Fans of American McGee's Alice are finally getting a spiritual successor to Alice: Madness Returns in the form of Ravenlok. This sequel to the PC cult classic American McGee's Alice came out in 2011, and fans have been clamoring for a third game to round out a trilogy for the series ever since. While news of a TV show and even a new game have kept tongues wagging about the series, Ravenlok may be the closest thing fans are likely to get to a proper new entry - at least for the time being.
American McGee's Alice is one of the most interesting modern retellings of Lewis Carroll's classic tale, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. Most notable for its dark, psychological tone, this series leans in hard on the twisted psychological implications of the world of Wonderland existing in Alice's head. While plans for an Alice sequel story have been shared by American McGee himself, fans have had to make do with the only two games in the series up until now.
Ravenlok was announced at the 2022 Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. With its style of graphics, character designs reminiscent of Carroll's most famous characters, and implications of something more psychological going on under the surface, Ravenlok looks to be the closest American McGee fans are going to get to a third Alice game, at least until there are any further announcements about Asylum.
Ravenlok Resembles American McGee's Alice In Both Visuals & Atmosphere
As niche as American McGee's Alice is as a series, perhaps due to the length of time between its entries so far, that doesn't mean it isn't influential. Other games, such as last year's Lost In Random, often emulate the Alice games, and American McGee remains a known name in game development, working on multiple other titles while shepherding efforts for Asylum via Patreon. However, Ravenlok is different from games like Lost In Random, if only because the American McGee influence seems stronger than ever with this project.
For one thing, the character designs, though we still do not know what the specific roles of those characters are in the story and gameplay, distinctly resemble characters from Alice In Wonderland, including a white rabbit and lanky red enemies reminiscent of both the red card soldiers from the original novel as well as American McGee's twisted reinvention of them. While it's all nowhere near as dark as what Alice: Asylum is promising in its recent video update, but the similarities are impossible to ignore. Between that and Ravenlok's combat, which appears to be a natural, RPG evolution of the combat in the Alice games, this appears to be a true spiritual successor to the duology.
Given the length of time that lies between each Alice game, it's likely to be a while yet before even a trailer for Alice: Asylum is released, assuming it finds the funding it needs. So until that happens, spiritual successors and pretenders to American McGee's twisted, bloody crown are what fans are going to have to put up with for the time being. With that said, Ravenlok looks from its recent gameplay trailer like it could satiate the appetites of American McGee's Alice fans everywhere.