 | Review #3 |
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| Review #3 |
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Company: Rogue Entertainment, Electronic Arts |
Well I was waiting for this one. They have been hyping this game in the mags for quite awhile now so as soon as I heard there was a demo out I shot over to EA Games and downloaded it. For those of you who don't know who American McGee is: Yes, that's his real name and his lineage includes ID software and level designer for Quake. He's now a designer/director at Electronic Arts. When I read the interview with him in PC Gamer, (Game Gods, Dec. 2000) he said that he was against putting his name on the game, but I guess that all changed cuz there it is on the box. Maybe they didn't want us to confuse it with Lewis Carroll's famous fairy tale, which probably isn't a bad idea because if you are expecting a nice fairy tale story to buy your young kids then forget it, this ain't it. It carrys an M(ature) rating from the ESRB. Having said that, what it is is a cool game for older kids and adults who want a change from being a hired merc or skaarg trooper but still want to kill lot's of things. Read on.
The Game
The game is a third person adventure/shooter based (loosely) on the fairy tale, Alice in Wonderland. All the main characters from the story are there but this time Alice is packing a butcher knife that if the blade is to scale, must be about a foot and a half long at least, as well as nasty playing cards, jack-in-the-box bombs and a variety of other cute but lethal weapons. The grinning Cheshire cat looks like he maybe should he should have quit Weight Watchers when his ribs first started showing. You get to play Alice, which for you macho types that always pick the meanest, nastiest looking guy for your Unreal Tournament DoOd Character, may take a little getting used to. If you can get past the gender problem then this is a fun romp through a strange and wonderous world. Check out the screen shots for below for an idea of the game graphics.
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| Click any thumbnail for a 800 X 600 image | ||
Graphics and Gameplay
This game makes nice use of the Quake III Arena engine. I had my screen res set at 1152 X 864 on a PIII 600 using a TNT2 32 Meg graphics card with all the effects set high, and the framerates were more than acceptable. The fairy tale environments are fun and beautifully rendered and there is some neat transitions into monochrome sets that add to the fantasy environment. There seems to be a lot of jumping (in the demo at least) that can start to get a little tiresome but they have added a footstep jump indicator that will usually assist in hitting the desired landing spot. In addition to her trusty knife, Alice's weapons consist of lethal jack-in-the-box grenades, demon dice, playing cards, jacks and other nasty toys. The buildings are suitably gothic and distorted in keeping with the fairy tale theme.
The Demo
The demo is definitely worth the download if you want to get a good taste for the game before you buy. It's available from a number of places including the official site (link below).
Final Words
Not for young children. For anyone else who likes fairy tale and fantasy environments and enjoys a twist to the quasi-military or space monsters theme of most shooters this game is for you. It just dropped Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. into second place on my Christmas Wish List.
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