AMERICAN McGEE'S ALICE

Last month I was drooling to pick up the newest and most imaginative game on the market: American McGee’s Alice. A twisted tale of Wonderland told long after Alice’s first encounter with the surreal world. The twist is that this time Alice is called upon to stop the Queen of Hearts, whose tyrannical reign has swept the land, causing its inhabitants to become more scared than ever. All the original characters from the book return to play more twisted roles than before. Your companion, The Cheshire Cat, is the size of a small lion and answers a strange assortment of puzzling questions with even more fucked up riddle-filled answers. You are once again pulled into this psychotic arena which, if you have read the book, is quite close in story, but very distant in the telling of it. You are not going to go through Wonderland barehanded of course. You can select from a devilish array of weaponry like a butcher knife, a deck of razor-sharp cards, jack-in-the-box grenades, or Diabolical Dice which summon a hell spawn to slay and absorb any entities in the area, sometimes including you! An amazing first person 3-D action graphics package enables movement abilities similar to that of Tomb Raider. The textures and effects are rendered perfectly. You can also listen in full 3-D surround sound which, with headphones, makes you feel as if the Card Soldiers are sneaking right up the stairs behind you! The music, composed by founding member of Nine Inch Nails Chris Vrenna, offers some of the most evil and mystical soundscapes I have ever heard in a game. While there are many games being released that have this type of game play, none have the story. If you are an avid computer gamer, or have a computer at all, pick this title up as soon as you can. You will not be disappointed.