Alice: Madness Returns

Alice: Madness Returns in a psychological horror hack 'n slash game developed by Spicy Horse and published by Electronic Arts and is a sequel to American McGee's Alice and is part of the Alice Series. The game has players take control of Alice Liddell, a girl suffering from trauma caused by the death of her family in a fire, as she falls back into Wonderland, that's now been corrupted by an evil force. Alice: Madness Returns released on June 14th, 2011 to generally positive reviews.

## Plot

During an errand, Alice is struck by a hallucination and believes herself to be in Wonderland again. Though initially idyllic, the peaceful land quickly becomes corrupted by an entity called the Infernal Train that rampages through it, leaving behind the Ruin, a force that attempts to stop Alice. Alice meets with the Cheshire Cat who affirms that it is some outside force, not Alice, that has caused this corruption, and urges her to seek out former friends and foes to discover the source of the Train. Throughout the rest of the game, Alice briefly returns to reality between episodes occurring within Wonderland. In the real world, Alice learns from the family lawyer, Wilton J. Radcliffe, that her older sister, Elizabeth (nicknamed "Lizzie"), was first to die in the fire, despite being the farthest from its source, and had been locked in her room.

Within the corrupted Wonderland, Alice attempts to learn more from Wonderland's various citizens, including the Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse, the Mock Turtle, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the Caterpillar, and the White King. She is ultimately told that the Queen of Hearts still lives despite her defeat at Alice's hands before, though in a diminished capacity. At the Queen's castle, Alice discovers the Queen's true form, which resembles her younger self. The Queen reveals that an entity called the Dollmaker created the Infernal Train and is the one corrupting Wonderland.

Returning to London, Alice starts to recall her memories of the night of the fire and realizes that Dr. Bumby was there. He was responsible for the death of her sister and her whole family. She comes to the conclusion that Dr. Bumby is attempting to erase the memories of the fire from her mind and, as he has done with other children, trying to leave her (and the orphans) as "blank toys" to be taken by abusive masters and child molesters for a price. Furious, Alice confronts both Dr. Bumby in the real world at the Moorgate station and Dr. Bumby's Wonderland counterpart, the Dollmaker, in her fantasy on the Infernal Train. Dr. Bumby admits to his crimes, and even attests to setting Alice's home on fire after Lizzie refused his advances, removing any witnesses to having raped her that night. He points out that by wiping out her Wonderland, he will make her forget the events of that night, while he continues as a member of high society and secretly sells young children for prostitution. Alice defeats the Dollmaker in Wonderland, giving her the strength in the real world and in her mind to push Dr. Bumby into the path of an oncoming train, killing him.

As Alice leaves the station, she finds herself in a hybrid vision of London mixed with Wonderland, Londerland. Alice wanders into the unknown terrain as the Cheshire Cat monologues that Alice has found the truth that was "worth the pain fighting for", and Wonderland, though damaged, is safe for the time being