Alice: Madness Returns (v2022.01.14)

A ruined Victorian London and a grotesquely reimagined Wonderland turn Lewis Carroll’s familiar fantasy into a bleak action-adventure about trauma, memory, and survival. Alice Liddell returns years after a house fire kills her family, moving between grim reality and a mindscape that grows more broken with every revelation. Wonderland is no longer playful or safe; its storybook landmarks become decaying factories, drowned domains, oriental ruins, and other unsettling reflections of Alice’s past. The mood stays stylishly macabre, balancing disturbing imagery with darkly comic enemies and lavish gothic fashion.

Combat mixes third-person platforming with fast melee action, as Alice cuts through twisted creatures using the Vorpal Blade and swaps to ranged tools such as the Pepper Grinder and Teapot Cannon. Her umbrella blocks attacks and deflects projectiles, while shrinking reveals hidden paths, platforms, and secrets that are invisible at normal size. Each chapter asks players to navigate elaborate obstacle courses, solve environmental puzzles, hunt collectibles, and survive arena fights, with new weapons and upgrades expanding combat options over time. Checkpoints are generally fair, but demanding jumps, camera angles, and repeated combat encounters can make some sections feel more old-school than modern action games.

Its greatest strength is the art direction: every region transforms familiar Wonderland imagery into something vivid, mournful, and often genuinely bizarre. Alice’s dresses change with each world and are more than cosmetic, reinforcing the game’s shifting visual identity as she pieces together what really happened to her family. The story occasionally leans on straightforward level-by-level progression, yet the emotional undercurrent and imaginative environments give the journey a personality few licensed-inspired adventures match. Fans of American McGee’s Alice, dark fairy-tale horror, and character-driven platformers such as Psychonauts or the grimmer side of Devil May Cry should find plenty to enjoy, especially if they value atmosphere over flawless mechanics.