3.5/5 ★ – vassm's review of Alice: Madness Returns.

I decided to revisit "Alice: Madness Returns", after buying it for $2 during a Steam sale. Having so many fond memories of the game, I was eager to see if it still held the same charm I remember from when I was a kid. In some ways it did -- but in others, it unfortunately fell short. The game's distinct steampunk-ish aesthetic and old Victorian London setting were as captivating as I remember. "Alice: Madness Returns" definitely has some truly imaginative set pieces and environments, all radiating with personality and nostalgia. Each area you explore feels unique, and Alice's wardrobe changes with each area are particularly iconic. The developers truly did a great job at making Wonderland feel as whimsical as it does in the book and movies but with an enjoyable dark twist. The art direction of the cutscenes was very intriguing and I liked that it was like a 2D picture book. The story was a bit confusing to follow at times, but I got the initial theme and gist towards the end. The game was way longer than it needed to be in my opinion. At a certain point, it was clear that I was repeating the same formula with the puzzles multiple times. The platforming felt dull and repetitive, and I was starting to become uninterested halfway through the game. The combat and exploring was the part that kept me going. The enemy designs were great, and I never got tired of seeing the same one. Killing each enemy has a different tactic that you have to learn, and that I enjoyed a lot. Unfortunately, the technical side of things left me frustrated. The PC port was a disaster. I experienced frequent crashes -- three on every attempt to start the game -- and infinite loading screens that forced me to restart my entire computer. To make matters worse, certain in-game actions weren't mapped properly to my keyboard, so I had to dig through the config files to fix the issue. Honorable mention was the poorly saved checkpoints, which made me want to rip my hair out. Overall I do believe if this was played on a console it would have been a better experience technically, but it's such a shame that the game was a pain to work with on PC. Despite the plethora of technical issues, I can look past them and see that the initial gameplay was fun, memorable, and definitely iconic for its time. 7.7/10