June 28, 2000 - Welcome to the Rabbit Hole, people, and more importantly, welcome to the first of three days worth of coverage on EA's wild, weird, psychedelic shooter American McGee's Alice. To start things off, we'll be giving you inside information on some of the characters and weapons you'll be chatting to, fighting, and blasting with during your new adventures in Wonderland. Tomorrow, get ready for an interview with Rogue Entertainment, the development house responsible for Alice's twisted journey. And finally, get ready for new screens and media on Friday, so you can take a closer peek at what madness really look like. Now, onto some of the character and weapon highlights you can expect in the finished game:

Characters

Alice: Our heroine is older, sexier, wiser, more confident and more competent physically and mentally than the 9-year old pretty child of the traditional story. However, having suffered a traumatic experience, she's retreated from all aspects of the real world ¿ including the fantasy world of her dreams. Now she is returning to Wonderland, the world of her childhood imagination, in an attempt to emerge from that emotional isolation. She's been hurt; she's angry; she's embattled. But most importantly, she's got nothing to lose.

Cheshire Cat: The Cheshire is not simply the mysterious smile with big teeth and sharp claws from the old Wonderland. He's Alice's sidekick ¿ a sometime helper and sounding board. He's not courageous enough to be a true ally to her ¿ a distinctly philosophical style covers his seeming reluctance to be "actively" involved. He's tried to blend into the radically altered Wonderland, so he'd probably prefer not to choose sides. Yet, his preference for neutrality notwithstanding, he renders Alice invaluable service, all the while trying to keep himself out of harm's way.

White Rabbit: Responsible for bringing Alice back to Wonderland, this frantically paced rodent goads Alice to keep up as they traverse the wilds of wonderland. Easily startled and always jumpy, the White Rabbit serves as an uneasy tour guide and escort through the now festering and decayed world of Alice's dreams. In the game, the White Rabbit will set the pace for Alice, and keep her going in the right direction. The two will not interact much, other than a quick taunt or smart remark when Alice is not keeping up the pace. Mostly an ambient character, the White Rabbit will not take part in whatever violence may cross Alice's path, but he will show an amazing aptitude for appearing when the dust has cleared, ready to continue the chase.

Insane Children: These Children are essentially the trapped psyche of other dreamers caught up in Wonderland. These children, like Alice, were called here to try and free Wonderland from the Queen's tyranny. However, they were unsuccessful, and are now destined to be tortured eternally for their insolence.

These children display the gibbering side of a normal child. They constantly cry out, and they plea for Alice's help whenever she is around. Some of these will follow her, hoping that Alice, the champion of Wonderland, will save them. They may give away Alice's location at times and throughout the game will cause her no end of trouble.

Card Guard: Card guards are found in most parts of Wonderland. The Queen created them by grafting card pieces onto human beings. There are four types of guards, which are differentiated by their "suits"; Clubs, Spades, Diamonds and Hearts. They are able to dodge attacks by turning to the side, and can move very quickly by curling themselves into a tube and rolling along the ground.

• Card Guards are one of the more unique characters in the game, as far as locomotion goes. They are able to move normally in both walk and run modes, but they will have a special move of rolling up into a tube and moving twice normal speed.

• Club guards will carry a short black 'lance' which they will be able to use as both a spear and well, a club. They will rush up to the player, and depending on their range, either attempt to skewer Alice with the lance tip, or swing the lance like a club bludgeoning her.

Army Ant: Army Ants are found in Wonderland Forest. They are small packs of insects that wanders the 'streets' of Wonderland Forest keeping it safe from intruders. Anthropomorphic representations of real Army Ants, these Wonderland creatures are quad-pedal constructs with overly large heads and massive mandibles. Army Ants are also be armed with crude rifles that serve as their ranged attack.

Army Ants have modest intelligence and are tenacious opponents. They are fiercely territorial and always attack anything they feel intrudes on their domain. Army Ants, following along the lines of real military troops have a Sargeant or Corporal Ant that can always be found with large groups of Army Ants. These 'leaders' affect morale and also provide a 'rallying' point for the troops.

• Grunt: Army Ants will have one melee and one ranged attack.

• Melee: The Army Ant's melee attack will be to attempt to impale Alice with the bayonet attached to the end of their musket and flip her over their heads. They can also crush her in their mighty mandibles.

• Ranged: The Army Ant's ranged attack is to form up in an English skirmish line and fire their muskets at their target. If there are 2 or more Ants, they will do this. If there is only one Ant then they will then simply fire the rifle normally.

Duchess (boss character): The Duchess was one of the more powerful entities in Wonderland. Long ago, a conflict with the Queen arose during a croquet match that lead to her banishment from Wonderland under penalty of beheading. Now, the Duchess has emerged from hiding to attack anyone and anything that gets in her way. She has accepted the same evil into her heart as the Queen, but if caught, her punishment will be swift.

The Duchess will always attempt to attack anything she sees. She will not bother ambient characters, but only those that are loyal to Alice, or to the Queen.

• The Duchess' melee attack is to grab Alice, pick her up, say 'come to me little tart' and then take a bite out of Alice's head. After the bite she will spit Alice away with a 'spituwee' sound and go for another attack.

• For her ranged attack, the Duchess can shoot hot balls of spice from her pepper shaker. This powerful blast can knock her enemies back, doing serious damage in the process.

• Just as in the Lewis Carroll stories, the Duchess has a special attack of throwing 'pig babies' which fly through the air with a terrible scream and exlpode into nasty gut-bits when they hit something. Flying through the air, the pig-babies will look and sound like real babies, but when they explode they will let out a dintincive pig squeal and leave behind chunks of what looks like baby pig, not human.

Weapons

Butcher's Knife: Alice has this melee weapon in her possession from the moment that she enters Wonderland. She can use this weapon in close combat to slash and cut her opponents, and although it does not do much damage, it has the advantage of being silent. Thus, Alice can kill an enemy in stealth without alerting other nearby enemies, and attacking an enemy from behind causes more damage than a frontal attack.

Icewand: This item allows Alice to freeze an enemy solid. It then cracks and disintegrates into a million shards. The wand can also be used to create ice bridges over some types of liquid surfaces. The 'secondary' firing mode for the Icewand is to form a defensive wall in front of an opponent. This wall can take a limited amount of damage and will only serve Alice a short time before it either melts or is destroyed. The wand has a 'crystalline' tip that is partially translucent with a glowing nimbus of cold blue light emanating from within. The wand is also inscribed with runes and symbols of 'cold'.

Jack-In-The-Box Bomb: When Alice drops one of these time bombs, its crank will start to spin while it plays "Pop Goes the Weasel". At the end of the first refrain the top will open and the box will explode. (A variation on this is the "Jack" coming out and shooting flame from his head as it rotates.) This is basically Alice's grenade. Jack bombs will be an effective room clearer, but should be used carefully due to the splash damage. It is covered with runic inscriptions and arcane symbols.

Of course, these aren't all of the weapons and characters in the game -- but they are a good cross-section of what you can expect in the final product. Rogue will be releasing more characters and gizmos as development progresses, and of course, we'll be here to announce them as they are.

-- Vincent Lopez