is only a minor inconvenience.
Look for the Psychonauts nod in Queensland 
Difficulty spiked somewhere in the middle area. Started out fairly easy, got tough quickly and stayed hard through Oriental Grove (which was by far the hardest realm), then dropped to easy til the end, which was kinda disappointing.
Unfortunately towards the end, the silly mini-games increase in frequency. They wouldn't be bad if they weren't so buggy.
The 2d platformer bits are plagued with control problems, just not tight like a 2d platformer should be. The rolling doll head minigame just generally sucks and isn't fun. I dreaded those damn sliding ramp sections too, with the burning ooze on them that fucking destroys your health. I'd rather face almost any enemy than go down one of those godforsaken slides.
There was one point towards the end of Oriental Grove that nearly had me quit out of frustration. It was a long section with little health, followed by a buggy 2d platformer section that I got stuck on scenery several times and had to restart, then an ill-conceived battle. By the time I made it to the battle, I had maybe 20% health. There were two big Ruins and a few little ones in a very confined space with no cover at all. The camera was freaking out due to the confined space, very difficult to see where I was. Took probably 7-10 attempts to get by that part.
I'm not sure what you mean about the dialog jetset, I thought it was pretty good 
Alice is voiced by the same woman who did the original, and she's British, so... Cheshire Cat is also voiced by the same guy as the original.
It took me 14 hours to complete, and I missed some of the bonus areas/secrets etc. Probably 15 or so hours to full completion, although there isn't much incentive to.. All my weapons were fully upgraded. I missed a few radula rooms. I didn't get all the bottles, but I have no idea what their significance is other than to make OCD gamers spend time trying to find them all?
The memories thing was actually well done. I was worried at first, having flashbacks to holotapes from fallout 3... just meaningless noise in the background. But they are well voiced and well written, you know the characters who are talking, and actually are interesting to hear as they pertain to the storyline.
The ending could have been better done, it madly switches between wonderland/real world/cutscenes when you're approaching the final battle.
You'd spawn in one room, run into the next and it would switch to a dialog with a character, then a cutscene would roll, then an in-game cutscene in the real world, then back to in-wonderland, run into the next room and repeat.
. Add into that loading times between each and it gets annoying. Generally, loading screens throughout the game are infrequent and pretty quick.
Overall, I'd give it a 9.2. Only points off are for the control issues and the minigames, and the difficulty curve taking a nosedive at the end. If you liked the first, you'll like this more... if you can forgive the controls for being a bit shite. (and if you liked the first, I'm assuming you can :derp: )
Quote from twizI'm not sure what you mean about the dialog jetset, I thought it was pretty good
I didn't mean the voice acting, I meant the writing. For the pre-Wonderland scenes it's almost all just meaningless babbling. Especially how you go to Wonderland: You meet an old woman, cutscene with her babbling to herself about Alice incoherently, then you're on a roof for some reason? Then you walk up to the old lady and talk to her again, and suddenly, Wonderland.
Oh yeah, I gotcha. Agreed. The story is pretty thin in the beginning, it gets much stronger after the first third of the game though. Stick with it, controls and story will improve! 
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