The events of Alice: Madness Returns pick up where the previous game American McGee’s Alice, left off: Alice is now at a facility for children with psychological disorders, and memories of her entire family dying in a fire haunt her. Another menace, disguised as a massive train, is now attempting to demolish her Wonderland. Alice will go through several steps to halt the march and discover its purpose. In Wonderland, there are five major chapters, each with its theme and set of opponents.
The gameplay is split 50/50 between platforming and hack-and-slash combat. Unlike the last game, the emphasis is on battling with melee weapons, though shooting adversaries is also possible (and required). Melee attacks are made with a vorpal sword (rapid attacks) or a toy horse (slower but more powerful and capable of breaking through opposing defenses), while ranged attacks are made with a pepper grinder or tea cannon. The hero has a cooldown time and can also be used to trigger switches remotely. Alice also has a timed bomb and can avoid incoming strikes by briefly transforming into a cloud of butterflies. To keep a specific enemy in view, a concentrated mode can be activated, and in this mode, Alice can deploy an umbrella to deflect incoming bullets. When Alice’s health is low, a monochrome hysteria mode is activated, in which much more damage is dealt, and Alice can harvest enemies for health rather than teeth, the main currency left behind by adversaries. She can triple jump and glide down the different platform parts. Alice’s journey will take her to both nineteenth-century London and fictional places. Alice’s capacity to shrink anytime allows her to navigate narrow passages and discover otherwise almost imperceptible platforms and items. It’s also used to get hints about the following target. Players must occasionally finish mini-games such as a 2D side-scrolling platformer, a rolling ball game in both 2D and 3D, and side-scrolling stages with a submarine. Some characters from the previous game return, while the game includes several new monsters from Lewis Carroll’s works.
It is merely a single-player game. Alice’s weaponry can be upgraded three times with new abilities and more significant strikes by collecting teeth. The number of roses representing Alice’s health bar can also be enhanced by locating and completing particular ‘radula rooms’ tasks and solving Cheshire Cat’s riddles. It collects numerous hidden artifacts, such as varied memories and bottles, unlocking specific galleries in the game’s menu. Once the game is completed, a New Game+ option with increased difficulty is offered.
