Alice: Madness Returns

Story

In the events of the first game, Alice Liddell believes she is responsible for a fire that destroyed her home and family, and escapes to a twisted version of Wonderland. While being treated at Rutledge Asylum, Alice is able to overcome her doubts and is eventually released from the institution. Madness Returns is set in 1875, one year after Alice's release. Alice is now 19 years old[6] and living in an orphanage in Victorian London under the care of Dr. Angus Bumby, a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to help his young patients forget their memories. Although she believes she is well, Alice still suffers from hallucinations of Wonderland. While running an errand, Alice is struck by a hallucination and believes she is back in Wonderland. Although the peaceful land is idyllic at first, it is quickly spoiled by the Hell Train, which travels through the land leaving behind the Ruin, a force that tries to stop Alice. Alice meets with the Cheshire Cat, who assures her that it is not she, but an outside force that has caused the corruption, and asks her to seek out former friends and enemies to find the source of the train. As the game progresses, Alice briefly returns to reality between episodes that take place in Wonderland. In the real world, Alice learns from the family lawyer that her sister Elizabeth (nicknamed "Lizzie") was the first to die in the fire, although she was the farthest away from the source of the fire and was locked in her room. In the destroyed Wonderland, Alice tries to learn more from the various inhabitants of Wonderland, including the Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the Tortoise, the Walrus, the Carpenter and the Caterpillar. Finally, she learns that the Queen of Hearts is still alive, albeit in a weakened form, despite her defeat by Alice. In the Queen's castle, Alice discovers the Queen's true form, which resembles her younger self. The Queen reveals that a creature called the Dollmaker has taken over the Hell Train and is corrupting Wonderland. When Alice returns to London, she begins to remember the night of the fire and realizes that Dr. Bumby was there. He is responsible for the death of her sister and her entire family. She concludes that Dr. Bumby is trying to erase the memories of the fire from her mind and use them, as he has done with other children, as "empty toys" to sell to child molesters for money. Enraged, Alice confronts both Dr. Bumby in the real world at Moorgate Station and Dr. Bumby's Wonderland counterpart, the Dollmaker, in her imagination on the Hell Train. Dr. Bumby admits his crimes and even confirms that he set fire to Alice's house after Lizzie rejected his advances in order to eliminate any witnesses that he raped her that night. He insists that he will obliterate her Wonderland so that she will forget the events of that night, while he will continue to be a member of high society. Alice defeats the Dollmaker in Wonderland, which gives her the power in the real world and in her mind to push Dr. Bumby in front of an oncoming train and kill him. As Alice leaves the train station, she finds herself in a hybrid vision of London mixed with Wonderland, Londerland. Alice wanders into the unknown terrain while the Cheshire Cat monologues that Alice has found the truth "worth fighting for" and that Wonderland, though damaged, is safe for now.