Alice: Madness Returns Review Summary

Immersive atmosphere and story: The game offers a dark and immersive reimagining of Wonderland with a rich, emotional storyline. The atmosphere is described as dark, twisted, and beautiful.

Stunning visual and artistic design: The game features amazing art direction, beautiful visuals, and impressive graphics. The artistic style and level design are consistently praised for their excellence and creativity.

Engaging and fun gameplay: Players find the game extremely fun and enjoyable, with delightful gameplay mechanics. The game is described as a great time to play and a wonderful experience overall.

Satisfying combat mechanics: The combat system is noted for being good, satisfying, and enjoyable. Players appreciate the responsive and fast-paced combat mechanics.

Unique and detailed level design: The game features unique, detailed, and immersive level design. The creative and challenging levels are well-designed and visually impressive.

Repetitive gameplay elements: The game is criticized for its repetitive nature, particularly in puzzles, combat, and platforming sequences. This repetitiveness makes the gameplay feel monotonous and boring over time.

Game plagued by bugs: The game is reported to have numerous bugs that significantly affect gameplay, making it unplayable at times. These bugs range from control and menu issues to specific problems with mechanics like the umbrella.

Key binding issues: Players have encountered various problems with key bindings, including the inability to remap keys and bindings not working correctly, which affects the overall gaming experience.

Long and tedious levels: Some levels in the game are criticized for being excessively long with little meaningful content, making them feel tedious and unpleasant.

Sequel cancellation: Players are disappointed by the cancellation of the sequel, which leaves the story incomplete and the trilogy unfinished.

Platformer with horror elements: The game combines platforming challenges with horror elements, creating a unique blend of action and adventure. Players can expect puzzles and various platforming mechanics.

Seamless combat and exploration: Combat is highlighted as a strong point, blending seamlessly with exploration. The combat system is varied and includes different weapons and mechanics.

Third-person action-adventure gameplay: The game features third-person action-adventure mechanics with a strong emphasis on story-driven gameplay. It also includes elements of hack 'n' slash combat and platforming.

Puzzle-solving elements: The game includes a variety of puzzles and secrets in every level, adding depth to the gameplay. However, some puzzles may be considered simple or too easy.

Exploration and collecting: Players can enjoy straightforward exploration and a collectibles system, adding to the game's depth and replayability.

Technical issues and bugs: Players frequently report various technical issues and bugs affecting the gameplay experience. These issues range from general technical shortcomings to specific performance problems.

30 FPS lock by default: The game is locked at 30 FPS by default, which has been a common complaint among players. Many players have expressed a desire for an unlocked framerate.

Frequent game crashes: The game is reported to crash frequently, with some players experiencing constant crashes on PC. This issue significantly impacts the gameplay experience.

Game fails to launch: Some players have reported that the game stops launching or refuses to boot. This issue prevents players from accessing the game altogether.

File editing for desired frame rate: Players need to edit game files to achieve their desired frame rate, with instructions available for making these changes.

Recommended with conditions: Many players recommend the game but with certain conditions, such as handling specific content or playing on particular platforms for better performance.

Highly recommended game: The game is frequently praised and highly recommended by players for its unique and memorable experience, story, and atmosphere.

Technical considerations: Some players recommend the console version due to better optimization and suggest playing with a controller. There are also mentions of technical difficulties on PC.

Community patches and guides: Players recommend looking into community patches and guides to enhance the gaming experience, such as the Madness Patch on GitHub.

Worth buying on sale: Several reviews suggest that the game is worth buying, especially if it is on sale, indicating that the price point is a significant factor for many players.

Community fair range: $1.00 - $3.00.

Game completion: 20.0h.

Story completion: 15.0h.

Session length: 0.3h.

The game has a slow start due to repetitive tasks and technical issues, but it becomes more enjoyable once players get past these initial hurdles and appreciate the story and unique art style.

Reported time to anchor: 2h.

Friction: Repetitive gameplay; Technical issues; Slow pacing; Bothersome map design.

Story-First Explorer: Explores the game's story and art, often replaying to fully experience the narrative. Motivation: Narrative and artistic immersion. Stance: buy.

Nostalgic Supporter: Plays the game to relive past experiences and support the developers, often engaging in modding. Motivation: Support for developers and nostalgia. Stance: buy.

Budget-Conscious Gamer: Plays the game to enjoy its content while being mindful of budget constraints. Motivation: Value for money. Stance: sale.

The game performs well on lower-end hardware with less than 8GB VRAM, but struggles significantly on higher-end systems with 12-15GB VRAM due to frequent crashes and technical issues.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. The game generally runs smoothly even on lower-end hardware, with only a few reports of crashes and performance issues.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: negative. The game frequently crashes and has significant technical problems, despite the high-end hardware.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback for the game reveals several key issues impacting the overall experience. Control issues are a significant problem, with many users reporting unresponsive or misconfigured controls, particularly on PC. Framerate issues are also notable, with the game locked at 30 FPS, which is considered low by modern standards. Launcher and DRM issues, particularly related to the defunct Origin platform, pose a barrier to entry for some users. Despite these issues, the game is reported to play well on the Steam Deck, indicating good compatibility with this platform. Additionally, various bugs and errors, including crashes and lag, are frequently mentioned, further detracting from the gaming experience.

Linux and Proton: The game generally runs well on Linux with Proton, as indicated by multiple positive reviews. However, there are some performance issues and control problems reported by users, which may require attention to improve the overall experience.

Monetization: The game has notable issues with DLC content accessibility and delivery, which affects the user experience. While the game itself is praised for not having microtransactions, there are recommendations to purchase additional content or subscribe to services for a better experience. This suggests a reliance on DLC and subscriptions for full enjoyment of the game.

Mod reliance: The game has significant performance and optimization issues that require community patches to run smoothly. While some users report crashes even after applying these patches, others find the game playable with the help of unofficial fixes. Additionally, there are suggestions for quality-of-life improvements through mods, which are not critical but enhance the gaming experience.

External guides: The game 'Alice: Madness Returns' receives praise for its overall quality but is plagued by significant technical issues, including crashes and display problems. Users also report difficulties with finding collectibles and understanding the game without external guides. These issues collectively detract from the otherwise positive experience.

Language patches available: Players noted the availability of unofficial Korean and Russian language patches, with some patches available on GitHub.

Creator's passion praised: Reviewers appreciated the creator's passion and efforts put into the series.

Health issues after playing: Some players reported physical discomfort, including stomach issues and needing to visit a doctor after playing the game.

Anticipation for in-game content: Players expressed excitement about finding specific in-game content, such as the pig.

Favorite game status: Some reviewers stated that the game became their favorite.