most certainly a departure from the novels O.O

Alice: Madness returns is a sequel to the 2000 title "American mcgee's Alice", where Alice is driven insane due to her Family dying in a fire. in this game, we follow her story after she have been released from the asylum, but is still plagued by nightmarish horrors in wonderland.
the controls are tight and well-responsive, though dogding in lock-on mode is cluncky, because there seem to be a peripheral radius from the enemy that you are allowed to dogde in, making retreating maneuvers alittle awkward. but despite that, the platforming is nicely done to be a moderat challenge for the player, combined with a plefora of enemies that can attack you on both land and in the air (without directly interfering in the platform sections), the weapons and the four deficulty levels (easy to nightmare), there is alot to the gameplay (not to mention the histeria mode).
the atmosphere and tone of the game is certainly improved from its predecessor: in AMA, most of the horror Visuals came from the bloodiness of the surroundings and the enemies, while in this game, the horror elements are relying far less on the gore factor and more on the blurring of the lines between reality and wonderland, giving a sensation that Alice may be decending into madness Again. in the same way, the enemies are also given more detailed designes to depick the twisted nature of the new wonderland, though the design for most of the reoccuring characters are carried over from the first game (the mad hatter, the turtle, the chessire cat, etc.). for the design of the humans in the real World, they may look more exaggerated than the residence of wonderland, giving more a sense of isolation from the real World. the game is also generally more colourful than its predecessor, which should take away from the horror factor, but the way it is used actually kind of adds to the atmosphere.
the music is far from bombastic or grand, but more subtle and soothing with a hint of the unnerving elements in between, which fits quite well with the rest of the game.
during the game there is also acouple of mini-games that is intervowed into the story, which is skipable, with is good since the music ones isn't every precise. but luckily, they only make up a small percent of the mini-games.
throughout the game, there is also alot of collectable either in the form of rose paint to increase Health or memories, that tell of certain quotes from different people in her life, giving a good objective to Explorer the enviroment.


for all of my praise, I can't say that this game is completely flawless:
I have mentioned the problems with the lock-on before, but since it also zooms somewhat more in on the target, when locked-on, it makes the camera more awkwardly angled and harder to see any surrounding enemy attacks.
the games story also have a bad habit of teasing us with possible bosses to face, only for the story to abruptly cancel them, for example the first chapter leads up to a confrontation with the march hare and the dormouse pilotting a giant robot, only for the infernal train to crash into the Facility and destroy the robot, ending the chapter. and that is how it goes for almost every single chapter's ending.
the ending is also kind of weak for such a good story, but really open to interpretation. (I will not talk more about it for the case of spoilers).
and finally, the music mini-games. the music mini-games have a delayed input-registration making it harder to time tunes (not by normal dificulty, but by faulty game design). and also, they require a full perfect run on three sets, so if you fail once, you have to start all over from the beginning, making it more frustrating with the music mini-games. but luckily, they are also skipable.

so overall:
positives:
+ tight controls
+ a broad arsenal of weapons and abilities for both combat and platforming.
+ challenging enemies
+ different modes
+ lore-expanding collectables
+ good music
+ nice Graphics
+ good Visuals and designs
+ good psychological elements
+ unlockable costumes

negativs:
-awkard lock-on
-trolling us with boss battles
-weak ending
-music mini-games.

overall, if you are interested in a challenging platformer/combat game, interesting visual and story or want to experience a twisted version of the imagination of the Lewis carroll novels with psychological reality-bending elements, I would recomment this game to you. so you are always welcome to descend into the madness with the rest of us
>:-)......(just kidding).