Every once in a while, a truly unique vision enters the gaming sphere that extends well beyond it. And while there have been some dark versions of Alice in Wonderland, and let’s face it, the original story could easily be interpreted as very dark, the one that stands head and shoulders above the rest is 2000’s “American McGee’s Alice” and it’s sequel “Alice: Madness Returns“
Rini: Um, the first one came out in 2000?
Yeah.
Rini: I was thinking it was like 2007, 2008. I just think I’m basing it off of what I saw for cosplay.
Right.
American McGee was previously best known for his work at id Software as a level designer and music manager on games such as Ultimate DOOM, DOOM 2, Quake and Quake 2.
Rini: Now that begs the question, did he have as glorious hair as, oh, what’s his name? Now my brain doesn’t remember his name.
John Romero.
Rini: John Romero, wasn’t Carmack, like it’s the other John. Did he have as long, luscious hair as Romero?
No, not really, there’s pictures.
Rini: Okay, that’s the important question.
After being fired from id, McGee ended up wanting to work on a game that didn’t involved space marines, big guns, and aliens. After some different concepts, he and his team brought out their own unique vision of Alice in Wonderland using a modified id Tech 3 game engine, previously used in “Quake 3 Arena” and specifically the game “Heavy Metal FAKK 2”… I’ll get to that one eventually. EA insisted on putting American McGee’s name in the title for branding purposes, despite McGee’s protests.
The first game deals with an 18 year-old Alice, the sole survivor of a fire that claimed her family’s lives, having spent 10 years in an insane asylum where she ends up trying to save Wonderland as a stand-in for her own fractured psyche. Despite being 24 years old, this game still holds up remarkably well. The age of the game engine actually does the game some favors with its otherworldly appearance. It is unfortunate that EA does not currently make this game available on it’s game stores anymore and I had to resort to sailing the seven seas to get a PC version.
Rini: Yarr!
Because it is a Quake engine game, the mods are much easier, just insert the modded pk3 file into the Base directory in Alice’s game folder.
The first is “Topless Alice“ by our old friend Denadin. These are actually 2 different skins. One is called “Pink Party Dress“, which recolors Alice’s dress to a hot pink with white accents and an exposed bustline. It also changes her hair to blonde. The second skin is “Black Maid’s Outfit“. This mod has Alice’s hair changed to short & black, but also gives her a very short skirted Maid’s Outfit with white stockings as well as a little hat for her head. This is a more drastic mod and it shows because you need to play this mod from the start and cannot insert it into the game midway. It also doesn’t appear in her mirror correctly and some of her movements cause the model to break slightly as her legs will detach from her skirt.
Rini: Now, will those legs run away? That’s the fun question, because that would be a little more on-brand for Wonderland.
Also, when she talks, the hat moves more with her skirt than her head.
Rini: Also would be cool if the hat started talking.
There is that. That would be very Alice.
Rini: Yeah.
Secondly is “Alice Nude Barmaid skin” by =CHaoZRa¥= (ChaosRay). This is a simple mod, which just alters Alice’s bodice, exposing her breasts underneath.
Rini: Boobies.
Otherwise, the character texture is largely unchanged.
Rini: Boobies.
Then we get to 2011’s Alice Madness Returns.
Rini: Now, this might be why I’m thinking Alice came out in 2010, because all the cosplay girlies wearing the Alice costumes, carrying the knife and stuff like that, is that where it came from? Was this one, maybe, and not the original Alice game?
Possibly, because I will look it up later, but I’m not sure that there was any sort of console release for the original Alice game.
Rini: Oh, yeah, but “Alice: Madness Returns“, that was console. I remember that.
That was console.
Rini: Yeah, okay, see, that makes sense.
Which takes place a year after the previous events with the now-19 year-old Alice. Unlike the first game where Alice spent the entire time in Wonderland, Alice now spends time in ‘reality’, which is a rather depressing and filthy Victorian London. With new clues about her family’s death, she must spend time in both worlds attempting to find answers before Wonderland, and her mind, are completely destroyed. While a much more beautiful rendition than the previous game, thanks to the Unreal 3 Engine, it also holds up very well in solid graphics and gameplay for something made over 13 years ago, again, benefiting from the unique art style. Fortunately, this game is still for sale on EA’s Game Store.
The story, themes, and artwork are definitely more adult than the last game and I feel the need to address that, given we’re dropping nude mods into it.There are themes of sexual exploitation throughout the game, whether it be the street prostitutes plying their trade on the streets or references that Alice herself might end up ‘selling her backside’ if not for the efforts of others.
Rini: “Would you like to push the quim? You look like you have a lot for pushing.”
Even in Wonderland, the appearance of the nude, but featureless, geisha statues shows up with the mixture of Victorian fetishization of all things “Oriental”.
Rini: Mmm, we know what we think about that.
And then there is the storyline with Dr. Bumby, which, on top of what the story tells, also harkens back to controversies about Lewis Carroll and rumors of inappropriate relationships with the real Alice Liddell, or more likely, her older sister Lorina
(In the game, Alice had an older sister named Elizabeth, or Lizzie)
or the family’s governess, all of which the Dodgson estate denies.
Rini: You know, maybe he was banging everybody. You never know. Maybe the man got around. It was the Victorians. I thought Alice was like 11 or 12, and then her sister Lorena was in her late teens, I thought. 16 is when they are presented, and they are old enough to be betrothed at 17 and then wed at 18 for families of substance.
I would need to double check, but I wanna say Alice was about closer to like eight or nine.
(Screen Text: Alice was 10 years old).
Rini: Oh, okay. But I know Lorena was older.
Yeah, she was older.
Rini: Because I think she was in society. Which would have made her eligible for any man to date. Modern sensibilities aside, once a girl is in society, then she is eligible to any man, as horrific as that sounds.
Still, it’s noteworthy that all of the sexual connotations in the game are very negative, which fits for the time period.
Rini: Like a hand crank vibrator. Think about that, ladies.
But in Wonderland, Alice is powerful, beautiful, and far more in control than in the real world, and that includes her sexuality, expressed as she wishes to, not what Dr. Bumpy or others in the real world try to force her into.
Rini: Okay, here’s a question then. When did “Sucker Punch” come out? Because that’s an interesting thing about a woman’s psyche being destroyed and being beautiful and powerful. And it’s just a counterpoint to “Sucker Punch“, which if it had a good director, it could have been a really interesting story. Instead it had, was it Zack Snyder?
I think it was a Zack Snyder film. Zack Snyder is a good action director, everything else.
(Screen Text: Zack Snyder was the director and co-writer).
Rini: Yeah, it’s just a weird fetish thing that he put on film, but it could have been a really interesting statement on women and sex and power, but no. So I’m kind of curious as to where these two coincide time-wise, because “Sucker Punch” did make it quite a big splash. Anyways, back to more video game things.
The main hiccup for the mods is the requirement to use TexMod, which I’ve expressed my disdain for in the past.
Rini: Booo, TexMod.
Well, having to use it for this game did no favors to my overall opinion, though it was easier than past attempts. As with before, you have to place TexMod in the game folder, rename it to the game’s exe name, while renaming the game’s exe to something different, run TexMod, link it to the game, load each mod, then launch the game from TexMod. As mentioned before, sometimes the game won’t run and other times it will make the game unstable and cause it to crash, so be warned. Also as a side note, it made capturing footage a pain, because the game capture software would focus on the static TexMod panel rather than the game. I resorted to using my streaming software OBS to record footage.
The package for the nude mods is simply called “Alice Nude” by Gutchi. It contains several different outfits to match the various outfits that Alice wears throughout the game. Sadly, not all of the outfits are modified, so the Asian-inspired Silk Maiden, the card-themed Royal Suite, and the dollish Misstitched are unchanged.
Rini: See, that seems a waste of potential right there.
There is also only one that you could call ‘nude’, the “Alice_FullNudeV2“, which replaces her default Wonderland outfit, exposing her breasts in a half-cup black bra
Rini: Boobies!
as well as rendering her panty-less, giving her thigh-highs with garters instead of full tights. The second version “Alice_FullNudeV2_EDIT“, gives her an extremely short mini-skirt, leaving the garters in full view.
Rini: But what about her panties?
No panties.
Rini: No panties.
This also leads to another problem. The character model is not fully-rendered and when Alice jumps or the player-controlled camera focuses up her skirt, you will see her hips are not visibly attached to her torso, just a clear, blank space. Just a warning so you aren’t surprised when you first see it.
Alice also has two versions of her Realworld outfit. The first, “Alice_RealWorld“, shortens her skirt, but she does have modern panties underneath, unlike the bloomers normally worn in that time period.
Rini: You know, I gotta say, the bloomers are actually pretty comfortable. Just putting that up.
The second version, “Alice_for_Realworld“, or simply “for Realworld“, shortens her skirt much more extremely, removes her underwear and changes her face texture so she looks more like her Wonderland avatar.
Rini: But is there just a void now? Or is it because there’s panties?
They all have the void.
“Steam_mini_Skirt_nude_Outfit” changes up the Steam Dress from the Hatter’s level, also with an extreme mini skirt and no underwear.
“Sirene_mini_Skirt” alters the underwater Siren outfit, again with an extreme mini-skirt and no underwear.
“Hysterie” is one you might rarely see, as it alters the costume Alice wears when going into her invincible “Hysteria” mode. As with the others, extreme mini-skirt and no underwear.
The last outfit, “Alice_Hattress” is an alteration of a DLC exclusive dress that is not standard to the game, though altering a config file to unlock the DLC content is not difficult, I just didn’t find out until well after doing the original captures for this game. Same as the others, short skirt and no underwear. Unfortunately, this is the only alteration of any of the DLC dresses.
And while this rather old nude mod is the only one available, there is some hope on the horizon. A modding utility called “UPK Explorer for UE2-UE3” has made the scene, offering a new set of tools for a variety of games and one of the games it is fully compatible with is “Alice: Madness Returns“, as well as being partially compatible with games like the Bioshock series & the Batman Arkham games. So hope springs eternal.
Rini: Uh, Arkham was done on Unreal?
Mm-hmm.
Unfortunately, this might be the only games of this version of Alice. While American McGee worked to develop a new game, named Alice: Asylum, doing a complete game bible and presentation, EA turned him down and has stated they have no plans to continue the Alice franchise in the foreseeable future. And we wonder why AAA gaming seems to be in trouble.
Rini: EA, fuck up everything.
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Rini: Cha-ching!
where you can get alerts of upcoming reviews and listen to extra content. Otherwise, join me on joystick.tv/u/beelzerog on Tuesdays at 8pm Mountain Time to watch me play adult and modded games now with my new talking avatar.
Rini: It’s really cute.
And remember we have our own website at beelzerog.com, now complete with a web store for merchandise.
Rini: Buy all the things, please.
See you next time!
Rini: Bye!
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