Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Alice Launch Trailer Is Messed Up, Amazing

By Quintin Smith on June 3rd, 2011 at 9:14 am.

Louise never reacted well when her flatmates used all the milk

You’re late! For a very important date! The trailer after the jump has been waiting just forever for you. And look at you! Straighten that pinny! Tighten those bows! What is that in your hair? Give me strength. Alright, off you go. And do try and remember your manners.

I’ve been hearing worrying things about the quality of the platforming and combat in this one, but I’m not personally worried. If the game can just maintain a steady stream of ominous, fantastical imagery, you better believe I’ll soldier through any mediocre puzzles or irritating jumping puzzles. Look at that disturbing vibrating rabbit-man at 0:27! The disturbing tooth creature at 1:18! Whatever the crap that thing is at 1:19! The range of dresses! Ooh yes, I’m looking forward to this.

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80 Comments »

  1. 03/06/2011 at 09:21 Stevostin says:

    I was starting to think “oh, this is a dated 3D…” but yes, visuals are incredible. If the gaming is mediocre, all we could thing is how great it would be to have a design genious like AMG working with a gaming genius ^^

  2. 03/06/2011 at 09:21 KauhuK says:

    MADNESS? NO, THIS IS Alice: Madness Returns. Looks disturbingly good. Too bad my budget cant allow me to get this one, at least for now.

  3. 03/06/2011 at 09:22 Dzamir says:

    THIS IS MADNESS!!

  4. 03/06/2011 at 09:22 JackShandy says:

    Beautiful. Like a more overt Psychonauts. And was that a giant enemy crab I saw there?

    EDIT: The trailer really should have gone:

    “Madness is a place.

    And it is wondrous.“

  5. 03/06/2011 at 09:22 TrouserDemon says:

    I am reminded very much of Psychonauts, except with a darker art style.

  6. 03/06/2011 at 09:22 Justoffscreen says:

    I am going to play the hell out of this, oh yes.

  7. 03/06/2011 at 09:24 fuggles says:

    In honesty the first alice had pretty crappy gameplay, but was interesting for the visuals and level designs. Glad to see the sequel is remaining true to the original!

  8. 03/06/2011 at 09:27 Alexander Norris says:

    I’m puzzled as to why Alice is an Ultramarine, but this looks pretty good!

    (Although the seven comments that are supposed to be on here are invisible?)

  9. 03/06/2011 at 09:27 Zetetic says:

    Madness is actually a pop-ska band.

    • 03/06/2011 at 22:03 Dances to Podcasts says:

      That was always my remedy against the SPARTAAAA meme.

      They: This is madness!
      Me. THIS IS… ONE STEP BEYOOOOOND!

  10. 03/06/2011 at 09:29 Arclight says:

    Delightfull, in a slightly disturbing way.

  11. 03/06/2011 at 09:29 MonkeyMonster says:

    Blimey… twisted platforming tasty nutness with a cat. What more could you want? Though will it hug you if you have nightmares?

  12. 03/06/2011 at 09:30 skyturnedred says:

    Just the right amount of disturbing.

  13. 03/06/2011 at 09:33 Isometric says:

    It looks truly wonderful especially the giant alice stomping around

  15. 03/06/2011 at 09:35 Hidden_7 says:

    Me and my friend where having a think about this. Games boasting “a range of dresses” are few and far between, aren’t they?

    We came up with The Elder Scrolls games, the two recent Fallouts, Final Fantasy X-2 (dress based combat), and then hit a wall. Bloodlines had some skirts, but no dresses I don’t think? Tomb Raider legend had one dress?

    Surely there must be more games where the selection of dresses could be described as “sundry” musn’t there?

  16. 03/06/2011 at 09:35 Zetetic says:

    Madness is not knowing whether or not your comment referencing the invisibility of comments is original.

  17. 03/06/2011 at 09:35 Avenger says:

    Hmm Spicy Horse… I wonder how that tastes

  18. 03/06/2011 at 09:36 Zetetic says:

    Madness is testing before deployment.

  19. 03/06/2011 at 09:38 Avenger says:

    Comment testing.. comment testing. comment testing I am just testing to see if the comment system works

  20. 03/06/2011 at 09:38 Mallika says:

    Oh god that looks absolutely amazing…especially all the weird and horrific things you come across. I hope the gameplay won’t disappoint.

  21. 03/06/2011 at 09:40 JackShandy says:

    We’re all just throwing words into the abyss now.

    I’d like to thank Rock, Paper Shotgun for this lovely work of invisible art. It’s certainly made me deeply consider of my broader place within the internet.

  22. 03/06/2011 at 09:41 Zetetic says:

    Madness is hitting the ‘Opinion, Away!’ button, forever.

  23. 03/06/2011 at 09:45 PopeBob says:

    Even though the original never held much of my interest, I’ll probably give this one a go. Looks to be quite interesting visually to an extent beyond the first game’s dated, quirky styling.

  24. 03/06/2011 at 09:50 Formanovo says:

    You guys should play my school project while waiting for this game:

    http://www.tdne.dk/Octave/

    We were greatly inspired by the first Alice, style-wise

  25. 03/06/2011 at 09:58 MuscleHorse says:

    That’s amazing! How did you put a video in an article?

  26. 03/06/2011 at 09:59 Coins says:

    On one hand, I really like it. It looks mad! On the other hand, some passages look like they’re trying just a tiny bit too hard.

  27. 03/06/2011 at 10:02 CaspianRoach says:

    This looks very promising. Can’t wait to get all dressess for my Alice! What? This game is not about dress collecting?

  28. 03/06/2011 at 10:03 Vexing Vision says:

    Hmm, can’t see any of the other comments? How come?

    Anyway, I’m with Quinns on this – I don’t care how bad the gameplay is, I need to play this for the story and the images.

  29. 03/06/2011 at 10:04 The Dark One says:

    Something about the movement of the characters made me think that someone planned on making this game for the Xbox/PS2 era but only got around to developing it now. Considering the last platformer I played was Psychonauts, I don’t think this is really a problem for me.

  30. 03/06/2011 at 10:13 TheLordHimself says:

    I sort of feel like it looks like it should have come out 3 years ago. It looks a bit dated… but nevertheless interesting.

  31. 03/06/2011 at 10:15 Meat Circus says:

    Oh, I can no longer view comments.

    What a shame.

  32. 03/06/2011 at 10:17 4026 says:

    Wait, this is launching? Now? That crept up on me.

    EDIT: Wikipedia clarifies: it’ll actually be out (in the UK) on the 16th June.

  33. 03/06/2011 at 10:27 thegooseking says:

    Mediocre puzzles and irritating jumping challenges being overruled by amazing atmosphere and imagery sounds pretty much like the previous game. Which wouldn’t be so terrible.

  34. 03/06/2011 at 10:36 Mungrul says:

    I already have it, but it’s nice to see that they’re offering a free copy of American McGee’s Alice for pre-orders.

  35. 03/06/2011 at 10:37 Rii says:

    Graphically it looks a bit shit; that aside it also looks rather wonderful, although I’m not sure I’m down with an emaciated Cheshire Cat. Definitely looking forward to a WIT on this.

  36. 03/06/2011 at 10:40 Alethron says:

    Looks really interesting. I haven’t played the first one, but at first glance it reminds me a little of Psychonauts, which I loved, and haven’t played anything like since. I really hope this one turns out well.

  37. 03/06/2011 at 10:48 mbp says:

    I can’t seem to view comments today. I see that there is 37 comments on this post. I am allowed to make a comment but no matter what I click I cannot make a comment.

    Awesome looking game by the way

  38. 03/06/2011 at 10:48 Baka says:

    *comment test*

  39. 03/06/2011 at 11:44 Freud says:

    It looks amazing. Who cares if textures are a bit blurry and characters blocky when the art created is as fantastic as this trailer seems to promise?

    As I didn’t play the original and it is very hard to judge if gameplay is of the same caliber as the art direction, I’ll just wait to see wot others think.

  40. 03/06/2011 at 11:55 SaturnineTenshi says:

    I’m sorry, but I thought here nipples were bleeding at first.

  41. 03/06/2011 at 12:04 neolith says:

    Whoa – that looks promising!

  42. 03/06/2011 at 12:08 raptormesh says:

    Now that’s pretty darn alluring. Love her hair and other parts.

  43. 03/06/2011 at 12:30 Archroy says:

    I dont like the voices as much as I want to. It sounds like the voice actors are trying to emulate the first game (which was amazing, especially the Cat’s voice!) but juuust falling short.

    That aside, this looks like it will be a terrific game. Awaiting eagerly.

  44. 03/06/2011 at 12:31 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

    Like the first, this one has some wonderfully grotesque visual art. Hopefully unlike the first this one will not feature horrible floaty jumping, terrible collision detection, or appalling combat mechanics. It might actually be good.

  45. 03/06/2011 at 12:34 Chalee says:

    ONE STEP BEYOND!

  46. 03/06/2011 at 12:52 rapchee says:

    rated M for Madness

  47. 03/06/2011 at 13:17 Drake Sigar says:

    Yes. YEEEEEEEEEEEES!

  48. 03/06/2011 at 13:57 cHeal says:

    The voice acting is laughable.

    The rest looks good.

  49. 03/06/2011 at 14:20 Radiant says:

    That is two sequels away from an episode of Miami Ink.

  50. 03/06/2011 at 15:15 Jake says:

    Ah the art direction is really great, I was worried the graphics would be disappointing – the opening shot of the character model looks really dated – but the environments look so imaginative it makes up for it. I hope it is genuinely dark and twisted rather than teenage and emo though, it could go either way.

  51. 03/06/2011 at 17:10 iq says:

    Looks great and all, but…

    Where’s the maths?

  52. 03/06/2011 at 20:14 Hensler says:

    Well, other than character and level concept, this looks like rubbish. But I thought the first game was hugely overrated, so maybe I’m still just biased.

  53. 03/06/2011 at 23:08 ScalyWg says:

    sounds like rubbish voice casting to me – looks good tho

  54. 04/06/2011 at 01:47 Paul2724 says:

    Looks thoroughly uninteresting tbh….

  55. 04/06/2011 at 06:43 DOLBYdigital says:

    I am absolutely in love with the visual style and character design (also noticed the impressive range of dresses). The voice acting was decent for me compared to other video games and definitely better than the first game. Also really liked the nut house areas where tweedle dee was tinkering with her brain.

    Now if EA would get their heads out of their own ass and get this on Steam I would be happy. They are currently only selling this through their crummy download manager and haven’t mentioned anything else as far as I know.

  56. 04/06/2011 at 13:49 Om says:

    Style looks fantastic, gameplay appears dire. Not expecting much from this

  57. 04/06/2011 at 13:51 Bodminzer says:

    I’m glad that now the Grimdark art style of the early 00′s has fucked off, we can have people who know how to do a dark aesthetic properly. Really looking forward to this, I’ve needed a good modern fantasy platformer since Mario Galaxy.

  58. 04/06/2011 at 19:32 nneko says:

    I’m not impressed with the execution of the graphics (yet), but I’ve got a favorable feeling about the narrative, design, and symbology of this game. I’m counting on RPS to render a *thoughtful* verdict about the depth of the game before I plunk down my dollars! (Especially to EA.)

  59. 04/06/2011 at 21:27 McDan says:

    Is there still that offer thing going on when you can get the first one as well? I heard about that on RPS and hope it’s still happening.

  60. 05/06/2011 at 18:14 Christian Dannie Storgaard says:

    Pre-order and get a part of soundtrack? What’s wrong with getting all of it?
    Other than that it looks fantastic, visually and mood-wise at least – will play.

  61. 06/06/2011 at 22:22 Morlon says:

    @Quintin: As a long-time-fan of the whole Alice mythology, I can tell you that that is no rabbit but a man with the Jabberwocky’s head, just as much as that is no tooth-creature but an oyster :).

    Overall this looks not only pleasing to me as a total fan of American McGee but also as an Alice fan.

    I’m mad pumped!

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