This time, I will be talking about the game called Alice Madness Returns, a spin-off from the well-known Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrolls. This game features a different story about Alice and her Wonderland and an entirely different attitudes and themes of her Wonderland.
The game takes place after Alice Liddell is released from a mental asylum and lives peacefully in Victorian London with a psychiatrist, Dr. Angus Bumby; however, memories of her lost family still hunts her and constantly drives her insane. One day, she gets into a trouble with Nurse Witless, who blackmails Alice for money. After an argument Alice sees Nurse Witless transforms into a Jabberwock and falls into the Wonderland. After she arrived in Wonderland, she finds her wonderland in chaos from the destruction of the Infernal Train. Alice, then, have to fight her way to the train in order to save herself and everyone in the Wonderland. Towards the end of the game, Alice learns that the Infernal Train is a result from Dr. Bumby's plan. Dr. Bumby feels that if he cannot fix Alice's mental problem, his reputations will fall, therefore, he decides to erase Alice's memory about her family, thus fixing her insanity. Alice, then, might kills Dr. Bumby.
I know that my above summary might sounds a little confusing; this is because there are many interpretations on the situations and many metaphoric elements which can describe the story differently.
Alice's Wonderland can be either a real magical land like in the original story, or hallucinations resulted from the mental breakdown due to the loss of her family. Her event with Nurse Witless might triggers a hallucination of a Jabberwock, thus creates a mental breakdown, which, to Alice, is returning to the Wonderland. The Infernal Train that tries to destroy the Wonderland is the result from Dr. Bumby's plan to destroys Alice's memories, which symbolizes that Wonderland is the representation of her sadness towards the death of her family. It can also means that the Wonderland symbolizes Alice's insanity and that Dr. Bumby's plan is actually fixing Alice's madness. In the last sentence of my summary paragraph, I said Alice "might" kills Dr. Bumby because the ending of the game is left unexplained by the developer. In the last scene, after Alice learnt about Dr. Bumby's plan, she meets with him in the underground train station. She, then, turns into her Wonderland dress and pushes Dr. Bumby in front of an incoming train, thus killing him. After she walked out of the station (with her Wonderland dress), she finds herself in the Londerland, the place where London and Wonderland have come together as one existence. This can be interpreted as two meanings. Alice might be having another enormous mental breakdown, creating hallucinations of her killing Dr. Bumby, which the Londerland might be an evident of her madness getting worse. Due to Dr. Bumby's surprise reaction when Alice turns into her Wonderland dress and many connections of the Wonderland and the real world, such as when Mad Hatter warns Alice about the fire in the asylum, might suggests that Wonderland is influencing the outside world and Dr.Bumby's death and Londerland are real and physical.
The game takes place after Alice Liddell is released from a mental asylum and lives peacefully in Victorian London with a psychiatrist, Dr. Angus Bumby; however, memories of her lost family still hunts her and constantly drives her insane. One day, she gets into a trouble with Nurse Witless, who blackmails Alice for money. After an argument Alice sees Nurse Witless transforms into a Jabberwock and falls into the Wonderland. After she arrived in Wonderland, she finds her wonderland in chaos from the destruction of the Infernal Train. Alice, then, have to fight her way to the train in order to save herself and everyone in the Wonderland. Towards the end of the game, Alice learns that the Infernal Train is a result from Dr. Bumby's plan. Dr. Bumby feels that if he cannot fix Alice's mental problem, his reputations will fall, therefore, he decides to erase Alice's memory about her family, thus fixing her insanity. Alice, then, might kills Dr. Bumby.
I know that my above summary might sounds a little confusing; this is because there are many interpretations on the situations and many metaphoric elements which can describe the story differently.
Alice's Wonderland can be either a real magical land like in the original story, or hallucinations resulted from the mental breakdown due to the loss of her family. Her event with Nurse Witless might triggers a hallucination of a Jabberwock, thus creates a mental breakdown, which, to Alice, is returning to the Wonderland. The Infernal Train that tries to destroy the Wonderland is the result from Dr. Bumby's plan to destroys Alice's memories, which symbolizes that Wonderland is the representation of her sadness towards the death of her family. It can also means that the Wonderland symbolizes Alice's insanity and that Dr. Bumby's plan is actually fixing Alice's madness. In the last sentence of my summary paragraph, I said Alice "might" kills Dr. Bumby because the ending of the game is left unexplained by the developer. In the last scene, after Alice learnt about Dr. Bumby's plan, she meets with him in the underground train station. She, then, turns into her Wonderland dress and pushes Dr. Bumby in front of an incoming train, thus killing him. After she walked out of the station (with her Wonderland dress), she finds herself in the Londerland, the place where London and Wonderland have come together as one existence. This can be interpreted as two meanings. Alice might be having another enormous mental breakdown, creating hallucinations of her killing Dr. Bumby, which the Londerland might be an evident of her madness getting worse. Due to Dr. Bumby's surprise reaction when Alice turns into her Wonderland dress and many connections of the Wonderland and the real world, such as when Mad Hatter warns Alice about the fire in the asylum, might suggests that Wonderland is influencing the outside world and Dr.Bumby's death and Londerland are real and physical.
I personally like this game because of it changes all the characters' looks and attitudes from the original Alice in the Wonderland. I also like this game because it takes the fairy-tales-like story and turns it into a horrifying story and theme. Here is the example of the new version of Cheshire Cat and the Card Guards.
Here is the concept arts of Red Queen and her castle.
Bibliography: http://alice.wikia.com/wiki/Alice_Wiki
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Wow. I'm intrigued by the fact that people, especially your age find this engaging and interesting. What a wild story line as well.
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