American McGee is planning a return to his twisted version of Wonderland. The eccentric video game designer announced he is currently in the process of putting together a proposal for the next entry in the series, a follow-up to 2011's "Alice: Madness Returns." The tentative title for the final game in the trilogy is "Alice: Asylum."
EA holds the rights for "McGee's Alice," and it would take some convincing for the company to reinvest in the franchise, as the last game performed rather poorly.
Story
It all started with "American McGee's Alice," a third person psychological action game released on the PC in the year 2000.
Although it maintained the general themes and characters seen in Lewis Carroll's original story, McGee's interpretation proved to be considerably more gruesome and gothic.
Set after the events of "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," Alice ends up in an asylum after watching her family burn in an accidental fire. Ten years later, the young heroine is sucked back into Wonderland, which has been twisted by the Queen of Hearts.
Alice has to make her way through a few familiar locations with the Heart Palace being the final destination. Although there is somewhat of a tangible goal, with the Queen of Hearts serving as the big bad, "American McGee's Alice" blends reality with fiction in a similar way as the source material.
Characters and locations represent Alice's feelings and fears, so this is more of a journey of self-discovery than a heroine trying to free a nation from an evil Queen.
The combat was not great, but the unique setting, entertaining boss fights, and memorable storyline worked well.
The sequel
Eleven years later, "Alice: Madness Returns" was released to a positive reception.
Abandoning the shooter mechanics from the first game, the sequel is a straight forward hack and slash action-adventure title.
It boasted the same eclectic air style seen in the first while benefitting from the added power of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The storyline sees Alice sucked back to Wonderland, which is being corrupted by the Infernal Train.
This time around, the combat is fantastic but "Alice: Madness Returns" suffers from pacing issue and a severe lack of boss fights. Every area, while cool looking, is way too big and takes forever to finish. Some interesting segments are dealing with her time in the Asylum and the original fire, but overall it can be a slog.
Despite both games being rather flawed, we would love another chance to visit McGee's twisted version of Wonderland.
