Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Reviewed Platform: PS3

Other Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

WARNING: SPOILERS

I loved Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. It was my favourite game in the series so far, and I theorised that it would probably be the best combination of gameplay, gameplay elements and story that we’d find within the Assassin’s Creed series. If you want to see why just check out my review of it.

When Revelations was coming out I was sceptical. I had kind of had enough of Ezio. He’s cool and everything, but his story was over in Brotherhood. So, I went into Revelations not really sure what to expect story wise, nor was I sure what they would change to make this one stand out.

The answer came to me quickly. They changed very little that mattered. The UI had a complete overhaul and they added bombs. Neither of these things did it for me, the change in UI seeming pointless and the inclusion of bombs just irritating. I went through the entire game without using bombs as they seemed pointless and too much worthless effort as I wanted to get up close and personal or use my crossbow to take dudes out, which I couldn’t as the crossbow is super expensive. On top of this we have a hook-blade, which just seems to defy common sense and biology (I swear using it would cause your wrist to snap off in an instant). 

Oh, and the less said about the stupid Tower Defence mini-game the better.

Everything that was introduced to Brotherhooddidn’t seem to have much of a place in this game. In fact, a lot of things were dropped. For one, horses are no longer in the game. Nor is an interesting city layout, which now just seems sloppily put together (we’re in Constantinople now). Building up a brotherhood just seems purely peripheral now and seems nigh on useless.

Viewpoints are no longer as spectacular as they once were

So yeah, the gameplay was kind of lame. But a lot of the little niggles I had were always there (such as parkour not always working properly). Why was I suddenly noticing these things? I loved the gameplay in all previous games, even the first game. What went wrong? Well, I theorise the problem is that the others had a cohesive and interesting story to hold it all together. You lose this and it all falls apart. And this was my biggest issue with Revelations.

Revelations no longer seemed to tell Ezio’s story. This time it was about the struggles of Constantinople. There’s a Templar presence, of course, but they just seem to want to bring the Byzantines back, rather than do anything seemingly useful. There’s a massive focus on this story that seems to have nothing to do with Ezio. He’ll get involved, but for the most part I can’t see why.

What should have been the focus of the game was the side plot. All these B-side missions that come about involving Ezio gaining his humanity back at such an old age. He gets to know this other Italian, Sofia, and through their bonding he realises that he is getting too old to be an Assassin. He needs to pass on the torch. This coincides with the story of Altaïr, another part of the game that had little focus on it.

Quite clearly some futuristic DVD

See, Altaïr has left these DVDs around and they tell his story bit by bit. But they really don’t, as the story skips around so much we can’t reconnect with him. The story tells of how he has been exiled and how he deals with it, I think. He gets married, has children and attempts to bring down a colossal douchebag who has taken over the Assassins. This would be a good story in its own right, but it falls short so many times.

Here are some problems. Firstly, how did that guy get to take over the Assassin’s? He’s clearly incapable of doing so and an absolute tyrant. Secondly, Altaïr’s son dies and Altaïr goes to ask the tyrant why he ordered his execution. I couldn’t care as I didn’t know he had children as this was suddenly forced upon us. Thirdly, who is this woman? I can only assume it is the woman who pretended to be Robert de Sable in the first game. She was shown to be romantically involved with Altaïr in another game, but this was only shown and not developed. Fourthly, when she dies I can’t care as this is the only time she is in the game. Fifthly, Altaïr can easily kill the guy, but doesn’t.

They completely ruin Altaïr’s story, and I know this is all very picky, but Altaïr is an important character who needed more time focussed upon him for development. Just showing snapshots of his life is pointless as we can’t really connect with him, nor can we cohesively follow his story.

If they were to remake this game then this is what I’d do: have two plots, one with Ezio and Sofia, the other with Altaïr and his life. Focus on both equally. Then you can connect with the characters and feel for them as they go through tough times and attempt to overcome them.

I feel that Ubisoft lost their way with this game, just trying to squeeze out yet another game before Assassin’s Creed III. This could have been handled very well, especially if the story actually revealed a lot, but for a game called Revelationsthere aren’t many revelations. The game just feels rushed, and that’s a shame as it did have potential to be great. The ending was very good, but the game itself wasn’t worth it (apart from the Sofia parts of the game).

For Assassin’s Creed fans this is, of course, an important game to play as it does continue the story, but I can’t help but feel it was completely unnecessary. Non-fans would probably have fun with the game, but for me, who cares a lot about the story and characters, this just didn’t do it.

Aliens: Colonial Marines - First Impressions

Having just got back from MCM Expo I have looked back on my time at my first convention. It was extremely fun and I would definitely love to go again. It has certainly given me a taste for the convention atmosphere. However, one thing I remember most about Expo were the several games shown there. Out of these games there was one I played a demo for that really stuck with me.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a first person shooter, though the demo we got was the competitive multiplayer. This meant that whilst the marines were in FPS mode, the aliens were in third-person mode. When we went in we were shown what the alien side was, watching the SEGA team battle against the normal guys. Xenomorph (the aliens) gameplay looked simply fantastic, with climbing on ceilings and walls being a major part. The entirety of the gameplay looked far superior to the gameplay in Alien vs. Predator, which had the Aliens in first person, making running along walls give you motion sickness.

But the xenomorph side was not the gameplay we got to experience first person. When the game finished (41-37 for the SEGA team) we played against the SEGA team. As marines you are dropped in apart from each other, but it is easy to find each other. A key approach is to take the Left 4 Dead tactic of stick together. Many people would run off on their own and immediately get shanked by a xenomorph. In fact, many of my kills were trying to make sure a person wasn’t on their own, see a xenomorph or two drop down on them, leaving me to try and protect them.

Another tactic that needs to be used for this game has to be one many people did not employ: turn on your flashlight and keep your eyes upwards. At one point four of my team members ran through a door with an obvious prehensile tail hanging from it. A few quick shotgun blasts and I had saved their lives. Of course, I found employing this technique actually heightened my fears, as I was looking out for the xenomorphs so much I kept seeing things.

 

The weapon loadouts given to us were great. My personal favourite was to use the shotgun as it was easier to hit the moving targets, plus xenomorphs need to get up close to hurt you, so a shotgun blast to the head before it stabs you is perfect. The other two weapon loadouts consisted of a machine gun (useful) and an assault rifle that shot in bursts (not as useful). The trailer showed a flamethrower which was not in the demo but I can imagine being extremely useful in the full release.

The game was a paranoia filled bundle of fun and is definitely a game I would like to get on release date. The L4D style of gameplay was absolutely fantastic and made us all work together. On top of this the game is simply gorgeous to look at, albeit it very dark (though a flashlight will solve that). Plus, the gameplay feels very balanced (our side lost 39-38, which is pretty close), even though when playing the game you do feel very vulnerable, which is how you should feel against the xenomorphs.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is out on Microsoft Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360 in February 2013, and Wii U in 2013.

Warp

Reviewed Platform: PSN

Other Platforms: XBLA, PC

Well, it sure has been a while on here. What with all the coursework and general University-ness going on I haven’t really had time to concentrate on something to review it. Luckily, I managed to get Warp a week or two ago and have been slowly playing through it. As soon as I started playing it I knew this was review material. Something about it just said “easily reviewable” to me.

But before we get into that we must ask: What is Warp? Well, Warp is a game I was very much looking forward to. A downloadable title developed by Trapdoor Inc., Warp is about a cute little alien called Zero going through a facility, trying to escape from the scientists and soldiers that have help him captive and tested on him. That’s all. A nice, neat little story and, to be fair, it’s not too bad. Nothing in depth but gives the player enough motivation to get to the end of the game.

The game does have other good parts, but sadly these parts are hampered by the game’s design. Firstly we have to look at the art design. Zero is, as you can probably tell, fucking cute (LOOK AT HIM!). He is adorable. That’s great. But what isn’t great is the fact that his art design is not conducive with the design of the rest of the game. There’s something that seems wrong when looking at Zero near the human characters. Zero’s overly cartoonish style just doesn’t mesh with the slightly realistic looking people and this means that scenes with humans in don’t feel right, almost in an uncanny valley sense. Otherwise, the art design is alright.

The dialogue is actually also somewhat entertaining. I would love to hear more and more of the scientists babbling on about what stereotypical nerds they are. Sadly, I can’t. This is because dialogue doesn’t happen enough and when you get close enough to the characters to hear what they are saying they have usually reached the end of their sentence. Once I just heard “mumble mumble masturbation.” I have no idea what that line is about in context because I couldn’t hear it. A simple fix for this would be to utilise subtitles, but the game sadly doesn’t have this option.

Talking of sound, the game does actually have some pretty good sound design. When you warp into enemies in order to make them exploding there’s a rather satisfying squelch as blood sprays everywhere. But, of course, there’s something to combat this area of sound being good: the lack of music. The game is extremely dull to play through without music. Not enough is going on to keep my full attention and some music would have been enough to keep me going. The design on the game warrants some wacky Splosion Manstyle music, but it’s just not there.

There are some other minor problems. The game doesn't really have a progression in difficulty, so it all seems like a massive grind to get to the end. Field of view from enemies isn't very easy to gauge and sometimes they seem to come out from nowhere. The game also glitched out a few times, not allowing me to go forwards until I ending up killing myself attempting to solve some imaginary puzzle. Also, the load times are horrendous for this title and get especially irritating when getting to sections where you'll die a lot.

There are some interesting powers in the game, but none of them really alter gameplay enough.

But none of these currently listed problems are the biggest. These are simple nitpicks. You might be wondering what playing this game involves. You know, like what you need to do and what the controls are. It is at thispoint the entire game falls apart, and disastrously so.

The controls to this game are HORRIBLE. At first the game seems to be quite good with controls. It you notice how when you are going to warp in a barrel or a person the pointer usually locks on. It’s handy. As the game goes on, however, you’ll find this to be almost irritating. A simple warp from one location to another can be hampered by a stray barrel getting in the way. Or even then the pointer won’t lock on to the barrel, getting you stuck behind it and then getting shot.

For a game that requires such precise controls the game is amazingly imprecise. You’ll find yourself dying over and over and over not because of ineptitude but because of the shite, stiff controls. And there is no place that these controls are more atrocious than at the end of the game.

The final level has a ship rocking from side to side. It is here you desperately need tight controls, but this game doesn’t have any. Instead you’ll find the physics going wild and your ability to accurately move between lasers waning. The gap you need to get into would be fine with precise controls, but nope, this game doesn’t have any. Once you power through all of the shit thrown at you come against the ending boss. If, when playing through the previous section, you thought the controls were being crap then THIS is where they fall apart.

Fuck physics and fuck the controls and fuck this game. The boss just doesn’t work and feels broken. I didn’t complete it. Once I have defeated the boss I have to sit around and not get hit. I don’t have any way of stopping myself getting hit, but I usually get hit almost straight away, giving no time to try and do anything. I just have to pray like it’s fucking Earthbound. Sure, there seems to be a way of doing it, but from looking online there are people who spent 30 minutes on this final boss. I can only suppose this is due to the controls.

If this game was more mechanically sound I’m sure I would love it. People seem somewhat polarised about this game and I can understand why. At first I thought it was OK, but as the game went on I found myself hating it. I was interested in this game for a while and I am disappointed with how it came out. The idea is one that it incredibly interesting and with a bit more polish and playtesting I’m sure it could have been great. Sadly, for me Warp is just... well, shit.

Q.U.B.E.

Platform Reviewed: PC

Q.U.B.E. (or Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion) is an independent First Person puzzle game in which you must complete tasks within a testing facility. You do this by using a pair of gloves in order to move blocks to achieve your goals.

Sooner or later I’d have to mention Portal, so I may as get it done with now. The game looks and feels a lot like Portal. Now, some may call the game out on this, calling it a rip-off and the likes, but I do not. Personally, it feels more like the gaming is proudly showing its influences. I’m fine with it. I don’t really want to talk about the game in comparison with Portal. I want to look at the game on its own merits, so let’s speak no more of Portal.

The mechanics of this game work extremely well. You use your power gloves to extrude block from the walls. You do this in order to create platforms, move coloured balls into their respective pits or to make light shine on a sensor. The entire game uses these mechanics in increasingly complex ways to create a very effective, though slightly too sharp, difficulty curve. I have heard reports of some of the game’s physics being a bit screwy at times, however I never came across these and the entirety of the game worked perfectly on a physics level.

In regards to the difficulty curve I have to commend this game: no in-game tutorial. You get to grips with the controls and the world through experimentation and simply looking around you and it’s fun. It’s interesting. It’s engaging. You feel intelligent for figuring things out. If the game pummelled me with text boxes and such at the beginning of the game I feel I’d be thrown out of the experience, as I found myself to be getting quite engrossed in the game itself. It does well to introduce all of the new blocks and mechanics to you throughout. When you discover how to use each mechanic to its fullest it’s rewarding.

Sadly, some of the mechanics of this game aren’t quite up to scratch. The magnet puzzles. Oh, the magnet puzzles. It’s at this point when the difficulty curve goes from a bit steep to simply asymptotic. Q.U.B.E. touts them as the hardest in the game and they are, but this seems to be because they mostly revolve around blind luck. I spent ages attempting one puzzle, not sure how to do it when suddenly it seemed to solve itself.

Also, these magnet puzzles are hampered by a fair delay on use of the gloves, making precision a key issue in the game. Whilst I do think the puzzles worked extremely well they did often take a lot longer than expected as there seemed to be a noticeable delay between clicking and the gloves working. This resulted in me clicking manically until the gloves finally worked, but all too late.

There also seems to be some attempt at narrative in the game. The game takes away from the normal test chambers and goes into the deep underbelly of the facility (like some other games that I promised not to mention later on). Whilst one might expect to find out that something has gone on down here we aren’t really left with much. I wouldn’t have minded if this game was devoid of narrative, as it’s a pretty fun puzzle game, but the way in which it attempts it slightly makes me wonder what plans they had.

The narrative also runs into a wall when the ending comes around. The ending seems to linger for a while, waiting for you to have the eureka moment and figure out what the entire game was all about. But there is no eureka moment. All I ever thought was “Wow, I’m enjoying these puzzles.” The semblance of a plot that went nowhere took away from this slightly, which is disheartening as I was really enjoying the game and its evolving mechanics.

 

Despite this criticism, I loved this game. It was extremely fun and challenging. It didn’t frustrate too often, but when it did it was usually the frustration you would attribute to any regular puzzle game (except for the magnet puzzles, of course). There’s a lot of room for improvement and the game could be a bit longer (the game was about 3 hours long), but it was still a genuinely enjoyable game. It might not be entirely original, but it still does what it sets out to do with enough competence for you to put this issue aside.

Singularity

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

In the past I have wondered “Why are there so many games out there that are playable but have such bad storylines?” When I say playable I don’t necessarily mean good gameplay, I just mean gameplay that is enjoyable. Wet was like this. I despise the game, but it was alright to play. Same goes for the 2008 iteration of Prince of Persia. But I can’t actually think of a game that had a good storyline but I hated every second I played it.

Well, that was until Singularity, which has one of the most interesting storylines I’ve played recently yet with gameplay that just pissed me off. See, the story involves time travel. I’m a sucker for time travel. I just find time travel extremely interesting. I love things like Chaos theory, which is exactly what this game deals with.

The main character, Renko, accidently alters time right at the beginning of the game by saving someone in 1955 who turns out to now rule the world in 2010. And it is ALL YOUR FAULT! You spend the rest of the game attempting to right your wrongs whilst everything around you attempts to kill you. If this was a film it would probably be pretty good, and I recommend watching any Let’s Plays that are around on the internet.

I say watch the Let’s Plays because then you wouldn’t have to play the game. At the heart of a game is the gameplay. It’s what sets apart video games from other forms of media: interactivity. But it all feels so lacklustre, so is no fun to play.

The shooting is possibly the least fun part of the game. For an FPS that is just inexcusable. When shooting the enemies it doesn’t feel like your shots are actually connecting. You can unload half a clip into a normal soldier and he will shrug it off. Don’t the developers realise that bullets don’t just tickle. They kill you.

It gets even more annoying when shooting the mutants. Rarely does it looks like the shots are actually having an effect on the enemy. They just keeping running at your to tear your to shreds when they get nearby. And boy do they tear you to shreds!

Forget the size of your life bar. It’s pretty much useless to think that all of those dashes next to each other show you having a lot of health. When any enemy hits you your health will go down fairly quickly. The only ways to get your health back are through stimpacks, which give you health straight away (but are very rare), or health packs, which are everywhere. I admire them for using health packs in an age when it’s all about the regenerative health. However, the animation for using a health pack takes up so much time and within that time you can still keep getting shot, meaning that using one just delays your death.

But nothing takes down your health more than the Phase Ticks. Fuck these things. Seriously. Fuck them. If Phase Ticks ever became real I would devote my entire life to hunting down every single one of the bastards and making them pay. What these things do is run right at you and explode, kind of like the Tickers from Gears of War 2. Unlike the Tickers, though, you have no time to react to them. They are tiny and hard to shoot. And when they come along there is a lot of them, and I mean a LOT! When you first see them you are guaranteed to die over and over until you realise how you are meant to beat them: run, hide, and try to blast them.

On top of all of this terrible gameplay we have something that just slightly bugs me: a lack of subtitles. Now, hear me out on this one. There are some audio issues in this game. There are a few game that have this issue and the issue is that if you turn to face away from the person talking you can barely hear what they are saying. Hell, you have audio logs everywhere which you need to stand right next to, facing the audio log, hoping some evil thing doesn’t come behind you to shank you up. They never do, but you still keep turning around just in case. Subtitles would solve this issue. Also, it’s equal rights: helping the hard of hearing (though I’ll admit I just want them because I like listening to music when gaming).

The TMPis pretty cool, but using it in combat is rare, unless it's against Phase Ticks!

All of this builds up to a surprisingly great finale, which the game really doesn’t deserve. In this section the gameplay doesn’t feel too bad because it is all fast paced, so you are concentrating more on living than the terrible controls. That is, at least, until the actual endings, which all seem pretty rushed, two being more of an epilogue than anything. One of these endings is somewhat fitting, it just didn’t seem like a great conclusion to this game.

So, like I said, go see a Let’s Play of the game. It will probably look good, but that’s because someone else is playing it. Yes, the game is very pretty and the story is very good, but when you sit down and play Singularity it just doesn’t feel fun at all.

Final Verdict: 3/10

Alice: Madness Returns

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

On the cult success of American McGee’s Alice it isn’t surprising that a sequel was spawned, but no one seemed to be asking for it. Most who I have talked to wanted the original to be updated on consoles, where the controls were far smoother and allowed the game to be played... well, just played rather than endured. And so we get Alice: Madness Returns.

The title doesn’t help the game in selling. The name of American McGee is tucked into the bottom of the case so anyone who played the original game might not be able to see it very well and twig that this is a sequel. In fact, the game never seemed to get that much coverage.

But this is all nit-picky. How does the game itself hold up as a sequel?

Well, in playing the game you might be surprised that it is, in fact, a sequel, as all the characters that died in the first game are alive again and have shifted allegiance, such as the Duchess, who now shows you how to acquire one of the many collectibles in the game (but that’s a story for another paragraph). Not only this, but there is little to no mention of the events of the first game.

The story involves Alice now living in an orphanage where a doctor is attempting to assist her in overcoming her troubles after her family died in a house fire, which we assumed Alice had overcome by the ending of the first game. It then transpires that the horrors of industrial England bring her back into her Wonderland, which now has an Infernal Train riding through it, destroying everything in its wake to leave perfect platforms for jumping from one end of Wonderland to the other. Through her travels through Wonderland Alice discovers what truly happened at her house the night of the fire and, yet again, grows as a person.

As the game continues the story seems to devolve into a mess of ambiguity and plot points seem extremely rushed or impossible to get a hold of. By the end of the game things start to make a bit more sense, but this ending makes the rest of the game feel pointless as very little of the plot throughout the game has any bearing on the ending.

The story is shown through simple cutscenes that show cut-outs of the characters moving in a basic animation style that perfectly suits the world and the story, though may seem lazy to some. There are some cutscenes shown through the in-game engine, but these are not as eye catching as the cut-out cutscenes.

The actual gameplay is similar in a way to the first game. It involves platforming sections as well as some places requiring fighting. The fighting mechanics in this sequel are far superior to the fighting in the first game, but this just makes the game feel overly easy. All enemies attack in the same patterns that are quickly picked up on and so they can be dispersed in seconds.

Platforming in this game feels fun at first, but as it progresses it feels more like a chore. Platforms are placed an exact distance from each other to easily do a triple jump and float to safety. This makes the game feel even less challenging and when you don’t reach the desired platform it feels less like there is a difficulty and skill to platforming and more that the game is badly designed. Not to say that the levels ARE badly designed. Levels are extremely complex looking (well, some of the levels such as the East Asian level) and involve some forward thinking and trial and error. Furthermore, a mechanic in the game revolving around invisible platforms requires a keen eye and skilful platforming.

However, these platforming sections are, overall, extremely linear and don’t have the feeling of being in a large area that the first game did. You often feel as if you are simply being guided to the end of the game rather than figuring the game out for yourself. Not only this but the levels seem overly long and, again, seem like a chore rather than fun.

Puzzles within these levels seem useless, as they mostly revolve around finding a specific clock to shoot or using pressure pads to open a door. The world of Wonderland should revolve around maths and word puzzles, like the first game, as this was what Lewis Carroll dabbled in.  They play a very major part of the game, but come across as an inconvenience as these are stopping you from advancing yet require no logic to solve.

This brings me onto something else that is useless, and that would be the collectibles. My word. How many types of collectibles do most games have? Usually it is either none or one. Sometimes two at a stretch. But this game has three different types of collectibles: bottles, which do nothing; pig snouts, which give teeth and other collectibles, and memories, which show a bit of back story (which usually amounts to nothing). I’m not even mentioning the teeth (used for upgrades) or rose paint (used for getting extra health), which I’m not quite sure class as collectibles. There might be more, but I probably didn’t find them.

There’s not much else to say about this game. At its core it should be a fun game, and at times it is, but there are too many problems with it to have complete fun. The game does look beautiful, the platforming can be entertaining and the story and characters can be intriguing at times, but the flaws hold it back from being as good as the original game. I personally feel the game is just above average, but not quite good enough.

Oh, and the game teases you with boss battles, but doesn't actually give you any (well, one... kinda). Just saying.

Final Verdict: 6/10

American McGee's Alice

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

American McGee’s Alice was originally a game from 2000 on the PC that was to be ported to the PS2, however, this never happened. Personally, I think this is a shame. I once found myself trying out a little bit of Alice on the PC and I found there to be problems with the controls, which seemed far too complex and not allowing for a perfect platforming experience. A port to a console would have been extremely useful, as the entire game had a style that would have better suited a console as opposed to a PC.

It would not be until 11 years later that we would be able to play Alice on consoles. With the release of Alice: Madness Returns, EA also distributed, as a download on consoles, the cult classic from 2000. As someone who has wanted their hands on this game for quite a while I found this extremely welcoming. So, how does American McGee’s Alice hold up as a console port?

The visuals in Alice definitely look dated compared to today’s standards. Yet somehow this does not matter. The world is very angular and the character models are not perfect, yet the player still feels as if they are connected to this world. The dark tones of Wonderland as opposed to the imagined Wonderland from Disney films definitely show the player that Wonderland has hit hard times.

The story of Alice is that of Alice after her second adventure (Through the Looking Glass) falling into madness after her house has burned to the ground, with all of her family dying inside. This initially sets the tone of the game as one of depression and dismay, especially as she is now living in an insane asylum.

Throughout the game Alice travels through her Wonderland, each area and character displaying some part of her broken psyche. The characters from the story, such as the Rabbit and the Mock Turtle appear, displaying different parts of her personality. Her guide is the Cheshire Cat, who appears to be another side of Alice’s ego. As the story continues some of these characters die, some survive, showing the player the extent to which Alice is breaking down, as well as curing herself.

The game’s goal is to find and kill the Queen of Hearts, the cause of all of Alice’s woes and troubles. The threat of the Queen of Hearts is built up throughout the game, as well as the threat of the Jabberwock. Both of these characters, as well as many others, appear in the game as bosses for Alice to defeat in order to advance. Some are easy to defeat, whilst some are extremely difficult.

As well as these bosses there are the normal enemies in the game. These sometimes vary depending on the area, such as red chess pieces appearing as enemies in Looking Glass Land or soldier ants in the Wonderland Woods. Some of these enemies are annoying to fight whilst some are too easy. Either way, this increases the challenge in the combat, which is somewhat slow and flawed but still engaging.

The actual platforming of this game is somewhat hard to get used to at first, but it is easy to get used to later on and is far superior to that on the PC. Not always is it necessary to have precise platforming as there are not as many jumps from one surface to another, as the main focus is exploration and puzzle solving, both of which are excellent. The exploration truly comes into its own during the endgame stages when attempting to navigate mazes. Puzzles are very much based on Lewis Carroll’, mostly being base on words and at times mathematics.

The game lasts for quite a long time, but not so long that one might get bored. All the way it is interesting, engaging and, most of all, fun. It is also surprisingly a bit too logical at times (for Wonderland) though not too logical as to not get a feel for the world.

I recommend buying Alice: Madness Returns almost purely for this game, but who knows, you might enjoy that game too. But that’s another review...

Final Verdict: 9/10