The installation of the
game from CD ran smoothly under Windows ME. Approx. 145 MB disk space is needed. On the
same CD is also the Mac version. At the beginning you are asked to input your name. There
is only one savegame under a name. However you can always determine, when you would like
to save a game. Alice is represented by a real young actress, who must look about in an
artificial surreal world. At the beginning Alice falls ever
deeper and deeper. The game begins from the start, until the gamer detects, that Alice
must be stopped by the gamer at a special level indicated in meters, in order to arrive in
the game itself. Alice reaches a location with many doors and can still see, how the
lamenting white rabbit disappears behind one of them. The game interface and controls were
not intuitive or easy to learn for me - I had to use the small manual, in order to find my
way.
"Alice in Wonderland" is totally mouse-controlled.
Hotspots on the screen are not made clear by texts, however the cursor transforms into a
small hand and usually the object under th mouse moves, makes noises or speaks to Alice,
e.g. the bottle with liquid, which can be found in each screen, is entreating "Drink
me, drink me!" If you click on an object, an action is executed immediately or as
with the bottle, Alice shrinks. Other items are taken up by clicking and must be stored in
the inventory.
The scrollable inventory is hiding at the top of the screen. If you
click on an always visible hook, it will open. Here you can also quit or save the game. If
you click on "Save", a saving window appears for a short time - if you don't
click fast enough, it again disappears without saving. Unfortunately, when you have
collected several objects, you later can't no longer detect exactly, what they're meant to
be. This can be disturbing later in the game, if you e. g. want to compose different
ingredients after a recipe and now don't know, what the many items actually are supposed
to represent.
Also positioned in the inventory/navigation bar is a button to
switch on/off the music. Since those surreal orchestra sounds were sometimes very nerving
(first of all, if you were stuck in the mini games), a surely praise-worthy function. In
the center of the inventory bar you find the face of the helpful cheshire cat. You can
click on its grin and than pull it over the screen. If its muzzle gets eyes, you can click
with it on certain objects and it gives verbal assistance.
You can also call up a map, on which the so far visited locations
and games are displayed. From there you can move fast from place to place. From time to
time you can move Alice to another screen by clicking on the inserted arrows - thus you
can scroll. If Alice wants to enter a new location, then she must go from the starting
screen through one of the doors or select a location in the map. Some of the doors are too
small, so that Alice must shrink herself with the magic drink. If she again wants to
modify her size, then she must eat one of the cookies lying around in each screen (by the
way, the so-called cookies rather look like crispy rolls).
Beside clickable objects there are also often interlocutors, who
assign tasks to Alice and often have very much to tell. Also Alice gives helpful comments
by herself, if you click on the girl. In 3rd person perspective we control our heroine in
a two-dimensional surreal fairy tale world. The game consists of 10 different sceneries,
from which you can reach further locations. If you arrive in another scenery, e.g. the
house of the rabbit, then you can watch the game characters in animations as helpful
stagehands shifting the window blinds and a curtain closes and opens. These animations are
the most beautiful part of the game - in 3D and actually also very humorous.
In each scenery there are items to find and Alice must often modify
her size or solve puzzles of the most different types.
Often these mini games require good reaction, so that children will
probably progress here faster than their parents. So e.g. you must complete a crocket game
with a flamingo as racket and a hedgehog as ball. Among other things you have to assemble
proverbs with the kitchen personnel or correctly build together a clock. With the five
o'clock tea of the hatter you have to evaluate the predicates of the dishes correctly. In
order to save the Knave of Hearts finally from court, all puzzles must be solved and a
large number of objects must be collected. When preparing a meal that one can select from
a recipe book, Alice must add the correct ingredients and process the preparation
correctly.
Always the puzzles and functions are quite easy, however the
handling and execution are sometimes not evident. Falling down multi coloured mushrooms
e.g. had to be assembled. Here I had to use the solution on CD as assistance, since it was
not clear, how the mushrooms were to be controlled technically.
As previously mentioned, the graphics consists of a genuine actress
for Alice, who has to interact with objects other animated creatures within a partly real,
partly drawn scenery. The actress has no great vocabulary, usually we see her as a
complete person in the profile. When she has to wait, she yawns from time to time or
shrugs toward the gamer.
Sometimes she is cut in as close-up in a corner of the screen. When
she speaks to other characters there is no lip-synchronicity, which is particularly
noticeable in the close-ups.
If she takes up an item, then you don't really see that she is doing
it, it's only suggested or the magic drink simply comes flying to Alice and then
disappears completely and Alice makes only a pantomime, as if she drinks it. So the
graphics are not convincing, especially if you compare them to other games, where real
actors must interact with an invented environment.
The high quality 3D animated sequences suited me and also the
credits movie, in which the real development team introduces itself. In the animations a
bit of the fantastic, fairy taleful atmosphere became visible while the game comes rather
dry and without suspense.
Conclusion
The game is only limited recommendable for parents and children in
my opinion. The handling is complicated and in many places you'll ask yourself, what you
can actually do, in order to master the actually easy tasks. The graphics look a bit
unprofessional and the animation of the main actress was single-laned and little
interesting. Except for a few sequences I had the feeling that it would be better to read
the book.
However I am not sure, whether one could complete the book in a
period of 4 hours, as the game. Additionally in this game, expressly defined as
edutainment adventure, the learning part is missing to me. Even if "Alice in
Wonderland" is a governed supported game (in the French version) that will probably
still reap a prize here and there - a beautiful retail box, some good animations and three
or four interesting puzzles and tasks do not justify probably a price of 35 Euro.
