Alice: Madness Returns Review

[Tharic-Nar]

Chasing small furry animals down alley ways and rabbit holes remains a vice for poor Alice, her mind yearning for an escape from reality. What creatures can she dream up this time? - nothing too pleasant it seems. Join us as we review Alice: Madness Returns on the PC and see what dark depravities Spicy Horse came up with in this sequel.

You can read Jamie's review here and discuss in the forum below.

[Kayden]

Tharic I'm a little confused I thought you couldn't run Phsyx on your machine because you have an ATI video card.

I am glad to read you enjoyed the game as much as you did, even though it was repetitive but at least something carried it for something more then just a gimmick. I am glad to see they didn't didn't listen to critics and change the vision of the game at all and kept the art style true to the original game. It's just a shame it became a console sell out like C2 did, nothing can be done about it now though.

It's a good thing I have a 360 controller for my PC, now if I decide to pick this up it sounds like it you are recommending a controller is that right Tharic?

[Tharic-Nar]

PhysX is just the physics library, like Havoc, used within the game and doesn't automatically require the use of an NVIDIA GPU. NVIDIA allow for more complex PhysX acceleration on their cards, but are by no means required. PhysX can be used on any CPU, even consoles.

The sudden drops in frame-rates could be momentary blips of run-away physics calculations, or it could be the result of an inefficient rendering engine (as is often the case with these types of ports). I should point out that I ran the game on minimum PhysX details too and it made no difference to the spikes (they happened regardless).

The game was run with everything maxed and at 1920x1200 resolution... but the game only renders up to 1080p (again, the sign of a console port), hence the black borders in the screenshots (they were put there by the game, not by me).

The use of the controller will help even out the demand put on your left hand for all major controls. There isn't anything stopping you from programming your mouse for weapon switch with R or the Caps-Lock and tab targeting. If you're comfortable with a controller, then by all means use it.

I do love the art and style of the game, it's what kept me going. It really livens up towards the end (as well as some of the story), it's just the actual 'game' part nearly drove me insane... ironically.

[Kayden]

Well thanks for setting me straight. I thought Phsyx was limited to static breaks not dynamic breaking when on the cpu only, so I didn't think it would effect you that much. At least I learned something new today. Thank you for the speedy reply as well.

[TheCrimsonStar]

I want it...but on a console. Weird hearing me say that, no?

[Rob Williams]

I've been meaning to load up my copy of the game for a while, so I think I am going to have to soon. The thought of using the keyboard and mouse with the setup it gives you sounds like hell, so I am just going to start from the get-go with the Xbox gamepad. Given your opinion on the repetition, I am not sure it'll be a game I'll actually complete, but we'll see.

Originally Posted by TheCrimsonStar

I want it...but on a console. Weird hearing me say that, no?

Why not just get it on the PC and crank the graphics up, but use an Xbox 360 gamepad?

[TheCrimsonStar]

Originally Posted by Rob Williams

Why not just get it on the PC and crank the graphics up, but use an Xbox 360 gamepad?

If it's a console port there's going to be virtually no difference in the graphics. The only thing that will be different from console is the added Physx acceleration. I have an AMD gpu so that would put a strain on my CPU, I'm not sure if it could handle that. I turned on Physx in Mirror's Edge and every time stuff started to fly my framerate would drop from 60 to 10.

[OriginalJoeCool]

I liked the original game, so I wouldn't mind trying the sequel!