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American McGee's Alice

EMAIL PRINT pc

8.9 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 22 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Rogue

Genre(s): Action

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: December 5, 2000

Summary

When Alice answers a summons to return to Wonderland, she barely recognizes the place. From the fungal rot of the Mushroom Forest to the chemistry of the Mad Hatter's Domain, Wonderland festers to its core. Undaunted by the diseased ambiance and mortal danger that surround her, Alice must undo the chaos. [Electronic Arts]

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What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

GameZone

Anyone can make a dark atmosphere and tough characters - but Alice is a wonderful and WITTY adaptation of a familiar story into an intriguing and addictive action/adventure experience.

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100

Cincinnati Enquirer

Without a doubt, the game's single greatest asset is the graphics, with its unprecedented level of painstaking detail, swirling colors, wonderfully distorted images and dynamic lighting effects.

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Antagonist

The closest you'll ever need to get to surreal insanity brilliance.

Armchair Empire

A spectacular game.

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Gamer's Pulse

I will keep Alice for as long as my feeble mind can handle it.

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IGN

The graphics, as I think I've repeated about 50 times, are monumental, but let me just add that the character designs shine just as much.

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GameSpy

Visually and conceptually, Alice is unparalleled among this year's games, and succeeds in eclipsing its own weaknesses with intoxicating style. A defiantly original example of game-development as a fine art.

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GamerWeb PC

Hey, American McGee: Do more! I'd like to see Snow White done in the same style (with evil dwarves). I see no reason why this couldn't be a series of games, and I think the technology and the audience is ready.

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Da Gameboyz

The graphics are wonderful, the sounds and voice acting are perfect, and the levels are huge. It's too bad there isn't a multiplayer option, but really, the single player game should keep you going for sometime.

Gaming Age

It's the best thing since Sliced Bread, other than its sequel, Sliced Bread II: Electric Boogaloo.

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ActionTrip

What really impressed me about Alice's visuals is the imaginativeness of the designers, and the highly thematic environments, which completely differ from one level to another and are brought to life with some crisp and detailed textures.

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Voodoo Extreme

The graphics are in-freakin-credible, the sound is top-notch, the level design is beautiful, and the action is non-stop.

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PC Gameworld

A visual feast that happens to be a fun action/adventure game.

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Game Over Online

The sound is probably some of the best I've heard in a game. The music, for starters, is almost perfect.

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Happy Puppy

It combines several of my interests: kooky Victoriana, bloody fairytales, lush writing, bratty girls with knives, and talking cats.

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PC Gamer

A visual masterpiece with enough good gameplay to make it a classic. [Feb 2001, p.50]

GamePower

Whatever American McGee is smoking, he shouldn't lay off it.

Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

A lovely piece of storytelling with top-notch visuals and sounds, Alice enthrals aesthetically but doesn't quite satisfy gameplay-wise.

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Gamezilla!

An excellent game with plenty of character and story development, engaging plot and rich graphics. This game will undoubtedly appeal to the gamer of a more disturbed taste. I liked it.

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Daily Radar

Alice as a whole isn't a perfect game, but many individual elements of the title are quite simply amazing, especially the level design.

FiringSquad

The levels, the characters - everything about this game is beautiful. The levels are easily the prettiest and most creative I have ever seen, each one designed in its own unique style. You couldn't get a better result if you threw Tim Burton or Clive Barker into the mix.

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Total Video Games

This one requires a little more brainpower and I warn you now, be prepared to get frustrated. Lots!

GamePro

It's fun for a while, but the overly simplified game mechanics and repetitive shoot-and-run gameplay wouldn't amount to much without the extraordinary visuals and awesome concept.

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Eurogamer

If you let the game draw you in, the fantasy world becomes much more real than you could imagine -and the game much more compelling.

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CNET Gamecenter

The premise is twisted, and the game looks hauntingly beautiful; if only it weren't lacking in a few key gameplay areas, it would easily be one of the most fun, interesting, and memorable games of the last few years.

Spank!

A bold breath of fresh air. It delivers an unrivalled single player experience and providing you have the hardware, delivers a stunningly realised world to explore. The only weak point is the combat system.

All Game Guide

Whatever is going on inside his head, one can only hope it never goes away because that cranial cart wheeling has created one of the most unusual and spectacular games ever.

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Four Fat Chicks

With McGee's willingness to be generic with gameplay and story, we are ultimately let down by excessive and pointless jumping, poor combat, and a rather empty, non-interactive narrative. It's a very pretty and novel game but also flawed.

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Game Revolution

I would have liked a bit more story to the game, and a bit less of killing things, and quite a lot less jumping, thank you.

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GameSpot

While you'll undoubtedly enjoy the imaginative artwork, you might end up disappointed with just how straightforward the underlying game really is.

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Adrenaline Vault

The action falls short of amazing because certain elements, such as the poor A.I., do not hold up their end of the bargain, but Alice is still a fascinating trip that is well worth the tumble down the rabbit hole.

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Yahoo! Games

Like any expertly-crafted tale, you want to know what happens next and see more of the fascinating, seemingly alive world of Wonderland in its new, depraved form.

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Computer Games Magazine

When you take the game as a whole you realize that the stunning art direction writes checks the gameplay can't possibly cash. Playing Alice is a stunningly average experience.

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Evil Avatar

If you're dead set against cheating, or if you're looking for something deeper than mind-blowing graphics, stay the hell away from this game. It will drive you out of your mind with boredom and you'll end up like one of the enemy cards, running around in circles wishing you were somewhere else.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alexander gave it a7:
Great art direction, an engaging plot, enthralling voice-acting, enjoyable writing, and good music are what make this game great. Exuding style, American McGee's Alice goes to a place where few games do and makes a strong argument for why games are art. The dark, Gothic Victorian art direction make the game a joy to look at even after the graphics' age shows. The character design is brilliant, it is clear who every character is from a glance and yet they are twisted in a wonderfully dark way. Cheshire Cat's continual advice in a dark voice is fun to listen to, as is Alice's British accented continual disinterest in the inhabitants of wonderland. Areas are exciting and interesting to look at and examine due to the wide variety of settings and architecture therein. Twisted childlike music is very fitting and the menu theme is a great audio introduction into the game. Unfortunately I hardly noticed it once I got a ways into the game, likely due to my interest being in efficiently collecting what there was to collect and advancing the story. This is due to the lackluster gameplay which is simply average and generally unexciting, especially for the middle portion of the game. The game shines the most in simply exploring the interestingly crafted world as the combat fails to be exciting for the majority of the game. Exploding Jack-in-the-Boxes and Demon Summoning Dice are a couple of the many weapons which are interesting in design but unexciting to use after initially acquiring them. There is also a jarring difficulty spike when Alice is forced to fight the Jabberwock towards the end of the game. American McGee's Alice is a worthwhile experience merely to experience how to properly craft the parts of a game other than gameplay. It leaves you wanting more games with such style and less games with such dull gameplay.

Atlas Shrugged gave it a9:
Some truly beautiful level design, an immersive atmosphere and a classic source make this a masterpiece too few have experienced. Though not without its flaws, its brilliance is overpowering.

William H. gave it a9:
A great game with true replayability. What few gliches there are do not interfere with the game play, and the graphics are tremendous. I am particularly fond of the Duchess although beating her is not easy.

grandy m. gave it a9:
I sort of think that reveiwers are afraid to give this a good score, because to be honest, its a freakin great game. Even if you dont really like horrer things

Chris K. gave it a7:
2006 Folks, and the game's still good. This game is done well artistically based on the influences of both "Alice in Wonderland" and dark atmosphere games. I love Alice and the wickedly design cat. However, the gameplay is repetitive and quite boring next to design. It could have been better, it could have been worst; great music, great dubbing, funny weapons, cool cat, mediocre gameplay. The beginning intro to the beginning level had me sold. Wish the ending were a bit longer though, like every other game, this would probably lead you to wondering, "What happens next?" I've played for a long time to watch a one minute to two minute ending. The game's still worth the buy if you want to test the dreams of Rogue entertainment.

Shawn H. gave it an8:
Beautiful artwork, bright colorful levels and strange quirky music make this a great game. There is a good variety of weapons that I have not seen in other games. For example, one weapon you can use are jumping jacks that continuallly bounce and strike your enemy rapidly. My favorite is the jack in the box, which can be used as a grenade or as a stationary/rotating flamethrower. As far as Chrissie's comment that you need a walkthrough, maybe she should stick with solitaire. This is a straight forward run and gun, with some interesting level design and effects. Some of the boss characters required quite a bit of playtime to figure out their weakness, but once I did, they were relatively easy to beat. My biggest gripe is the lame ending. It was a big letdown to invest all this time and be rewarded with a grainy, CG video with no explanation and no cinematic flair. Its as if the programmers were rushing to get the game out the door and threw the ending together in 30 minutes. Otherwise, a very fun gaming experience.

T G gave it a10:
Still looks fresh today. atmospheric levels and great weapons.

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American McGee's Alice

Game Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

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