Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Rogue Entertainment
Web Site: alice.ea.com
As a child, probably everyone read – or at least saw – some version of Lewis Carroll's classic fairytale Alice in Wonderland, and enjoyed the positively surreal events that made up the story. Falling down a well after a white rabbit, encountering talking cats, caterpillars and other fantastic creatures is the making of a surreal adventure. Of course the Queen's castle and her army of cards certainly top the cake (or tart as the case may be) when it comes to crossing the line to the truly bizarre. Though many have tried to link the creative power behind Alice In Wonderland to hallucinogenic drugs, it is argued whether Lewis Carroll ever used drugs to aid his creative process.
Drug induced or not, different versions of the literary tale and other books in the series have been portrayed anywhere from a sugar-coated Disney take, making it very kiddie friendly, to more fantasy inspired versions, but probably none have brought to life such a macabre take on Alice as this adaptation of the story. American McGee's Alice goes beyond the acid trip of the original tale and warps everything even further into a strange reality where nothing is as it seems, and visually there aren't even any straight lines to put gamers at ease. Is it any wonder that American McGee might be driven to this after being a level designer at Id Software working on endless Quake corridors, bringing the challenge level up a notch as the games progressed?
This take on Carroll's story is quite a twisted tale with many of the peculiar images of the novel, and plenty more created by American McGee and his gang at Rogue. In this telling of the story, even Alice herself is a bit twisted, in fact well beyond the traditional fairytale. Her appearance is thin and drawn and her apron is adorned with occult-looking symbols and tied in the back with a tiny skull in the bow. This is just an indication of some of the other subtleties that will intrigue players throughout the game – especially as symbolism plays an important role throughout much like it does in a film or novel.