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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">"What's wrong Alice?
Something's broken.
What's broken Alice?
I am."

A game based on the classic tale Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It sounds like, well, a Disney game, but is most definitely and assuredly not Disney in any way. Alice has a fair amount of hacking and slashing with a rather large knife in it, not to mention that Wonderland itself looks as if it came straight out of a Tim Burton film. This is most definitely not the Alice that everyone remembers!

Welcome to the world of American McGee's Alice. A Wonderland where the evil Queen of Hearts has taken rule over the land. Wonderland has become poisoned by evil. Everything is practically the complete opposite of how it was in the original tale. The inhabitants of Wonderland have also been changed by the wicked tyrannical rule of the evil Queen. The once gentle inhabitants are now tortured souls, or hateful enemies.

All the favourite characters from the classic story are back in the game, but all have had some major changes to them. To say that the Cheshire Cat has seen better times is an understatement -- McGee's version of the Cat looks like an anorexic hell kitty. Yet the Cat will be a guide to Alice as she travels through the tormented Wonderland. Alice's other guide on this strange journey is the White Rabbit. As in the story, the White Rabbit is the character from Wonderland who Alice meets first, but this time the rabbit has come to ask Alice for help.

But the poor old rabbit has, like the Cheshire Cat, seen better days. The wicked Queen of Hearts and her army of Card Guards feature heavily in the game, as well as other original Wonderland characters such as the Jabberwocky, the Mad Hatter (who has become a twisted enemy), and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. But the character who has changed the most is Alice herself. While Alice may look to be a waifish young lass, inside she is severely disturbed. Struggling to cope with the recent and tragic loss of her parents, Alice has been placed into an asylum, and it is from here that the game begins, with the White Rabbit paying her a visit.

Taking a slightly different approach from McGee's past works, Alice is played from the third-person perspective. This means that Alice will have a lot more animations, as well as placing an emphasis on adventure (along with hacking and slashing). This perspective works quite well as it allows the player to see this psychotic Wonderland in all its glory. The landscapes are truly breathtaking. Taking full advantage of the licensed Quake 3 engine, the level designers have created some superbly designed levels, including many scenes from the novel, and all of these levels seem familiar from the Disney movie.

The weapons used by Alice in the game have also been altered. Many of the weapons, with the exception of the first weapon, a knife, are transmogrified objects. Early on in the game Alice gets her hands on a Croquet mallet. But this is no ordinary mallet, as the Cheshire Cat explains to Alice, no indeed. This mallet has an electric punch to it, and has a secondary fire where Alice hits electrified Croquet balls at her enemies. Other weapons include the throwing jacks, which have deadly spikes on the ends with which to skewer opponents, and some fairly deadly dice. Nearly all the weapons in Alice have a secondary fire mode. For example, the secondary fire mode of the knife is to throw it at targets, the knife then reappears in Alice's hand after a short time.

Another thing to note about American McGee's Alice is that the music is being composed by Chris Vrenna, drummer for Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor's band). So some heavy sounded, not to mention slightly psychotic (to go with the feel of the game), music seems to be likely when the final version of the game appears on store shelves.

Overall American McGee's Alice looks like it is going to be one game to look out for in the Christmas shopping rush. Definitely put this game at the top of your shopping list. Finally another quote from the game:

"But I don't want to go among mad people.
Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here."

Show me the screenshots!

Check out the Official Site.