An absolutely stunning experience stimulating you both visually and mentally.
For those who didn't play Alice, the prequel and Madness Returns are 3D platformers based on the classic story of Alice in Wonderland, and mostly take place in a surreal rendering of Wonderland twisted through the mind of a cynical deranged young girl. The review will detail Madness Returns and won't contain any spoilers from the first or the second game.
In Madness Returns, Alice's story unfolds before you on two plains. Reality and Wonderland. And given how she's mentally unstable, you'll be constantly guessing just how much of what you're seeing of the real world events should be taken at face value and how the events in Wonderland affect her psyche. Even the storytelling itself is emphasizing that you're dealing with an insane girl, since you will be required to piece her story together through the fragments you are given.
The game mostly consists of platforming and takes you through different areas with their own given setting and art style. The platforming pieces are varied and creative enough that you won't get bored throughout your playthrough. For a game that can last 10 to 15 hours, there are very few parts where you'll feel the elements repeat themselves too much. From mere jumping to floating to shrinking, to puzzles and sidescrolling minigames to levers and switches and timed pressure plates and so on - the developers have a vast arsenal and use it cleverly throughout the game. The level design is great. To top that all off, there are collectible goodies and hidden paths scattered everywhere throughout the journey. Some give you fragments of Alice's memory and you can usually directly make the connection between these and the workings of wonderland, adding an extra layer to exploring Alice's mind. Missing them is easy, so you'll have to be on the lookout.
You'll also be faced with adversity a lot. Throughout the game you'll meet a lot of different enemies, usually matching the area of Wonderland you are in, and they will require you to use the appropriate weapons for the situation you are in and to choose your attacks carefully. You are given 4 weapons that you can upgrade with in-game collectibles - 2 ranged and 2 melee, and a remote bomb and an umbrella used for defense. You can also dodge to make Alice turn into a bunch of butterflies and be invulnerable for that short time. This is your main means of avoiding damage and you'll be doing it a lot when the game prompts you for an enemy attack with a brief slowdown. And when the going gets really tough, at the edge of sanity, Alice can activate a mode where she deals a lot more damage than usual for a short while. There are some minor annoyances, like the lock-on camera not always being cooperative or how you are required to lock on to be able to use the umbrella to reflect certain projectiles. This can become somewhat frustrating when a lot of enemies gang up on you, each requiring a different method of weakening them before being able to do damage, but overall the combat is solid for a platforming game. It's no Devil May Cry, but it's challenging and varied enough to keep you on your toes.
The voice acting is great and the writing is snappy and entertaining. I must also mention how the game is simply gorgeous. Not because of high resolution textures or high poly count models, it's the art design that is simply fantastic and it will likely make you stop a few times just to admire the scenery. It makes great use of physics too, so if you have a video card that supports them, make sure you turn it to high and feast your eyes on the amazing particle effects.
On my playthrough, I encountered a few bugs, mostly with edge detection, but not anything major and they were scarce at best. I'd also like to point out how not a lot of effort was put into the life upgrade cutscenes and you'll be hearing Rabbit's lines repeated a lot if you manage to find them. There are a few sidescrolling minigames as well. These are necessary to complete but not as polished as the rest of the game and felt like a chore. Thankfully, they're rather short.
Were it not for these minor annoyances and the combat not being amazing, I would have loved to give this game a higher score because overall this is a really unique game and an absolutely stunning experience stimulating you both visually and mentally, presented with solid gameplay. When you take it all into consideration, this is a game that is far more than the sum of its parts and the minor issues I've pointed out will do very little to mar this wonderful surreal journey.