Surely some of you will never be asked in his life, that order has never made the famous protagonist of the story of Alice in Wonderland after returning in the midst of ordinary mortals.
Maybe it will become a successful writer? The imagination is not lacking ... Or will it become a young archaeologist in the footsteps of Lara Croft? Or simply place the 'activities of a maid or a secretary like any normal person?
Thanks to American McGee's Alice, the curiosity surrounding the existence of Alice has now been finally revealed and unfortunately for the young girl, things did not go the best way.
In fact, a terrible fire broke out in the house where Alice lived with their parents has reduced to a heap of ashes the entire building.
Alice is the only remaining survivor (along with his stuffed rabbit), but the shock of the loss of parents was that, now living (so to speak) enclosed in a psychiatric hospital insensible to every stimulus external.
To learn more about the situation "mental" the little sick girl, the elegant packaging, along with two CD-ROMs of the game, there is a small booklet translated into Italian, which contains the medical report of patient-days of Alice hospital and of some enigmatic drawings that often she created in moments of trance.
To awaken the minds of little Alice from his nightmare, we think the white rabbit longtime friend, who will report again in "reassuring" wonderland.
Let's say both "reassuring" world left by Alice long ago, it is now just a memory, the terror and anguish have taken over the joy and happiness of the past and look left accompanies the faces of the various characters populate the imaginary world.
It will, for a change, to an increasingly paranoid Alice Wonderland to bring the happiness of the past and set free the world from the influence of the evil Queen of Hearts.
Begins more or less in this way the new adventure of Alice in Wonderland will have to return on a long journey (consisting of nine main sections, subdivided in several sub-levels, for a total of 34 playable levels), the research evil Queen of Hearts.
Each section of the game reflects a particular aspect of the world was actually created by Lewis Carroll (as the home of the Mad Hatter or the realm of chess, or forest mushrooms), and is full of the same characters that have made this story.
Initially, the characters that Alice meets and that introduce you to the arduous journey that awaits are the white rabbit, which will once again pursue his close friend and Cheshire cat grin from not exactly reassuring.
These will keep you company throughout the entire play adventure with frequent appearances during the moments of the game.
Prodigal of suggestions (even where such aid are sometimes a bit 'cryptic to understand), the cat can be called by the player via a dedicated button each time requiring his presence.
Later you will meet all the other famous characters of the story such as, the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar Caterpillar essential for the continuous adventure and the eclectic Mad Hatter (renamed for the occasion Hatter Sadistic, because of its tendency to make the terrifying experiments of innocent lives as children).
The main feature of this title as some of you have probably already deduced by reading between the lines above, is certainly on the reinterpretation of adult Lewis Carroll.
Rather than attend a dream seems to witness a terrible nightmare born of a sick mind (like the protagonist).
All the environments are characterized by very dark and gothic style that gives the same look and decadent at the same time distorted.
Mind of the whole project is the one that gives the title to the game or American Mcgee's, and for those who wonder why so much importance (to accompany even the title of the game) to know that this person has a track record, being one the best level designers who have collaborated in the past with games like Doom and Quake.
It must be admitted that in this work the skill and class Mcgee are felt.
Indeed, the structure of the levels and among the most complex and most successful we have ever seen so far.
The main skill is McGees yield the best ones are the characteristics of a wonderland, to give life to an arcade adventure exciting and varied.
Speaking in more detail the structure of the game itself, we say that the programmers of the Rogue-Entertaiment have harnessed so much talent in a nice platform game with lots of action and some mystery, scattered among the various levels of play.
Through a camera placed behind the main character (like any game in the third person to Tomb Raider), the player can impart through the mouse-keyboard combination imperative their actions.
The movements, which are the classic Alice can perform such as running, jumping, climbing ropes or cling to any rough edges, etc while strangely can not bow (problems of arthritis?).
In addition, to make it less problematic gameplay, Alice may use a viewfinder useful to frame the target and a convenient indicator (in the shape of the sole of the shoe), useful to understand where you land after a jump .
If we can make some criticism of the control system, however simple, is the possibility sometimes necessary to hang on to a ledge of a platform that really require much accuracy, making the action a little 'frustrating.
With regard to the arsenal available to the game, Alice will initially use a beautiful sharp knife, then move on to some useful bats cards to be launched against the enemy, and finally magical sticks, nuts cursed, explosive boxes etc.
The number of weapons is not very high but definitely well-stocked, shame about the knife, the weapon most fascinating of the game, is also the weakest forcing the player to use magic sticks or swords icy much more "robust".
In addition, each weapon has a dual mode of fire, for example the magic stick can be used primarily as a weapon for shorter distances and in the second place, for the clashes by a certain distance, can be used to launch the fireballs.
We said earlier that the structure of the game is mainly split between platform and gameplay, especially those sections as well as being very demanding are also very different completely changing from one level to another.
For example, in the forest of mushrooms where Alice will be reduced, she will compete against ants or flowers murderers and jump using leaves, vines mushrooms and all that nature has to offer.
While inside the home of the Mad Hatter Alice will compete against terrible mechanical robots, and bring in the gears of the mechanical structures of the building to reach the terrible hat.
All add to the frequent diversions to the structure of the game sometimes brilliant (one of them even copied from the film Indiana Jones) and even more frequent intervals in which it develops the plot of the game (perhaps a bit 'obvious but always better than usual invasion of alien), to have a cocktail potentially explosive.
However, not everything is so positive, particularly with regard to interaction with the environment by the protagonist, and the puzzles present.
In fact, it seems that the programmers have remained little 'too "buttoned up" from this point of view for fear of sacrificing the immediacy of the game and make it too challenging.
For example, Alice can not communicate with the characters of the game if not at times laid down by the programmers and does not have an inventory in which to collect found objects.
As for the puzzles, except for a few exceptions, these are really too simple (at least in my humble opinion), beyond some leverage to lower, in most cases the solution is in the right place at the right time.
While they are to be promoted with flying colors graphics and sound aspects of the game.
All that the graphics engine Quake III has to offer such as curved surfaces, textures in high resolution or a 32-bit color palette, etc., has been fully exploited by programmers to create environments simply fantastic (the urge to move forward in the game only to discover all the wonderful landscapes created).
The various characters including the fabulous bosses are made with great skill and covered with texture of excellent quality.
The graphical effects like smoke, fire or the reflection on the water, are made in an impeccable manner and the great care put into details foresee even less important in those aspects of the game as the options menu (great).
But programmers were not satisfied with what the powerful graphics engine Quake could offer, and added also the mip mapping as in Unreal (the technique which allows you to maintain a very high texture detail also by closer shots) .
The soundtrack and its effects have been treated by a real musician like Chris Vrenna former bassist of Nine Inch Nail.
Never as in this case the choice turned out to be apt, in fact, the music is just creepy (the beauty) and contributes greatly to making the most immersive game environments.
Ultimately, let's say you have to have a lot of patience especially at the beginning (because the first two levels can be considered at best as the sections to make a little 'practice), in fact, after passing the rock of the first two levels of the game "engages" the great showing all its enormous potential.
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The game is based mainly on an original storyline and the fantastic settings.
The graphics have created a small masterpiece "squeezing" the best ones are the potential of graphics engine Quake III.
The result is the creation of landscapes scary, breathtaking in their beauty.
The sound created by the former founder of Nine Inch Nail, turns out to be of the highest quality involving even more the player in the maze of the game.
Despite some small defect such as an interaction with the surrounding landscape a bit 'deficit and perhaps not elaborate puzzles, the game turns out to be one of the most exciting and fun arcade adventure in recent months.
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