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OK, to be honest I’ve never played the original Alice, and I don’t think that’s put me in a bad light with this. Even though every brand new copy of the game comes with the original game, I ignored this in favour of playing the new game.
1st off if you’re after the GS there are some fairly easy cheating ways to get 800 GS, it still takes a good amount of time to get there (8-10 hrs) but it’s still fairly easy. However, for those who aren’t bothered by that and want to play the game as it was intended then you’re in for a treat. Don’t go into this game expecting the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. This is closer to the books (according to the missus – I’ve never read them). It’s dark in tone and deals with some fairly adult themes, I can’t go into them without spoilers, but in the game there’s Asylums, Prostitution and Murder. This was one of the few games that she has wanted me to play as she enjoyed watching it, last night as she was cooking she kept coming over to watch as I was closing in to the ending.
I did my 1st playthrough on normal, and it wasn’t that challenging, the only real difference in the difficulty levels is the amount of damage the enemies can take and the damage they do. They don’t throw more enemies at you just because you want a challenge.
The game design reminds me of an N64/Gamecube game, it’s very linear and only one route through the levels, and guides you very well. But along the way there are little paths that contain collectibles or upgrades to health. There aren’t many invisible walls and you can fall off ledges and die, there are unlimited lives but if you die it will throw you back to the last checkpoint you visited, they’re fairly frequent so never feels to much of a chore. Dying is usually due to your own fault and never feels unfair.
A great feature is the ability to shrink at will, this will allow you to walk through keyholes and see secret platforms etc, it will also allow you to see drawings made by children graffiting the environment. It adds to the atmosphere which is always good. It very rarely takes you far from the path and is usually just a quick distraction.
There feels a distinct lack of variation in the enemies, each level does throw in a new enemy but the ones from other levels also get thrown in Ad Nauseum, and once you figure out the tactic to beating them it can become repetitive.
There is also a bucket load of collectibles, as long as you’re not new to 3D platformers you’ll know the drill, I managed on my 1st run through to pick up 95% of the collectibles. You can chapter select and pick up the ones you missed, however, it doesn’t advise where they are in the chapter so you’ll probably have to play each chapter through again. Don’t play with a guide just to ace this the 1st time round as you’ll fail to be immersed in a beautiful game. And it is a great game, There’s the occasional camera niggle usually when you go through a keyhole and come through at a different angle. But release the control and pick it up straight away and it fixes it, there are sometimes an invisible step that you have to jump over when walking up a slope but they’re usually few and far between.
This to me feels like a throwback to how platformers used to play which seem to have gotten lost in the race to be as bloody as possible, this relies on storytelling to get you through with some really freaky cut scenes. All up it’s one of the best games I’ve played this year and will probably be in the running for 3D platformer of the year for me.
Overall - 8.5 out of 10
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Game Completion - 64
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