American McGee's Alice
A largely boring platformer saved by the bizarre world of the source material. Jumping feels floaty, though thankfully you can traverse a good amount of distance, great for skipping past combat encounters (although some are mandatory to open "combat" doors). Combat is pretty awful, not helped by the fact that you run out of ammo/mana pretty quickly. Also, toward the end of the game the platforming demands become more precise, which aren't helped at all by the floaty jump, no mid-air control, and enemies that can change your trajectory when you're in the air. The level design has some good variety, there are ridable platforms, lifts, swimming, climbing/swinging off vines, and some light environmental puzzle solving. They even play with gravity a bit in the more surreal levels. While I can give kudos to the platforming, I can't think of a good thing to say about the combat. Enemies drop health/mana a good few seconds AFTER they die, reminding me of the souls from Painkiller. Often I'd run out of ammo and die before I could net the hp/mana refill from enemies. As I said before, I'd often skip most encounters toward the end by just zipping around. There are some more bullshit levels toward the end that sour the experience more than it should: a crappy maze levels littered with respawning mobs, and a "puzzle" room that has you backtrack a few times before proceeding to the final boss. The finale is pretty awesome, the Queen looks great and the arena is pretty dope too! The game is pretty short, I must have finished it in two or three sessions.
The End Is Nigh
Another excellent precision platformer, this time more punishing than Super Meat Boy, as well as an impressive interconnected structure between levels. Rooms here have multiple exits that often yield secrets, or offer keys needed to progress further in the world. Very neat how the game does this organically without much signalling at all. I had a great time with the main campaign. Often challenging, frustration is kept at bay thanks largely to the instantaneous respawn time. I loved the twist toward the end where you had a number of stock lives, and the very finale was a wonderful sendoff. I dabbled a bit with the side, ultra-hard content, but found myself content with just completing two of them as they have much harsher levels and conditions. Namely that you have a small stock of lives/or you have to complete the series of maps in one life. Still, I appreciate their inclusion b/c you unlock them by exploring the world for those alternative exits. As a minor complaint, I wish we could choose which level to spawn into instead of spawning on the first level of every world. I'm no completionist so it doesn't affect me so much, but I could see how someone would be even more annoyed that they have to play through each world up to a certain point to start looking for missed exits/secrets.
Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns ranks among the best sequels I've seen. I'm so glad to see the team make good and delivering what is an excellent platformer with much improved combat and responsive movement mechanics. I loved the simple flow of weaving between platforming>combat>secret searching>puzzles/minigames. My only nitpick with the secrets is that they typically funnel you down hallways/corridors before you reach the item in question. Another critique, though this is a more personal pet peeve when it comes to 3D platformers, is that the game has a tendency to wrest control of the camera from you upon entering new rooms to show you its layout. I get it's meant to orient the player, but for fuck's sake let ME explore it myself. Thankfully I got in the habit of just mashing the spacebar to skip this, though sometimes it also meant skipping some dialogue/enemy intros. Aesthetically, the game is gorgeous. Environments are wonderful, just like in the first game, you're in for a treat. The campaign is also quite lengthy, clocking it at around 10 hours for my playthrough. I enjoyed the platforming very much, Alice here controls much like Peach does in Mario Bros 2, she has a generous triple jump with a hover. The combat is also better than average, featuring blocking, parrying, and dodging. They've done away with the mana bar and instead your projectiles are governed by a cooldown. In sum, this is a remarkable sequel and definitely stands as one of the finest 3D platformers I've had the pleasure of playing.
strengths
-crazy variety of maps, living up to the source material
-voice acting, music, character models is all top notch
-combat is much improved and controls are responsive
-nice inclusion of puzzles/minigames
weakness:
-camera preview bullshit 3D platformers do
-many secrets force you through boring corridors
-most of the secret rooms to increase max health are just boring combat gauntlets/could have used more puzzles here
-the lock on camera becomes a mess when trying to switch between enemies when swarmed
-the slide minigame has poor feel, they were going for the Mario 64 slide level but it feels like you get stuck in mud here, also repeats too often
