I promise the 3rd game will have the salsa but not the fish.

EA: Why do people pirate games? *Makes it impossible to get this game normally* EA: I wonder what it could be?

End Boss: " You cannot defeat me. I am all powerful!" Main Character: "I am going to defeat you through the power of believing in myself... And this gun I found."

I was hoping Tim Burton’s Alice would be like this game. It was not.

Publisher demands that American McGee's name is used in the title of the game for marketing reasons. American McGee objects, because he acknowledge that making the game is a team effort of the staff and not just his invention. What a legend.

Me in the year 2000: "Wow, a gun in a magic game? This sucks" Me in the year 2021: "Sometimes magic just isn't enough and what the witch character really needs is a .50"

I highly appreciate the fact you killed the Jabberwock with the vorpal blade.

Unfortunately, as of April 2023, American McGee has retired from game development to focus on his family. And EA decided to refuse McGee's offer for "Alice: Asylum". They're also keeping the copyright to the Alice series if you were on the fence about hating that absolute abomination of a game company.

Watching Civvie is like watching a "Where are they now?" segment on the original Doom developers. I wonder when he'll do one on 4th dimensional being, John Carmack?

"This would have given me nightmares if I'd played it as a child." - Having played it as a child when it came out... Can confirm.

"The problem with making a dark and disturbing version of Alice in Wonderland is that it's pretty dark and disturbing to begin with, which gives it little training wheels that help cultural firebrands ride it into geniusdom once every eighteen months or so. Masterminding a trippy reinterpretation of Lewis Carroll is like making a version of Crazy Traxi, only crazy!"

R.I.P. Alice. May we see you again one day. And fuck EA.

EA: * shoots American McGee's Alice* EA: why would piracy do this?

Everybody is talking about American McGee's Alice and I can't complain at all

It's amazing how good this game still looks for something from the year 2000. Art style and design go a long way

There is actually find Blunderbuss near Humpty Dumpty in Caterpillar's Plot revisit. If you found it here, before the end fight, it takes less rounds to kill the Red Queen.

Civvie: Shows scenes from Strife but refuses to comment. Ross: *while tapping fingertips maniacally* Good. Good.

"these tentacles are somehow doin' this" 'deformVertexes bulge' is actually a standard feature of Quake 3's shader system. It's used in at least one of Quake 3's maps. It's just not used very often because it's CPU intensive.

I cannot imagine how scary John Carmack was when he was firing people out of anger

Was that Alice with a gun animation synced to the drums of Judas Priest's Painkiller? lol

It’s weird seeing a sewer level without the count.

Remember to Thank Katie for including music credits over the video. Games soundtrack deserves all the praise it gets.

Man, I remember always thinking Alice looked REALLY edgy and try-hard every time I saw footage or screenshots of it, especially the "ooooh she's craAaAAAazy" angle, but looking at it now it's honestly kinda cool. It's a neat spin on Wonderland as an active mental safe space for Alice that gets turbo fucked-up after a traumatic experience, and it's neat to think that not even her silly fantasy world could be safe after something that scarring. To portray the game world as Alice actively taking back her mind and finding the strength to forgive herself is kinda cool. And like you said, while it should be cringy as hell in theory, the execution saves the concept and elevates it to a fun, horror twist on the original story that's FAR more Burton than the real Burton take on Alice in Wonderland. Kinda sad rlly how badly Tim fucked that up

"I feel really stupid giving EA money for a game they don't even wanna acknowledge exists." Well boy doesn't that one sting a little harder now.

So happy Civvie referenced John Romero's "Hi Sandy, hope you're doing well. This is actually incorrect." tweets. I don't know why they're so funny to me

The decisions EA chooses to make really upsets me. I don't understand why they don't release the optimized game for purchase on Origin. I worked for EA from 2007-2012 and in one of the lobbys of their buildings they have life-sized statues of the original Alice and Cheshire cat. They were awesome and I kept asking people if I could buy them, but they would always decline.

Seeing this is kinda making me hope Civvie does the Legacy of Kain series.

The soundtrack for this game is burned into my mind, its awesome. Composed by Chris Vrenna, who was a drummer for NIN as well as working on music for Doom Eternal DLC. This game has a soundtrack like nothing else. Definitely listen to the OST.

It's the kind of intresting, creative and stylistic game John Romero wishes he'd made. American McGee is probably the most underrated Id guy after maybe Sandy Petersen when it comes to leveldesign.

The rant about EAs sacrificial practices is the best thing ever put on KZfaq. Thank you for not ever holding back Civvie.

I really miss the pre-mesh era of games. When they went all out, it showed, and it was great.

"Intelligent flak cannon" I've heard all I need. Civvie remains the best.

"bad map design ideas?" -john carmac, holding his power back in 1998 to not evicerate that man

"It's all in the reflexes" - Jack Burton *Moments after yeeting a knife*

One of my favorite touches in the game are the idle animations. Every weapon in the game has at least 3 idle animations that play after a while (She'll put her hand to her waist first). Some of the ones I remember clearly are: Vorpal Blade: Tests the edge, gives a few practice slashes or spins the blade on her fingertip, flips it in the air and catches it. Cards: Does a magic trick by pulling a card from the deck and makes it vanish and reappear, or throws a card in the air where it will either land back in the deck or in her head and she pulls it out. Ice Wand: She'll place it under her arm to check her nails and it will go off behind her (not wasting will), she'll freeze the ground directly in front of her, and test the spot, falling down on her rear. As said I remember there being at least 3 per weapon, and they're really slick. The blunderbuss could have less, I'm not sure, should check into that. Also the demo for the game has an intro exclusive to it, and the trailer that plays at the end is kickass.

Just in case anyone missed the news, the 3rd Alice game's funding has been rejected by EA and they are not willing to sell or license it either.

"An I had to install origin". This man is the hero none of us deserve.

It's alright Civvie, I also felt sick when I had to install Origin just to play Titanfall 2.

I blame this game and the Coraline film for jumpstarting my love for horror at a young age, and I will always love them for that.

Wow, the graphics and visual design of this game actually blow me away. That underwater section with the lights coming through the broken ceiling, the bubble particles, etc is just awesome.

One line I always remember from the Cheshire Cat isn't even in the game itself, but is still recorded in the files, "I can't know everything, pretend you're an ophan. That was rude, you are!" The delivery of that line, Jesus! That was cold!

I am sure that blunderbuss can be found before the fight with the queen, it is somewhat hidden in the beginning of the last level if I remember correctly

"I can't wait to see Alice Asylum!" Yeah uh, about that...

ah man, you completely missed a secret over in that area you get the first piece of the staff. when you return there after beating the jabberwocky, you can find a hidden nook with a blunderbuss in it. real handy for dealing with clumped up enemies, if they're packed tight enough it's the most efficient will-using weapon in the game. besides maybe the staff if you release the button immediately after charging.

Civvie, in all seriousness you've been my favorite KZfaqr since I discovered you over a year and a half ago, and I just want to say thanks for all the entertainment and here's to many more years of it. Cheers buddy!

A masterpiece of design and style. Was wondering if you'd tackle this one.

I played this back in like 2002=03 when I was 7-8 years old. The idea of a dark gothic twisted version of Alice in Wonderland amazed me as a kid and still does. Chesire Cat has my favorite VA of the game by far.

Alice was packaged with Clive barker's undying, which was also a great game. Hours and hours of fun with both of those games. Ridiculously underrated. I even have a tattoo of the Cheshire cat from American McGee's Alice because of my fond memories of it.

Watching Civvie having fun and smiling at his reactions Is so wholesome. I mean fucking hell, ir's a game made by an experienced and talented team, and the soundtrack is made by one of the members of NIN WHAT not to like in this game??

29:25 Nice try, Civvie, but you're not sneaking Painkiller past me.

I played through this game once. In spite of the fact that I had a bug in the UI where the Sanity and Will bars were centred on the screen I still finished it. Which probably says quite a bit of how good it was.

watching this in April 2023 knowing Alice Asylum will never be... well it hurts.

There were so many great PC games released around this time. Very stiff competition. Alice got somewhat overlooked among the other heavy-hitters, but it's definitely a worthy game from this era.

29:24 "Its not a gun unless you can pound out the opening of Painkiller with it" ~Civvie (probly not verbatim)

The amount of times the sound track of this game has kept me alert and awake during a night shift gives me eternal gratitude to the creators. Madness Returns as well.

Amazing! This is the only crazy game I know where I can seriously state that I'll be killing an "Eldritch Guilt Cancer" inside of my character's head and have it be true. Great review as always Civvie!

Man I loved this game growing up. My Dad would watch me play and just laugh at the weird creepy characters. It kinda scared me because I was so young but I loved that it connected my Dad and I. Such amazing atmosphere, level designs, and just outright spooky! Love it!

That Big Trouble in Little China reference complete with custom-made subtitle was on point.

I swear, every single old school game I absolutely loved always had Looking Glass employees involved somehow. Also, the amount of talent and creativity that went into this game is amazing.

One of my favourite games of all time - I even bought the Chris Vrenna soundtrack. Thanks for reviewing it Civvie!

This was one of my favourite games growing up. Pirated it off some shady website, as you do in a post-soviet country, and played it for months (and the sequel as well!). Great to see a video on it!

Civvie knows about Romero passive aggressively trolling Sandy when he fucks up doom facts lmao!

I genuinely loved this game when I was a kid. I'm glad it's getting more exposure because you can tell it was made with a ton of passion.

Man, I remember playing this as a kid and the ending was satisfying and straight to the point. Gameplay and style itself freaked me the hell out and still does, that one scene where Chester gets killed made me scared as a kid lol. Great seeing Alice is still being talked about especially knowing there’s a new one coming soon :)

I don't know why everyone, as a matter of simple decorum and good practice, doesn't list a music track when they begin to play it in a video. Kudos.

I find it interesting that the explosion sounds in this game are the same as the shooting sound for the .44 Handgun in Soldiers of Fortune made by raven software.

I appreciate that lil' thing at 29:25 Even if that weapon fires an alarmingly slow bullet. The screams in the game are deff terrifying though.

Honestly, the only weapons I really used while playing this game were the knife, ice wand, and eye staff. Once you get the ice wand, you're pretty much overpowered enough to make quick work of most enemies. I'd still tend to use the knife when dealing with enemies that were further away, since it could handle most within 1-2 hits. The eye staff was basically a stronger long-ranged ice wand, which made it pretty much pointless to use anything else once I obtained it. I played the game on normal difficulty though, so can't say if this is a good way to play on a higher difficulty level.

Kind of ironic this game is hard to find now. When it was released, copies of it were around _everywhere_ in every game store, for years afterwards. It got to the point where I only picked it up because I figured "they keep selling it, so it has to be good". (it was)

To me this game was Heretic 2.2 - has very similar feel to a lot of the gameplay. I love this game as much as H2. Love both very much.

I had literally no interest in this game but I just couldn’t skip a Civvie video. Turned out to be one of my favourite videos ever. Never change CV-11!

Would love Gore Verbinski to do a movie of Alice; Sounds like a match made in heaven.

You know this makes me think that i wouldn't mind seeing Civvie play the old 3D Castlevania games.

Well, theres a lot of game I thought you'd cover. Alice was not one of them. Ever. Well done, Civvie. I love both of the Alice games, even with all their jank.

Yet another victim of EA, serial killer of the games industry. R.I.P. American McGee's Alice series. You were my favorite take on the corruption of childhood fables. If you want to feel even more depressed, give the art book a once-over.

Now that you've made the mention of Psychonauts, I really hope you do a review/pro playthrough at some point; still one of my all-time favorites.

"True words and logic rarely defeat evil intent." Timeless words.

*"Katie find a picture of him without a whip so it isn't weird"* Katie : **puts on the picture of Master Igarashi with a whip anyway* What a gangsta lol 28:31 Yep this game could make any children cry non stop. It's perfect xD

EA's handling of Alice feels a symptom of the same issue that makes them release DA: Inquisition on Steam and every review is full of praise except all the ones complaining that the game doesn't work because the Steam/Origin integration is a tad borked. It's a lack of agility. A lack of granular prioritization. We can only hope the right people within EA hear and can make a difference.

Apparently, Alice: Asylum is supposed to release this Halloween.

Alice: "I'll-tempered, smokes too much, disagreeable smell" Civvie: "I feel attacked!"

The finally level is exactly like Half Life. Some eldrich horror, in a space void with floating platforms and having to circle around collecting health packs and ammo for your projectile based weapon to defeat it. Wow.

No more Alice Asylum. EA killed the dream. Thank you McGee for all of your hard work and everyone else involved. At the very least we have a PDF of the BEAUTIFUL design bible. I heavily encourage anyone reading this to read it. Really shows what could've been.

The first 4 minutes of this video - pure Civvie savageness! Brutal! This is how every Civvie video should be

I'm so glad you liked this one Civvie. Honestly it's an underrated gem.

25:36 "It's all in the reflexes" Gotta love a Kurt Russel reference

I already hated EA, but after the news today, im frothing.

American McGee's Alice was THE DOPEST and most visually trippy game of the time. I played it on an AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) with a Geforce 2 GTS. And it was great from beginning to end. It stands out in my mind with the likes of Max Payne. It was just amazing. Great story, great visuals, great artwork, great art style and it doesn't follow the book the way so many spin offs of Alice in Wonderland do. No, this game reinvents it while making it fresh and exciting. It was one of the best games of the year and for a few years after. Anyone from that time period should remember the game whether they liked it or not.

I remember when I was little my brother got this and Clive Barker's Undying in a dual package. I didn't make it too far in Undying but I played a TON of this and watching this is bringing up lots of good memories :)

It's amazing what we took for granted back then. Back then, this was honestly just another game. Who knew that things would get so samey and boring in the future that we'd be looking back on games and movies from this era as masterpieces.

This game was one hell of a ride, I’m glad Civvie is finally covering it!

Love the obscure Fear and Loathing references. I haven't seen many of your videos, but the other one I caught was the line from the high water mark monologue.

"Throw a knife in their face" If any game could be a great remaster or a remake this is it.

I'm glad this game is getting more attention this and madness are just a joy to experience!

It's insane how vividly I remembered this game when I was 7 years old when my dad played it. Im definitely gonna get this emulated on my phone.

Want some mega-irony about the Activision joke? The reason the Mad Hatter has the Symbol of Mercury as his logo is that before they got Chris Vrenna to do the soundtrack, they wanted Marilyn Manson to both do the soundtrack and play the Hatter, and he had a weird thing about that symbol at the time (I'm not Nick Kushner, explaining that would take way too long).

Having a mentally unstable Alice use weapons that are as a whole generally tricky, kinda impractical, but immensely powerful is honestly pretty fitting and cool

One of my favourite games that I keep picking up after all these years from time to time. Yourself & Gmanlives covering it (within two weeks :) is a real treat!

15:20 Not every platformer has shitty ice physics in their ice levels thankfully. Good examples are Tomb Raider 2, Tomb Raider 3, Legend & Underworld, Sonic 2006, Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast, 1998 version), A Hat in Time and Blinx 2: Battle for Time & Space. The latter does have ice physics but unlike the first Blinx game the ice physics aren’t terrible.

Part of me wants “Actionable pun detected” to be written on my tombstone.