Alice: Madness Returns

This game does not deserve a full analysis. Here's a brief look at it...



So lets do a top 5 problems with Madness Returns

1) Combat became boring

Having played (and given up on) the previous game, I can happily say that the combat is an improvement... However it crams far too many boring sequences into it. There's no fun involved, you're just trying to get through it to the next plot point

2) Platforming became boring

This is a proper 3d platformer. Nearly the whole time is spent jumping from point to point, which was ok for about the first half an hour of each stage. It gave you an opportunity to look at the pretty scenery and look at the cool art direction.

3) Storyline felt too thin

For every second of story there was 5 minutes of gameplay. And this was exacerbation by the subtlety of the story, the psychological aspect that meant you had to empathise and connect with the characters involved, work things out. Snippet by snippet was revealed... This was doubley depressing because looking back on it, the storyline and freaky moments were actually quite interesting, and the voice acting was rather good.

4) Numerous pickups - too many!
There's multiple different pickups in the game. Memories, that give snatches of Alices past, Teeth, which were used to upgrade weapons, Conch Shells, which led to mini side areas to unlock health boosts, Bottles... which did nothing. There were also Snouts, which could be found and defeated to unlock... more teeth.

The problem I have is that the process of collecting them felt over-bearing, and mostly pointless. Teeth were given out sporadically, bottles served no incentive, and memories were so far and few between that I felt as if getting them was like a tiny amount kindness shown by an abusive parent.

5)Mini-games felt annoying, pointless, padding
Again, mini-games were just a further annoyance. They weren't interesting side-steps from the main game, just another thing to be bored of. The game thankfully had a skip button, but that seems to remove the point.

My solution?

Golden Bullet: Make the game shorter.

The biggest problem the game has is that it feels too long, whether by padding, poor design choices, or plot-points being too-sparingly sprinkled. Half of the reason why the story felt so un-engaging was because I couldn't remember who the characters were, and the wonder of each new location was speedily quashed under the boredom of over-exposure.
Remove bottles, shorten levels. More story elements, more frequent memories, mini-games wouldn't feel like ANOTHER obstacle in getting to the meat, and the repetition of the combat and platforming would be lessened too.

This game would have done well to be an indie title.