Alice Madness Returns

[Adabiviak]

I just picked this up today and have been playing it a bit. First impressions:
What engine is this? I kept thinking I was in Rapture when playing, and watching textures load and glitch on occasion... must be Unreal. American McGee (like he did with the QuakeIII engine with the original game) really paints a sweet world - the settings are (so far) fantastic. Do yourself a favor and max out Physx.
Checkpoints? Could be a deal breaker. I found a secret spot, but wanted to investigate another area (in case that was a dead end). Found out it wasn't when the "chest high wall" appeared behind me, and now I have to replay the entire game (maybe 40 minutes) if I want to see where that secret area went. Don't these people know how lame that is?
Had to create an EA account to play the game. At least the process was pretty easy, and they didn't try to verify the email address.
Enemies and weapons are pretty fun (I think I'm on the basic ones still), but I'm having to adjust to console-based themes for combat (at least the first person aspect is available somewhat). Another symptom of consolitis is that the world seems to have an inertia to it - it doesn't stop turning right when I stop my mouse. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Yorick]

What engine is this? I kept thinking I was in Rapture when playing, and watching textures load and glitch on occasion... must be Unreal.

I do believe it's the Unreal Engine, yes.

Another symptom of consolitis

I've heard that it actually has a low framerate cap, but I haven't played it yet and cannot verify. I'll likely be getting this soon, though. I quite enjoyed the original.

 

[ktimekiller]

you can change it in documents alice game folder, alice engine

gotta disable vsync and maxframerate

 

[Adabiviak]

Yeah, mine was capped at 30FPS... will see about disabling vsync and maxframerate (thanks ktimekiller).

Also, I must find the checkpoint file - this checkpoint system is awful, and I am not keen on replaying entire chapters because I stumbled past an unmarked checkpoint before I was done exploring an area.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Yeah its UE3. Loving the game so far also. Creepy as hell once you get to Tundraful.

 

[Adabiviak]

Are you playing it on the PC or a console?

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Loving this so far.

 

[stemot]

You can disable the framerate cap and mouse smoothing in the .ini files. Running this at a constant 60 fps.

First 25 minutes:

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWL_d59FYhM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaO308g0JPs

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Are you playing it on the PC or a console?

PS3 mang.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

What a ****ing beautiful game. I like extreme linearity so I'm not bothered by that at all.

 

[15357]

Woah, looks like a nice game, albeit a bit gory. I wanna try this out.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Her design reminds me of Alma from F.E.A.R., particularly the third...

Spoiler

Anyways, I'll admit this game has me a bit intrigued.

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

I am definetly gonna try this one out soon, I think I'm gonna do it on the 360 though as its more comfy to play on.

 

[Asknoone]

I prefer linearity too, but this game doesn't execute it very well; there's a lot of contrived blockages - without proper justification within the world - that exist simply to steer the player. It's a linearity that feels tortured, unnatural, and is a little irritating to see. I'm not too far in yet (Chapter 1, just met the Duchess), but my favourite aspect of the game so far has to be the throwbacks to the great platform era of the PlayStation 1. Jumping, bounce-pads, item-collecting and mini-tasks. I approve of all of these things. Alice is a bit finicky and sensitive, but the controls are simple enough to keep the game fun.

The aesthetics of the game and its general mood are too kitsch for me to enjoy, though. It's a problem that dogged the last one too.

 

[Asknoone]

This game is balls, and I'll have more on why later.