AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE

'''American McGee's Alice''' is a third-person shooter computer game released on October 6, 2000. It was developed by Rogue Entertainment and published, distributed and marketed by Electronic Arts. It was designed by American McGee, and featured music composed by former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna. The game is based on the Quake 3 game engine. The game has also been released under the Sold-Out Software label.
Set years after ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass'', ''Alice'' features an older, more cynical and macabre incarnation of Alice.
A film adaptation has been in the works for several years.

Contents

Synopsis

Main Characters

Environments

Graphics

Game Engine

Gameplay

Weapons

Power-ups

Soundtrack

Casebook

Movie Adaptation

References

External links

Synopsis

Shortly after her second adventure, Alice's parents are killed in a fire of which she is the only survivor. Becoming catatonic after having attempted suicide (as found in the case book), she is institutionalised in Rutledge Asylum. Years later, the White Rabbit summons Alice to aid a radically altered Wonderland, now under the despotic rule of the Queen of Hearts. The Cheshire Cat in particular now looks very different from Sir John Tenniel's original illustration: he is shown here as skeletally thin and his grin looks more devious than mischievous. When he first appears in the game, Alice comments "You've grown quite mangy, cat, but your grin's a comfort". The Cat is Alice's constant companion throughout the game, popping up now and again to guide the player or offer advice.
The box art of the game was altered after release, allegedly due to complaints received by the publisher from various consumer groups. The original box art (shown in the top picture) showed Alice holding a bloody Vorpal Blade. The altered version had Alice holding the Ice Wand instead. A third version showed Alice holding the Deck of Cards in her hands.

Main Characters

The game's characters are generally based on the inhabitants of Lewis Carroll's original novels, but they are not the same characters. Many of them are warped incarnations of their original selves. Among the notable:

★ 'Alice': The protagonist of the game. Alice is a troubled teenager and the savior of Wonderland. After a fire destroys her home and kills her parents, she falls into a catatonic state, and is committed to Rutledge Asylum. She returns to Wonderland, only to find it wickedly deformed. With the aid of the Cheshire Cat, and a wide arsenal of deadly toys, she puts an end to the Queen of Hearts' dictatorship, and returns Wonderland to its former glory. (It is worth noting that the Alice of Carroll's stories has an older sister, who is completely missing from this treatment of the tale. Alice's sister is not even present in a family photograph seen during the introduction of the game.) Alice is voiced by Susie Brann.


★ 'Cheshire Cat': Alice's main ally and principal companion in Wonderland. He often speaks in riddles and gives cryptic advice. He has an emaciated, almost anorexic appearance, wears an earring and appears to have undergrown incisors. He has a tendency to appear and disappear without warning, but can be summoned at nearly any time by pressing the C key (default), to offer advice. In an early screenshot of the game, the Cheshire Cat was seen fighting alongside Alice, but this was not included in the final version. Near the end of the game, he is murdered by the Queen of Hearts, but is revived at the end. The Cheshire Cat, along with the Mad Hatter and the Jabberwock, is voiced by Roger L. Jackson.

★ 'The Caterpillar': The wisest creature in Wonderland, who informs Alice how she can return this twisted place to its former, if rather odd, state. He reveals to her that the only way to return Wonderland to normal is to destroy the Queen of Hearts, get over her guilt (caused by the idea that she could have prevented the deaths of her parents), and overcome her fears. He also tells her how she might regain her "human size" and acts as the Wonderland Oracle. The Caterpillar is voiced by Jarion Monroe.

★ 'The Queen of Hearts': The main antagonist of the game, and ruler of Wonderland. An insane, murderous dictator who rules with an iron fist, and no mercy, she is feared by all except Alice and the rebels. She is the very incarnation of Alice's guilt, anger, regression, and all her other negative feelings, and wants to keep things the way they are. When Alice first encounters her, she takes a mostly human form, but with tentacles instead of legs and hair, and head with no face - which she covers with a mask. At the end of the first fight with the Queen, it is revealed that that version of her was merely a puppet. Soon after that, her real form is revealed, which is a gigantic, repulsive, pink, tentacled, evil demon-like behemoth. She leans down and grins nastily at Alice before opening her mouth, inside which is the Mad Hatter's head, which opens his mouth leaving Alice looking at her own head. The Queen then proceeds to taunt and demoralize Alice, as well as commanding her to leave, through a replica of her own mouth. Alice decides not to back down and does battle the real Queen, as only by destroying the Queen of Hearts will Alice finally regain her sanity, revive all of those who have died during the Queen's reign, and return Wonderland to normal. It is implied that the Queen Of Hearts is the same person as the Red Queen of the Pale Realm, and so might be the cause of the Red pieces' aggression. The Queen Of Hearts is the final boss of the game.

Environments

★ 'The Village of the Doomed': A network of tunnels and caves, inhabited by downtrodden Torch Gnomes and the Queen's Cardguards. Alice finds herself here when she falls down the rabbit hole at the beginning of the game.

★ 'The Fortress of Doors': A Boojum and Cardguard infested stronghold, the Fortress Of Doors is not all it appears from the outside. Within its dilapidated and crumbling walls there lies a Skool, in which Alice must find the ingredients for a shrinking potion.

★ 'Vale of Tears': Now Alice has shrunk to about the size of an ant, and there are many tiny terrors awaiting her as she follows the White Rabbit through this damp region. Army Ants, Ladybugs and Blood Roses are just a few of the monsters that will try to stop her as she seeks out the Duchess. Mere trickles of water are wide rivers and roaring waterfalls that need to be navigated if she is to progress.

★ 'Wonderland Woods': More deadly than the Vale of Tears, the Wonderland Woods are inhabited by even more Army Ants, along with ravenous Antlions, Evil Mushrooms and nasty, acid spitting Snarks. Fungi have established a tight grip on this once pleasant woodland, and the place is filled with choking fungal spores. Alice must seek the Caterpillar's advice and then recover the Toadstool of Life from the mighty Voracious Centipede.

★ 'Looking Glass Land': The many turrets and towers of the Chess Citadel have turned grey since the Queen's rise to power, and now have been stained red with the blood of endless battles between the white and red Chesspieces. Alice establishes an alliance with the White King, and must recover the White Queen from the depths of the Red Castle.

★ 'Behind the Looking Glass': The Hatter has gone from slightly mad to completely insane, and he now controls his own land of madness and despair. Nightmare Spiders and Clockwork Automatons fill his clock infested home, and Alice must fight her way through his Tweedle henchmen and enlist the Gryphon's help to find the vital pieces of the Jabberwock's Eyestaff.

★ 'Land of Fire and Brimstone': A place of smoking ash and boiling lava, this is the lair of the Jabberwock. Alice has a long, fiery trek before her if she is to face the Queen's right hand monster, and her own burning guilt.

★ 'Queen of Hearts Land': A place of mystifying hedge mazes and devillish mechanics, the lands of the Queen are the most deadly Alice has yet faced. Alice has to keep herself alert and her toys at the ready to avoid being decapitated.

★ 'Queensland': The palace of the queen looms overhead, a symbol of all Alice has yet to conquer. Tentacles and other repulsive appendages protrude from every wall, as Alice journeys to the centre of the Heart Palace - the home of the queen, and the nesting place of her inner demons.

Graphics

The game was released in 2000, and the graphics were very elaborate for the year of its release. Many of the levels depict a world of chaos and wonder.
Some of the game levels look like the inside of an asylum or a madhouse, linking Alice's Wonderland to her reality. The exterior views of Wonderland show the Red Queen's tentacles dipping out of buildings and mountain sides (especially around Queensland).

Game Engine

EA Games licensed Ritual Entertainment's ''Heavy Metal FAKK2'' engine, which is in turn a modified id Tech 3. The most notable changes in the engine include the use of the Tiki model system, which enables the engine to use skeletal animation among other things, the Babble dialog system which enables lip syncing of audio with character animations, dynamic music system, scriptable camera, particle system and extended shader support. ^[1]
Changes were made to FAKK's game engine for Alice, however minimal. The BSP (file extension) files still retain the FAKK headers, albeit with different version number.

Gameplay

Weapons

Alice can collect various weapons (called toys in the game) to defend herself throughout the game. Most of these have two ways of using them, called primary and secondary attacks. Most of these use Will, and cannot be used when it is depleted. When you pick up a toy, it completely refills your Will bar and sometimes you may find some of the weaker ones in certain places as an instant refill powerup. The toys that Alice may find are:

★ 'Vorpal Blade': Alice starts with nothing more than a slightly rusty, bloodsoaked knife which is named from the weapon in the poem Jabberwocky. This is the only weapon in the game that requires no Will to use.

★ 'Playing Cards': A deck of razor-sharp seeking projectiles that can be thrown like shuriken.

★ 'Croquet Mallet': When Alice's search for a new weapon brings her across a croquet mallet, the Cheshire Cat riddles her, 'When is a croquet mallet like a billy club? Whenever you want it to be!'. Accordingly, Alice starts using the mallet to bludgeon her enemies to pulp.

★ 'Demon Dice': Demon Dice can be used to summon a random demon ally, which will attack enemies, or Alice if there are none about.

★ 'Jackbomb': The Jackbomb is an explosive Jack-in-the-box, with a secondary firing mode that renders it a rotary, stationary flamethrower.

★ 'Ice Wand': The Ice Wand is an instrument that sprays an ice-cold substance (in a similar way to a flamethrower) that freezes enemies solid, or forms a wall of protective ice.

★ 'Jacks O' Death': This homing weapon's primary attack repeatedly pummels the target enemy.

★ 'Dead Time Watch': A pocketwatch that stops time, originally owned by the White Rabbit but stolen and improved upon by the Mad Hatter.

★ 'The Jabberwock's Eyestaff': A reputedly incomparably powerful weapon (second only to the secret and very draining Blunderbuss) the Jabberwock's Eyestaff is the only thing that can break open the gates to the Queen's kingdom, and Alice must collect the pieces scattered around Wonderland to reach the final showdown.

★ 'The Blunderbuss': The most powerful weapon in the game, but hidden as a secret weapon.

Power-ups

Besides collecting toys throughout the game, while in Wonderland, Alice may also receive various power-ups during her journey. These include:

★ 'Rage Box': An item which enables Alice to do twice as much damage to her enemies.

★ 'Grasshopper Tea': This particular item enables Alice to run faster, and jump farther.

★ 'Darkened Looking-glass': The Looking-glass allows Alice to turn invisible for a brief time.

Soundtrack

The sound and music add much to the atmosphere.
The voice acting and writing in has been commended; when acquiring the Rage Box, instead of hearing a soulless "You got a strength powerup!" the Cheshire Cat appears and comments "How fine you look when dressed in rage. Your enemies are fortunate that your condition is not permanent. And you're lucky too. Red eyes suit so few." Characters frequently talk in riddles, adding greatly to the Wonderlandian atmosphere.
The music creates an eerie and horrifying feel to the world Alice is in. One such example is in the "Skool Daze" level. The background music in Skool Daze is an innocent, yet creepy, lullaby. The soundrack of the level "Pale Realm", and, on the album "I'm Not Edible", features the melody of the chorus of a popular children's song, My Grandfather's Clock.
All of the music created for ''American McGee's Alice'' official soundtrack was written and performed by Chris Vrenna. Vrenna's soundtrack to the video game is fittingly twisted. Most of the sounds he used were created with toy instruments and percussion, music boxes (in a short documentary about the making of the game that appeared on TechTV, the music box used appears to be an antique Fisher-Price music box pocket radio), clocks, doors, and sampled female voices (including Jack Off Jill/Scarling. singer Jessicka) were manipulated into nightmarish soundscapes.
Marilyn Manson was originally involved early on in the game's production for scoring the music. ^[2] His work that he composed has been described by American McGee as "very cool" and having "a very beautiful Beatles-in-their-harpsichord-and-Hookah-pipe-days-sound to it." Manson's contributions persevered on into the final product, however, notably the influence of alchemy and the character of the Mad Hatter whose adaption was somewhat influenced by him; for a time it was considered for him to be his voice actor. ^[3] The music written may rematerialize in the future for Manson's own darkened perspective of the story of Alice, or rather its author, in his forthcoming film .
The following songs appear on the album release of the soundtrack, in this order:
# "Falling Down the Rabbit Hole" – 1:20
# "Village of the Doomed" – 3:35
# "Fortress of Doors" – 3:51
# "Fire and Brimstone" – 3:46
# "Wonderland Woods" – 3:59
# "The Funhouse" – 3:38
# "Skool Daze" – 4:10
# "Time to Die" – 3:55
# "I'm Not Edible" – 3:09
# "Taking Tea in Dreamland" – 3:44
# "Fungiferous Flora" – 3:35
# "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" – 3:46
# "The Centipede" – 3:31
# "Pandemonium" – 3:55
# "Flying on the Wings of Steam" – 4:35
# "Late to the Jabberwocky" – 3:17
# "Pool of Tears" – 4:08
# "Battle with the Red Queen" – 4:11
# "A Happy Ending" – 3:44
# "Flying on the Wings of Steam (Remix)" – 4:03
The background music in the game sounds somewhat different from the songs on the album. There are also tracks in the game that are missing on the album; such as the music from the "Dry Landing" level, and a completely new track; "Taking Tea in Dreamland". The album also goes out of order, as well. The original opening is not featured on the CD, however, some of the dialogue from it is in the first track, "Falling Down the Rabbit Hole".

Casebook

Included with the game is a casebook telling of Alice's stay in Rutledge Asylum. The casebook is written by Heirnymous Q. Wilson, Alice's doctor. It starts from November 4th, 1864, and ends August 24th, 1874. From this, we get a view of how Alice behaves while in the asylum, as well as when she visits Wonderland. The casebook includes several drawings, as well as a poem (which is split into several verses, told in different entries). By the end of the casebook, Dr. Wilson seems to be skeptical of Alice ever regaining her sanity; the penultimate entry reads:
''Sometimes, she appears to be so close, but at other times I'm certain it'll never happen and she'll spend the rest of her life housed behind Rutledge's gaunt brown walls...with me.''
The final entry of the casebook is the last verse in Alice's poem.
Connections can be made between the characters in the casebook and the ones Alice encounters in the game. It seems that the people Alice knows in reality are warped into people for her alter reality of Wonderland. For example, in the casebook Alice tells H.Q. Wilson that she "only takes tea with friends!" and in the game Alice yells the same phrase to the Mad Hatter. The two orderlies who torment Alice at Rutledge with their sadistic teasing and lascivious taunts are analogous to Tweedledum and Tweedledee. An incident in which she pursued one of the twin orderlies with a spoon and gave him a nasty gash is described. It is mentioned in a note in the margins that the twin orderlies are the Superintendent's nephews. When battling Tweedledum and Tweedledee she says "Despicable, grotesque and smelly louts, I'll fill your bellies all right!" in response to their taunts, which are of a similar nature to the type the orderlies at Rutledge hurled at her. Also, H.Q. Wilson describes a cat who seems to be quite protective of Alice, much like the Cheshire Cat in Wonderland. In fact, the cat Wilson describes stands on Alice "As if claiming property or territorial rights".

Movie Adaptation

In December 2000, director Wes Craven signed on to develop a film adaptation of the game, with screenwriter John August hired to adapt the game for the big screen. American McGee had begun negotiations with Dimension Films 10 months before, with the studio committing to the project before Craven's signing.^[4] In September 2001, August explained that he had turned in a script treatment for ''Alice'' and was not attached to develop fuller drafts for the film adaptation.^[5] In February 2002, Dimension Films signed brother screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber to write the screenplay for ''Alice''.^[6] In July 2003, the brothers announced that they had completed the script for the film adaptation.^[7]
In March 2004, the ''Alice'' project was moved from Dimension Films to 20th Century Fox.^[8] In June 2005, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to ''Alice''. The studio attached director Marcus Nispel to helm ''Alice'' with actress Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead role.^[9]

References

1. http://www.ritual.com/index.php?section=technology/overview
2. http://www.mansonusa.com/celebritarian/?page=3
3. http://www.americanmcgee.com/forum/index.php?topic=366.msg18101#msg18101
4. Wes Craven to Dark Wonderland
5. August Talks ''Alice''
6. Scribes Pegged for ''Alice'' Game-to-Film Adaptation
7. Games-to-Film Update: ''Alice'', ''Oz''
8. McGee Movie Update
9. Universal to put Gellar in Wonderland

External links

★ American Mcgee's Official Weblog, including forum and "Ask American" section.

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★ Down The Rabbit Hole

★ [ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/ea/misc/alice/trailer/alice_hi_m.mov Trailer for the Alice game, promoting storyline, on ea.com]

★ Trailer for the Alice game, promoting gameplay, on apple.com

★ Essay comparing American McGee's Alice with Alice in Wonderland

★ Website with original concept sketches of the Alice characters (near bottom of page).

★ A FAQ and Strategy guide for defeating the Alice bosses, as well as some other game hints.

★ All Music Guide review of the soundtrack