So we've basically given a 10 year old game a lick of paint and kept the gameplay as archaic as ever.
Alice felt fresh, Alice Madness Returns feels like a game producer ( American McGee who was lauded as some guru) who has struggled to finish & produce anything of any great consequence (oz etc..) in the intervening period since Alice's release and has settled for rehashing his one idea that he did finish, but has no new ideas of how to make any real gameplay refreshments and is stuck in a sad little time bubble.
American McGee seemed to be a man of many visions of gaming. However reality is sadly American McGee, the man with 1 vision of gaming.....
It's one of the saddest epic fails in gaming and a sad inditement of modern gaming and of the once lauded creative genius.