American mcgees alice pc download

When American McGee first dreamt up the idea of adapting Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland he must have been tripping. In fact, come to think of it he can't have been because, as we discovered way back in 94, he was driving at the time. Anyway, you get what we mean: American McGee's Alice is the craziest, strangest, most perverted piece of nonsense we've ever played - which is no big surprise considering the original was a nonsensical tale in the first place. But this?

American McGee's Alice attempts to cross fantasy and madness by reworking Carroll's Wonderland into something of a cross between Hellraiserand It's A Knockout-car and chess pieces being a popular well as screaming babies, mad kids and tortured animals... Now, before you turn the page in disgust, we have to say that all of this is conducted in an altogether 'colourful' and 'entertaining' manner, and the madness that prevails reveals a rich vein of clever game design that is well worth experiencing.

Gone Strange

Alice, the game, kicks off with a meticulously rendered cut sequence of a fire in a little girl's bedroom. As the scene progresses you realise that it's Alice, the character, we're seeing this happen to and, as it concludes, you're left with the eerie image of Alice locked-up in a dark, grey mental asylum, plasters stuck to her waif-thin wrists. It seems she didn't survive the fire completely unscathed...

Then, while you're still trying to work out what the hell is going on, the view changes to a polygonal tunnel of light and Alice falls into Wonderland with a scream. Suddenly the White Rabbit appears dressed in top hat and tails - looking a little zombified with it "You're late!" he yelps. "You're ugly", you think, and the White Rabbit turns and runs off. An equally mangy Cheshire Cat appears out ot nowhere and tells Alice that Wonderland has gone strange. "Follow the White Rabbit," he -- purrs in a wonderfully velvety manner, and - as, at this point, control is relinquished - you head off down a wooden corridor to start your big adventure.

Third-Person

Developer Rogue has gone for a third-person viewpoint in Alice (the success of the Tomb Raider series having something to do with this?), which - in this game's case - works really well. Unlike many 'live' third-person 30 adventures, the floating camera follows the action perfectly and rarely gets in the way of the game. The same could be said of the control system, which also rates as pretty much perfect. As Rogue itself will probably admit, a large chunk of the credit for Alice?s immediacy must go to id's Quake 3 engine, which has been bought in to power this game. And, being Quake-powered, Alice is a doddle to play - the usual Quake mouse and keyboard combinations handling movement, object manipulation, weapons, all quick loading and saving, plus all the other features you take for granted in Quake games these days cealso benefits from the Quake 3 engine's graphical prowess. Whether you're playing at basic 640 x 480, or at much higher resolutions, the game rarely fails to impress visually. Beautiful colouring and subtle, detailed 3D modelling are apparent from the outset, and the visual treats become more sophisticated and awe-inspiring as the game progresses. American McGee's Alice is undoubtedly one of the bestlooking games ever made and later levels are so amazingly designed and wonderfully imaginative that they recompense for your efforts early on. For which you should be thankful, because Alice is quite a tough game overall.

Red Queen's Guards

As Alice explores more of Wonderland, she quickly learns that the Red Queen has gone potty and is trying to take over the world. Hints are dropped of a saviour in town -and suddenly it's you controlling Alice and back in the driving seat.

Your first encounter with the Red Queen's guards comes after receiving the Vorpal Blade This basic weapon is capable of killing most lower-order creatures with a throw or two, but is slow to reload. Other weapons collected later in the game (see box entitled Wonderland Weapons for more details) vary in usefulness and power, and using combinations of weapons becomes important to survival. Thankfully, a 'laser pen' on-screen cross-hair makes killing guards and monsters relatively easy, as long as Alice is pointing in the right direction, and can even 'gib' them into globules of gore if used up-close in their faces. Despite the incredibly detailed look of stupidity on their faces, the Red Queen's guards are not as dumb as they first appear. Hurt them and they run off. Let them gang up on you and you're as good as dead. You might even get involved in a bit of tail-chasing around a pillar if they decide to high tail it, only to have them stop, turn and fire when you least expect it. Some even have rocket-launchers capable of blowing you to bits in seconds. Fortunately for both Alice and yourself, every dead guard (or monster for that matter) leaves behind a glowing crystal, called Meta Essence, that restores part of your health bar (red bar down left hand side of screen) upon collection.

Graphics Versus Gameplay

After an introduction to ropeswinging, an impromptu (but un-dynamic) mine shaft ride, and more words of advice from the ubiquitous Cheshire Cat Alice arrives in a place called, ominously, The Fortress Of Doors. It is here that the game really starts to dazzle, with some fantastically imaginative level design and trippy lighting effects that illuminate the mostly platform-style action. In one room, the whole floor splits apart, revealing a swirling tunnel of light through which the floating island you're standing on passes... In another room, huge doors hurtle down this tunnel, opening and passing by you with a booming jet engine roar. The effect is stunning, but highly disorienting at the same time, and falling into this glowing abyss means instant death. You quickly begin to realise that it's better to keep your eye on the action than the scenery since progress is more or less determined by the accuracy of your leaping.

Later on, other strange creatures come into play: there's the 'Lost Soul', a monster that screams a directional wind to knock you off your ledge; man-eating mushrooms that suck you into their leathery mouths and chew you; thorn-spitting roses; zombie piranha fish; frightening, soul-sucking giant bats; deathdealing steam-powered robots; Lava monsters and hard-as-nails chess pieces among many others. Each creature has his own varying degree of intelligence and attack patterns.

While many of Alice's foes are relatively slow moving, their presence in some levels makes completing the task ahead of you extremely difficult. This is especially the case if precise platform jumping is required to complete the level - which it usually is - even on the easiest of the four skill settings. There's almost always a bottomless pit for Alice to fall into somewhere in the level. And, with the Red Queen's allies blasting you from every angle, sudden death due to falling becomes de rigueurlor most of the game. The final quarter of Alice is a frightening fight for survival as you cling to any ledge available as the blows rein in from your rivals. It's truly hair-raising to experience the first time, but by the 20th attempt you'll be grating your teeth and wishing the level was over. And -if that isn't enough - there are some seriously huge 'bosses' to contend with too - many of whom take a long, long time to wear down and beat.

Constant Variety

Rather disappointingly the puzzles in Alice rarely deviate from the pull-the-right-lever-to-open-the-right-door school of gameplay. There are a couple of more interesting conundrums in later levels (one that sees you moving across a chessboard in the manner of a certain chess piece), but the solution is usually glaringly obvious and presents little cerebral challenge.

On the plus side, some levels take on a particular theme or style of gameplay to add variety to the adventure. In one, Alice is trapped underwater and must swim to the exit by following a helpful turtle. Then, she is pursued by a gigantic rolling ball down a corkscrew precipice. And in another, she must ride a leaf down a maze of tributaries without drowning or being eaten by horrible spitting fish, while in yet another she must traverse the inner-workings of a massive ancient clock to reach the top of it. It is this constant variety in the style and design of the levels that saves American McGee's Alice from oblivion.

Erase From Here Using Mind Rubbers

But all this talk has so far been about the game - we've made little or no mention of the story. And, as we've said many times before, the story is all-important. Well, without giving too much of it away: there's a clever twist in the tale that ties up the confusing cut sequence seen in the asylum at the beginning of the game, and the rest of the script is, well, OK. The dialogue and narrative do have their moments, but rarely does the story truly grip you because there's little or no interaction with non-player characters and the voice acting is so patchy. A couple of characters, the turtle in particular, sound like Spitting Image rejects - harking back to darker days when all PC adventures talked like this (Feeble Files anyone?). It's a pity really because some of the voices, particularly the Cheshire Cat, are spot on. It's just that the dodgy ones ruin the atmosphere and make a mockery of the serious and twisted nature of the game.

Without doubt, American McGee's Alice is an epic adventure filled with many wondrous sights. The love and care taken in designing Alice shines through in almost every aspect of the game, bar the repetitive gameplay and the patchy voice-overs.

We can't praise the music composers and sound effects artists enough - even if Alice jumping sounds like Monica Seles serving. We positively endorse the sheer variety in the levels, and the 30 environment modelling is possibly the best we've ever seen. And we kneel in awe at the programming dude who came up with that cool water reflection effect. But, we were expecting a little bit more than a 'darker' Rayman 2, so are slightly disappointed with the end result. Alice could have been a classic. The setting is wondrous but, in gameplay terms, what we have is a formulaic platform romp that is occasionally brilliant and frequently frustrating for all the wrong reasons.