For those who have the game already, here is official instruction how to unlock the DLC in your game:
http://www.americanmcgee.com/forum/index.php?topic=2885.0

You wear a new dress for every different location in the game so far (chapter two), so I'm not sure DLC dresses are really something I care about. I would rather go with the intended art design.

Dude, you miss some really awesome dresses and weapons out.

DUDE

I dislike how bottles mean nothing unless you got them all. They should unlock art progressively.

I got to try this out for a bit. It's delightful so far, though I'm not sure what I think the combat just yet. I'm considering purchasing it.

Has anyone played further into it yet? The main criticism I've heard is that the game is too long and the quality doesn't really hold up.

Wtf happened with the gamers of these days ? That's a good thing , if the game is long .

Not if the quality doesn't really hold up. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make a game long just by adding grinding and repetiveness. I'd rather play three short and exciting games in the same time one long and tedious one would require me to play through, so I think gamelength isn't a quality in itself yet. Of course, if the game stays exciting and manages to hold your interest and arouse your curiosity all the time and you enjoy it all the way through, then it's a big plus if it's a long game.

Not to mention that any story can be too long. It's vital to pace your story properly, and finish it up before it overstays its welcome. Longer isn't always better.

Despite that it's using online activation I bite the bullet and got Alice.

I was cautiously optimistic about this game, given that the original was a basic platformer there wasn't that much they could screw up in a sequel (even with American Mc Gee/Spicy Horse lackluster pedigree), but still I was kind of expecting cover system and regenerating health.

After playing the game for 5-6 hours (near the end of chapter 2) I have to admit I was actually surprised by the game... surprised in a good way.

Graphically it's not the best looking game out there, the texture are average, but it's adequate and the crazy design of wonderland makes up for it. One the other side the character design and animation are nice with lots of little details like animation or Alice hairs or dresses or monsters animation. Two things I didn't liked concerning graphics is first the fact that the game doesn't support 16/10 resolution and the.....TEXTURE STREAMING, I hate texture streaming, it's rather minor in Alice but it's there.

But for me the biggest improvement over the first game is definitely the gameplay, in the first Alice the controls were... "clunky" to say the least, jumping feels awkward and despite the "jump indicator" it was very easy to miss something that looked like an easy jump, also most of the fights were not very fun (personal opinion here), at harder difficulty level it was very often, throw the Vorbal blade, hide, wait for the blade to reaper and repeat (at least until you got stronger weapons).

In the new game things are much much better, the triple jump and the glide ability makes the platforming sections a lot more enjoyable even in the more complex sections and the new fight mechanics, with the "butterfly" dodge, makes the fights a lot more "nervous" and interesting.

You can rush towards enemies, hit them with the Vorpal blade, butterfly away to avoid their attack and then re-attack them. I also like that they tried to makes all the weapons useful (Vorpal blade : lots of damage, Horse thingy : breaks guard, Pepper-gun : fast ranged attack, teapot : range + area damage ) not just weapon B being an upgraded version of weapon A.

The game doesn't have quicksave/save but I didn't mind it, the two level of checkpoint works well, it's IMHO a nice compromise between an old school death/reload and "PoP 2008"-like immortality.


On the other side things I didn't really like (most of those were already there in the original though) :

Invisible walls, an issue that the original Alice also had, it's even more jaring here because of the ability to shrink at will.
The puzzle are very basic, put a clockwork bomb on a presure plate, shoot a switch, push a lever, we are in wonderland I would have preferred a little "imagination".
Until now the "real world" section are not very interesting, maybe they will do something with them but until now it seems like a missed opportunity.


But those are rather minor points, all in all I am very happy with the game, for me that's what I call a "good sequel", faithful to the original, but with a good number of improvements.

It's been money well spent for me. I'm about 10 hours in and it's still holding up. Playing through chapter 3 right now. Combat is a lot of fun. The platforming is a lot more forgiving than the original.

There's no save feature and checkpoints aren't obvious so it's kind of hard to find good spots to take a break. I find my play sessions lasting a little longer than I normally like. I could see that leading to a perception of "too long".

Quality has been consistent so far.

Just watched the giantbomb quicklook of this. WOW does the 360 version look worse. We're really in that time where PC versions are blowing console versions away but no one is talking about it.

Also Ryan Davis is fucking terrible at playing games and the fact he's like a 15 year veteran journalist blows my mind.

I don't buy many full price new games (I wait for a few months when, inevitabely you can get them new for half price) but I did plunk down fifty for Madness Returns, since The original is one of all time favorite games.(which is wierd because generally speaking platform games are one of my least favorite genres).
My copy should arrive from Amazon soon and can't wait to try it.

This is why Nintendo is trying to launch the U, however Sony and M$ have got way too much invested in their current platforms to ship new products and despite Nintendo's upgrade, it's only an upgrade to current tech standards: so PC is about to return to being the big time player, probably for the next three years (not counting this year because the big shift will probably show up at next years E3).

I wonder if when they do get around to making new consoles they will be equivalents to high-end at the time, like the 360 was when it came out, or if they will still be outdated. In other words will they use 2013 high-end PC tech or will they scale back to like 2010 tech since that would be a massive jump by itself and save money.