If you're not familiar with the name American McGee then you weren't a Quake fanatic back in the 'good old days', for he was responsible for many of the cool level designs prevalent in the id Software classic.

This is his own project though, and a bit of a departure from the old first person shooters - but only a bit. Strictly speaking, Alice is a third person shooter, but with a good amount of puzzles and platform jumping action mixed in, much like Tomb Raider.

The real innovation in Alice comes with the storyline and atmosphere, which is superbly crafted. The game is set in Wonderland, but it's a very freaky and sinister place, which is genuinely disturbing in places and visually stunning in others.

Built on the Quake 3 engine, the visuals really are something. In fact it's worth playing through the game just to see some of the marvellously designed levels and graphics. It's incredible stuff in places, with swirling psychedelic backgrounds, twisting floors, giant bong-smoking caterpillars, vicious homicidal chess pieces and so on.

Much like the levels, the weapons and enemies have been given similar attention, with some genuinely sinister and scary creatures cropping up. You tackle these with all sorts of firepower, including a deck of razor sharp playing cards, exploding jack-in-the-boxes and a wand that spews forth a torrent of frost in a flamethrower-like arc. All the while the dark sound effects and chilling background music add to the ambience, making Alice truly an aesthetic and aural triumph.

As far as the gameplay goes, it's good but not particularly innovative. Jumping does play quite a large part in the game (many of the puzzles involve tricky jumps) and that can be frustrating in places. It's an action-heavy romp in general, make no mistake, and the puzzles aren't particularly taxing when they do crop up.

One neat extra touch is the glowing pair of feet that appear to show you where you'll land if you jump, although this feature only works over short distances so large jumps can't be measured with them. But the originality of Alice isn't in the gameplay stakes, but the atmosphere it manages to evoke. For that alone it's an enthralling experience and a great game.

Alice is a truly wondrous game in terms of the ambience it manages to evoke. The dark music, luscious graphics, sinister characters and plot are all superbly realised. While there's nothing special in the gameplay mechanics - although they're very solid - the real magic is in the atmosphere. That alone makes it far more interesting to play than Tomb Raider and its ilk.