The new wonderland has been improved in many ways but some drawbacks keep Alice from realizing her full potential.
Story- The story is woven excellently into the gameplay just like how the first game was. Alice will revisit old and new places. The vale of tears shows alice's happy times as a child and when her mind was right and as you progress through the level you see how her mind has become tormented, pools of blood surround alice and fire and brimstone are in the skyline. The main premise as most can assume is that Alice won't let the death of her family rest easy. She is now older but lives in an orphanage in london. Most of the time you'll be playing in wonderland but you'll have a brief rest between chapters where you will roam london. These are boring however but do give some insights into Alice's families death, they aren't long so you will be thrown back into wonderland very fast and usually depending on where Alice passes out results in the area where she will visit such as where she is knocked out at a pub called the drowning mermaid and so in Wonderland she is in the ocean. Alice's story is told through 2D cutscenes and they are flashbacks of her shatterred memory. A nice tidbit that the developers have thrown in are the collectibles which come in multiple forms, one is memories. The memories do retell what others were saying about Alice while in her asylum stay and its here you piece clues together to get a glimpse of whom may have been your family's murderer. Alice even questions herself in these memories and it always throws a wrench into your hypothesis of who the true killer is. In the end Alice has a great twist and you'll be appauled but also gratified with the story and its ending.
Gameplay- One of the original annoyances with Alice in Wonderland was its combat system, it wasn't fluid, however this time around the combat is almost perfected. Unfortunately you only have a few weapons, the hobby horse for heavy attacks, the vorpal blade for swift slashes, the teapot for a nice grenade splash damage on infantry, the pepper grinder which is basically a gatling gun and the clock work bomb with exception to the umbrela which is used to deflect enemy attacks. Though there are very few weapons as opposed to the first game but combat is kept interesting. You'll be using multiple weapons in your arsenal to take out a single enemy, one enemy is the canon crab whom you'll have to deflect his shot to knock him down then melee him, and then use the clock work bomb to knock him back down again, this happens with most enemies which keeps the action from getting repetitive. The variety of enemies you'll encounter is quite high. From giant dolls, to tar covered infantry also know as ruins, to colossus sized fiends, crabs, pirahna people, flying babies spitting acid, mad hatter infantry, samurai wasps, ink bugs and more. One problem Alice Madness Returns does have is that there isn't enough combat, most of the time you will be platforming which is nice because you get to explore this beautiful world and all its splendor, but the platforming gets repetitive and boring at times. You could be going without any action for 20 minutes. Alice Madness Returns tries to keep these fight-less areas interesting by giving you puzzles to solve but they do become repetitive too, some are fun like the 2d side scrollers but most are moving jigsaw pieces around to fit a picture or moving chess pieces. In the end when the action gets heated you'll be having fun ripping through enemies.
Overall- Alice plays well and its fun to walk around and explore wonderland for what it is. Being able to double and triple jump adds some decent platforming even though it gets old. Combat is fluid and always interesting even though you won't be fighting more than 10 enemies at a time and it seems rather easy to take down even the toughest bad guys Wonderland has to offer. However Alice's story plays out fantastically through in game memories and twisted 2D cut scenes and has you guessing who the true killer of the Liddell family is through most of the game. If Alice had more combat sequences and more than 1 boss fight and yes sadly there is only 1 boss fight and he is really easy, it would be a near perfect flawless game, but long platforming sections and repetitive platforming get in Alice's way of becoming the perfect blend of Art and Games.