Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns screenshot 1Alice: Madness Returns screenshot 2
ActionAdventureDark FantasyHorrorFemale Protagonist3D PlatformerHack and Slash

131 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 408

Peak in the last 7 days: 450

Alice: Madness Returns Steam store

Game description

Alice: Madness Returns is a third-person, single-player, action adventure platformer. Visit the grim reality of Victorian London and travel to the beautiful yet ghastly Wonderland to uncover the root of Alice's madness.

Basic info

DeveloperSpicy Horse Games
PublisherElectronic Arts
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckPlayable
Release dateJun 17, 2011
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 7 SP1, Windows Vista with SP2, Windows XP with SP3
ProcessorIntel Core2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.60GHz or greater; AMD Athlon X2 (or equivale…
Memory2048 MB
Graphics*NVIDIA GeForce 7600 256MB or ATI Radeon X1650 256MB or greater
Storage8.5 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 407 reviews from the past 1 year

84.8/ 100
Top 40%

Steam rating: Very Positive (91%)

Metacritic: 75 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 25, 2026)

Dark, creepy and strikingly drawn, Alice: Madness Returns scores 84.8, top 40% of games we analyzed.

👍 Strengths

143 reviews praise the visuals and art style, calling it stunning and dreamlike, and some say the art direction still holds up well today. 87 admire the world and its eerie atmosphere, a dark yet colourful setting with rich lore and memorable level design. 82 praise the story, a dark and gripping tale that some say compels them to keep discovering more. Others single out the soundtrack. Story & World ranks 69th of 1096, and Visuals & Sound ranks 71st of 1249.

👎 Where it falls short

Tech & Support appears in 50% of analyzed reviews and ranks 1336th of 1399. 94 reviews report bugs and crashes, and some say they had to edit config files to remove a frame cap or stop crashes. 39 find the gameplay repetitive, with padded walking sections, filler minigames and the same combat over and over. 38 say the controls and combat feel imprecise, and a few mention awkward weapon switching, unreliable targeting and a camera that causes frustrating deaths. Gameplay ranks 1004th of 1396.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“art direction holds up better than 90% of modern releases” · 143 reviews
“incredible story and art style” · 82 reviews
“great game despite publisher restrictions, worth playing with workarounds” · 31 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 47% of reviews · Bottom 30% of the games we've analyzed

Strategy +2.29 · Depth of builds, tactics, and meaningful choices
Positive “unique mechanics not made anymore” · 3 reviews
Negative “story beats disjointed, gameplay nothing revolutionary” · 2 reviews

Progression 5% · Difficulty 16% · Onboarding 5% · Freedom 2% · Controls & feel 29%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 77% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Story +3.80 · Plot, quests, writing, and the ending
Positive “incredible story and art style” · 82 reviews
Negative “ending is lackluster and disappointing” · 1 review

Characters 14% · World 54%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 28% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Variety -0.92 · Fresh content and situations versus repetition
Negative “excessive padding with repetitive walking and puzzle-solving without narrative clarity” · 39 reviews
Positive “hack and slash has enough twists to avoid being boring or flat” · 2 reviews

Volume 10% · Replayability 4%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 62% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +4.40 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “art direction holds up better than 90% of modern releases” · 143 reviews
Negative “textures are dogshit” · 1 review

Audio 19%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 0% of reviews mention this.

Community — · Who you play with — how many, and how friendly

Playing together 0% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 6% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing -0.06 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Negative “full price not recommended due to EA corporate behavior” · 6 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Balance 2% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 50% of reviews · Bottom 5% of the games we've analyzed

Stability -0.90 · Crashes, freezes, save loss, and game-breaking bugs
Negative “unbearable amount of bugs and crashes” · 94 reviews
Positive “runs fine on my pc so far” · 3 reviews

Performance 16% · Developer support 20%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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