So, I've completed the game finally and...
The new Alice game is pretty fucking bad. Here's why.
1) Good:
- graphics are nice and have a distinctive atmosphere,
- combat is demanding and satisfactory most of the time, despite some serious technical problems (see below),
- level design in some sections is fun; sadly, these sections are in minority...
- game is long; too bad that most of it is damn boring.
And that's all I can think of, unfortunately...
2) Totally inexcusable:
- game-breaking bugs in final version of the game (umbrella bug),
- save mechanics: there's only an auto-save but it's shit: failing a jump brings you back to the nearest ledge (the one you started from) BUT failing a combat section (HP=0) sometimes forces you to repeat 20 minutes of gameplay; plus there's no "save on quit" feature, so at least a couple of times I had to replay a huge part of the level after quitting and then coming back to the game,
- caching mechanics: the game loads textures / assets very often, which unfortunately also means DURING jumps (you fail the jump and die) and/or timed events (time runs out); it may have something to do with me unlocking the 60 FPP next-gen feature, but I doubt it somehow,
- jumping mechanics: you can jump up to three times in a row + glide, but the mechanics is unresponsive, imprecise and clunky: you can never tell which combination of jump+glide (how many jumps and glides) certain jump requires - in many cases you have to fail a jump 2-3 times to realize what to do; and gameplay is 95% jumps...
- camera sometimes changes its position during long jumps (allowing you to "admire the art") - too bad that the devs did not realize that it means falling to death in most cases...
3) Simply bad:
- gameplay and level design is extremely linear/boring: jumping section, combat section, puzzle section - repeat at nauseam; and don't you faggots start with the "but it's a platformer, what more do you want?" shit - play Rayman 2 or Crash Bandicoot 1-3 or Psychonauts to see that platformers can have varied gameplay AND level design,
- level design prevents you from going back (one-directional sections, doors closing right behind you) - this plus auto-save feature makes looking for collectables/secrets a pain in the ass,
- the devs tried to rip-off 2 games in particular: Prince of Persia 2008 (gameplay consisting of jumping (95%) and combat (5%), "black ooze" enemies) and Psychonauts (collectibles, some level design). Too bad that both these games are much better than Alice 2...
- there's only one level I truly liked from the design perspective (#5 The Dollhouse) - others are just long corridors, where you have to move from point A to point Z,
- final level and final boss-fight were a total (unfunny) joke,
- shitty lock-on system: camera often chooses the worst possible position (you don't see shit and enemies can rape you) + switching enemies is totally unresponsive (you have to keep switching enemies till you lock on the desired one),
- bad collision detection: missing clearly accessible ledges during jumps, falling off the cliffs, etc,
- jumping platforms (the red ones) launch you straight up, instead of up + the direction you were moving when stepping on them (as in most of 3D platformers) - this makes long jumps very difficult (launch, glide, jump, glide, jump, glide... die - "Sorry, but the 3rd jump is currently not available".
- weapons are totally imbalanced: once you get the teapot cannon, the grinder becomes obsolete; on the other hand, the horsie is so slow that you'll be using it only to break the walls/obstacles - the knife is the only useful close-combat weapon,
- enemy encounters are imbalanced as well: some are extremely difficult, some are totally easy - there's no difficulty progression at all: combat in initial and final levels is quite easy, while the middle of the game (Oriental Grove) is IMO the most difficult,
- minigames are repetitive, recycled, uninteresting and totally detached from the regular gameplay; some of them are so bad (2D sections in "Oriental Grove", "stomping" sections in "The Queensland", "head" sections in "The Dollhouse") that you'll be praying for them to end ASAP,
- "playing some music piece" minigame: each section has 3 parts, and failing even a single tune forces you to restart the entire section - brilliant idea,
- "sliding down the slope" minigame: each section is damn long (and not particulary hard), but... Yeah - failing even the last fricking segment (Fuck year unexpected jump at the end!) means that you have to repeat the entire section.
- timed sections utilizing invisible platforms are fucking retarded. Period.
- plenty of invisible barriers and unreachable sections: many times I was trying to reach a ledge (looking totally reachable) only to fall and die - "Sorry mang, it's just a decoration this time. Lulz. The Devs. Don't forget to buy our next game!".
- writing and story are simply bad: totally convoluted, "artsy" and EXTREME - the game tries to be deep and mature and shit, but fails horribly,
To sum up, it's a 3D platform game, made by devs who don't have a slightest clue how to make a goddamn GAME (gameplay is more important than graphics). Not to mention a platformer (jump mechanics is the most important part of it), or a 3D platformer (making good jump mechanics in 3D is much more difficult to do than in 2D).
tl;dr
, would not bang again.