i am a huge fan of alice in wonderland, & when i finally got my hands on american mcgees alice & this one, i was very happy. i played through the 1st one & absolutley loved it. it was an amazing game & was a great take on wonderland. upon finishing it i immediatley started on the 2nd game. my reaction couldnt be more opposite.
this game is almost nothing like the 1st one. the 1st one was geared mostly toward thinking & puzzles, with a good amount of (fun) combat as well. the 2nd game is almost the opposite with a large amount of repetitive combat that isnt in the same style as the 1st games combat. you are reduced to 4 weapons in this game instead of 11, & fighting usually boils down to 'dodge at the right time & mash x' which is completely the opposite of the 1st games strategy based fighting.
the worst part however is the platforming. the 1st game had crafty & engaging levels that mixed platforming & puzzle together. many levels required thinking & analyzing to pass. in alice 2, the levels were mostly just annoying, & most of the 'puzzles' were you having to use alices shrink power to reveal invisible platforms to jump on (yes). when i 1st used the power i thought it was a 1 off thing but no. it was a constant thing in this 15 hour game. the bad platforming & stupid puzzles (most involve using the rabbit bomb to trigger a switch & you have to make it through the door on time before it blows up) led to a lot of cheap deaths. i felt like i was playing sonic forces at times with how many times i died. i would be having a decent time with the game & then just fall off & die & declare 'oh. died again' since i was so used to dying randomly.
the 1st game felt like wonderland, the enemies, weapons, locations, everything was all based on alice in wonderland. the 2nd game? not at all. the weapons were alright, but only 1 returned from alice 1. only 1 out of 11. the enemies were awful, basically every new enemy was a bunch of tar with a doll face, or some other form of a doll. only 2 enemies from the 1st game return & 1 of them is changed drastically.
the story was good but not like the 1st game & really had no reason to exist. alice left the asylum in the 1st game but now shes back? it reminds me of the star wars sequels, this game could have never been made & the story would be fine with just the 1st one.
it drags on for a while when it doesnt need to. many times i found myself saying 'can we end this already'. the only truly good or worth remembering part is giant alice, which isnt even that good.
i dont hate this game. its just way too different from the original & really is just annoying & a chore to play. maybe youll like it though. the 1st one is much better.