American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Alice is a Third Person Shooter computer game released on October 6, 2000. It was developed by Rogue Entertainment and published, distributed and marketed by Electronic Arts. It was designed by American McGee, and featured music composed by former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna with contributions from current Marilyn Manson keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy. The game is powered by the Quake III engine.
Set years after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Alice features an older, more cynical and macabre incarnation of Alice.
Synopsis
Shortly after her second adventure, Alice's parents are killed in a fire of which she is the only survivor. Driven catatonic and having attempted suicide (implied, but never directly referred to), she is institutionalised in Rutledge Asylum. Years later, Alice is called by the White Rabbit to the aid of a radically altered Wonderland now under the despotic rule of the Red Queen. The Cheshire Cat in particular now looks very different from Sir John Tenniel's original illustration: he is shown here as skeletally thin and his grin looks more devious than mischievous. The Cat is Alice's constant companion throughout the game, popping up now and again to guide the player or offer advice.
The box art of the game was altered after release, allegedly due to complaints received by the publisher from various consumer groups. The original box art (shown in the top picture) showed Alice holding a bloody knife. The altered version had Alice holding the Ice Wand instead. A third version showed Alice holding the Deck of Cards in her hands.
Characters
Template:Spoiler The game's characters are generally based on the inhabitants of Lewis Carroll's original novels, but they are not the same characters. Many of them are warped incarnations of their original selves. Among the notable:
- Alice: The main protagonist of the game. She's a demented, suicidal, regretful teenager, and the future savior of Wonderland. After a fire destroys her home and kills her parents, she falls into a comatose state, and is committed to Rutledge Asylum. She has returned to Wonderland, only to find it wickedly deformed. With the aid of the Cheshire Cat, and a wide arsenal of deadly toys, she puts an end to the Queen's psychotic dictatorship, and returns Wonderland to its former glory. Alice is voiced by Susie Brann.
- The White Rabbit: A bipedal white rabbit who wears a waistcoat, carries a pocketwatch, and is constantly late. He always seems to be way ahead of Alice the whole time that she follows him. He is killed by the Mad Hatter, but is revived when Wonderland is returned to normal. The White Rabbit is voiced by Andrew Chaikin.
- Cheshire Cat: Another one of Alice's allies in Wonderland, and also her principal companion. He often speaks in riddles and gives a lot of cryptic advice. He has an emaciated appearance, wears an earring, and appears to have undergrown incisors. He has a tendency to appear and disappear without warning. Near the end of the game, he is murdered by the Queen of Hearts, but is revived at the end, like the White Rabbit and the Gryphon. The Cheshire Cat is voiced by Roger L. Jackson
- The Troll Elder: A small, wise, elderly troll who is the leader of the regular citizens of Wonderland when the Queen of Hearts isn't looking. He willingly helps Alice continue following the White Rabbit by giving her a potion that allows her to shrink.
- The Mock Turtle: Yet another friend of Alice, though he's not all that useful. The Duchess wants to eat him, as she loves mock turtle soup, but she only manages to obtain his shell. The Mock Turtle won't reveal the location of The Caterpillar to Alice unless she retrieves his shell from the Duchess's living room, where it hangs on the wall. After Alice kills the Duchess, the Mock Turtle makes her an "honorary reptile", which allows her to stay underwater for a prolonged time without drowning.
- The Caterpillar: The wisest creature in Wonderland, who tells Alice how she can save it. He reveals to her that the only way to return Wonderland to normal is to destroy the Queen of Hearts, get over her guilt (caused by the idea that she could have prevented the deaths of her parents), and overcome her fears. He also acts as the Wonderland Oracle. The Caterpillar is voiced by Jarion Monroe.
- The Chesspieces: The White and Red Chesspieces are caught in an eternal game of chess, and when Alice happens upon them, the White Pieces are losing. Their Queen has been captured by the Red Pieces, and is sentenced to death by guillotine. The White Pieces enlist Alice's aid to stop this, and give her a White Pawn. Unfortunately, the White Queen is executed before Alice can do anything about it. But after killing the Red King, she walks to the red area and uses the pawn to revive the White Queen.
- Bill McGill: Bill is the original Bill the Lizard, albeit sarcastic with age, who tried to help The White Rabbit exterminate Alice from his house, in Alice's Adventures. He complains about the Duchess's style of housing, and continuously asks Alice for brandy. Alice is sucked into the Duchess's cottage and Bill runs away screaming. He returns with the Mock Turtle after Alice has killed the Duchess.
- The March Hare and the Dormouse: Formerly tea party pals and good friends of the Mad Hatter. But now that the Queen of Hearts is the ruler of Wonderland, the Hatter made them his test subjects. They are both made into clockwork cyborgs, and the Dormouse is drugged regularly, which makes him very sleepy.
- The Gryphon: A friend of Alice and The Mock Turtle. He is locked in a cage by the Mad Hatter, but is later freed, allowing him to lead the rebel forces against the Queen. However, he is killed by the Jabberwock, and revived at the end of the game.
Antagonists
- The Duchess: A repulsive, cannibalistic ogre who is the first boss of the game. She loves mock turtle soup with great intensity, however she only managed to capture the Mock Turtle's shell which she hung up in her spartan living-room. When Alice arrives in her cottage, she comes out of the chimney with a big sneeze, and calls Alice a "handsome dish". Alice isn't interested in becoming a light snack to the disgusting ogre, so she combats the beast, who uses deadly black pepper to perform teleportation, become invisible, and sprinkle it on Alice as an attack. When her health is depleted, she starts sneezing excessively, which causes her head to literally explode.
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee: The Mad Hatter's two cronies, who collect insane children from the asylum to be turned into killer cyborgs. They're each extremely obese, and though Tweedledee is taller and larger, and slightly less intelligent than Tweedledum, both of them are idiots beyond measure. They have the ability to open up their stomachs and release smaller, flying versions of themselves. They are the fourth boss of the game.
- The Mad Hatter: One of the Queen's lackeys. This deranged genius used to hold frequent tea parties with his friends, but he's not so interested in that nowadays. Now he's turned into a time-obsessed madman who makes killer cyborgs out of insane children. He has two minions of his own (Tweedledum and Tweedledee) who assist him with this. He also conducts gruesome experiments on The March Hare and the Dormouse. He's the fifth boss of the game and is revealed to be a robot himself at the end of the fight, at the end of the game, he comes back to life and is normal again.
- The Centipede: A tiny creature of great evil, the Centipede rules over a group of army ants who wear American Civil War-era uniforms and carry muskets with bayonets that they use with extreme prejudice and with little provocation. He himself is designed to look like a 19th century Prussian officer. The Centipede is invulnerable to all damage, save for a small spot on his underbelly. He is the second boss of the game.
- The Jabberwock: The Queen of Hearts' guardian, the incarnation of Alice's guilt, and a Boss whom she battles on two occasions. Taken from Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky, the Jabberwock is an evil, sadistic, fire-breathing creature who antagonizes Alice about the death of her parents, and how she could've prevented it. The first battle takes place inside Alice's burning house and concludes when she obtains his eye with the assistance of the Gryphon. The second battle is fought outside the Queen's castle, with the Jabberwock killing the Gryphon, just before battling and being killed by Alice.
- The Queen of Hearts: The main antagonist of the game, and ruler of Wonderland. An insane, murderous dictator who rules with an iron fist, and hardly any mercy, she is feared by all except Alice and the rebels. She is the very incarnation of Alice's guilt, anger, regression, and all her negative feelings, and wants to keep things the way they are. At the end of the first fight with the Queen, it is revealed that the version of her the player just faced was merely a puppet. Soon after that, her real form is revealed, which is a gigantic, repulsive, pink, tentacled, evil demon-like behemoth. Only by destroying the Queen of Hearts will Alice finally regain her sanity, revive all of those who have died during the Queen's reign, and return Wonderland to normal. She is the final boss of the game.
Graphics
The game was released in 2000, and the graphics were very elaborate for the year of its release. Many of the levels are clever and creative in design, depicting a world of chaos and wonder. The general atmosphere of a world, which is a mixture of fairy tale and horror, is similar to the films of director Tim Burton, which were also popular at the time.
Some of the game levels look like the inside of an asylum or a mad-house, linking Alice's Wonderland to her reality. The exterior views of Wonderland show the Red Queen's tentacles dipping out of buildings and mountain sides (especially around Queensland).
Weapons
Though she starts with nothing more than a slightly rusty, bloodsoaked knife (called the "Vorpal Blade", also from Jabberwocky), Alice can collect various weapons (called toys) throughout the game. Some of the toys that Alice may find are:
- A deck of razor-sharp Playing Cards that can be thrown like shuriken
- A Croquet Mallet in the form of a pink Flamingo head on a stick- this is not simply the only other melee weapon in the game, but it has a secondary fire function which launches croquet balls as deadly missiles.
- The Demon Dice (Dice that can be used to summon a random demon ally, which will attack Alice if there are no enemies about. It is completely random whether the dice will actually summon a demon or not if used, and the more dice the player manages to find -up to the complete set of three- the more powerful the demon that can be summoned.)
- The Jack-bomb (an explosive Jack-in-the-box, with a secondary firing mode that renders it a rotary, stationary flamethrower.)
- An Ice Wand that sprays an ice-cold substance that freezes enemies solid, or form a wall of protective ice.
- Jacks of Death (these homing weapons repeatedly pummel the target enemy and are the most powerful non-super weapons in the game)
- Dead Time Watch, a pocketwatch that stops time
- The Jabberwock's Eyestaff
- The Blunderbuss, the most powerful weapon in the game, but very, very well hidden. This weapon can only be found in two places; when you enter the "Caterpillar's Plot" section of the Land of Mirrors for the second time, a distorted form of Humpty Dumpty marks a protruding brick which, when pushed, opens a subterranian chamber housing the Blunderbuss. The second is on a lowered ledge in the "Heart of Darkness" section of Queensland.
Power-ups
Besides collecting toys throughout the game, while in Wonderland, Alice may also receive various power-ups during her journey. These include:
- Sanity Shards: The amount of sanity Alice has is like health in most games: when Alice runs out of sanity, her journey will come to an abrupt stop. Sanity Shards are found all about Wonderland, and are red. They can also be found after killing an enemy. Sanity Shards range in various sizes.
- Will Power: The amount of damage Alice's toys do all depends on her will power. Will power is refilled by gathering sanity shards, but can also be found in other locations throughout Wonderland. Will power can also slowly refill itself on Easy and Normal gameplay.
- Meta-Essence: A combination of Sanity Shards and Will Power, they, naturally, refill both Alice's sanity and willpower.
- Rage Box: An item which enables Alice to do twice as much damage to her enemies. During the time of usage, Alice's appearance changes to a blood-red color, with two pairs of horns, jaundice-yellow eyes and long fingernails, ala Hellboy. Usage of the Rage Box is limited, and only lasts for about a minute.
- Grasshopper Tea: Found from a tea-cup with graspphopper legs jumping about, when Alice drinks Grasshopper Tea, she turns green, grows antennae, her eyes become entirely black and she sprouts small wings, just like the creature itself. This particular item enables Alice to run faster, and jump farther, and, just like the Rage Box, has limited usage.
- Dark Looking-glass: The Looking-glass allows Alice to turn invisible for a brief time, enabling her to sneak past enemies quickly. The usage of the Looking-glass is also limited.
Soundtrack
The sound and music adds much to the atmosphere. The music create an eerie and horrifying feel to the world Alice is in. One such example is in the "Skool's Out" level, where the insane children who attend the skool constantly alternate between laughing maniacally and crying in sorrow. The background music in Skool's Out is an innocent, yet creepy, lullaby.
All of the music created for American McGee's Alice Official Soundtrack was written and performed by Chris Vrenna. Vrenna's soundtrack to the video game is fittingly twisted. Most of the sounds he used were created with toy instruments and percussion, music boxes (in a short documentary about the making of the game that appeared on TechTV, the music box used appears to be an antique Fisher-Price music box pocket radio), clocks, doors, and sampled female voices (including Jack Off Jill singer Jessicka) were manipulated into nightmarish soundscapes.
Marilyn Manson was originally involved earlier on in composing the score for the game. For certain or uncertain reasons, he stepped out of his involvement, but did retain what music he had written during that time for the project. He has since stated that he will be using the unheard works in his own adaption of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or rather the life of its author, in the upcoming film PHANTASMAGORIA: The Visions of Lewis Carroll.
The following songs appear on the album release of the soundtrack, in this order:
- Falling Down the Rabbit Hole
- Village of the Doomed
- Fortress of Doors
- Fire and Brimstone
- Wonderland Woods
- The Funhouse
- Skool Daze
- Time to Die
- I'm Not Edible
- Taking Tea in Dreamland
- Fungiferous Flora
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum
- The Centipede
- Pandemonium
- Flying on the Wings of Steam
- Late to the Jabberwocky
- Pool of Tears
- Battle with the Red Queen
- A Happy Ending
- Flying on the Wings of Steam (Remix)
It should be noted that the background music in the game sounds somewhat different from the songs on the album. There are also tracks in the game that are missing on the album; the album also goes out of order, as well. The original opening is not featured on the CD, however, sound bites from it are, in the first track, Falling Down the Rabbit Hole.
Casebook
With the game, a casebook was included, telling of Alice's stay in Rutledge Asylum. The casebook is written by Heirnymous Q. Wilson, Alice's doctor. It starts from November 4th, 1864, and ends August 24th, 1874. From this, we get a view of how Alice behaves while in the asylum, as well as when she visits Wonderland. The casebook includes several drawings, as well as a poem (which is split into several verses, told in different entries). By the end of the casebook, Dr. Wilson seems to be skeptical of Alice ever regaining her sanity; the second-to-last entry reads:
Sometimes, she appears to be so close, but at other times I'm certain it'll never happen and she'll spend the rest of her life housed behind Rutledge's gaunt brown walls...with me.
The final entry of the casebook is the last verse to Alice's poem.
Movie adaptation
A film with the title Alice is currently in pre-production and will be based upon the dark storyline and characters of the game. According to sources, it will be released in 2007 with Sarah Michelle Gellar as Alice.
External links
