According to McGee, ”What was frustrating was how EA Marketing interfered - telling (Shy The Sun) from the start that ALL creative direction and final say would come from them, not from us (the developer/creator of the story/tone).”
“EA wanted to ‘trick’ gamers into believing Alice: Madness Returns was a hard-core horror title, even though we refused to develop it in that tone.”
“That resulted in trailers that were much darker and gorier than the game … and that was a calculated disconnect created by EA. They wanted to ‘trick’ gamers into believing A:MR was a hard-core horror title, even though we refused to develop it in that tone.”
“Their thinking is, even if the game isn’t a hard-core horror title, you can market it as one and trick those customers into buying it (while driving away more casual customers, like female gamers, who might be turned off by really dark trailers). It’s all a part of the race.”
However, Alice: Madness Returns received a Mature rating from the ESRB; part of the descriptor reads ”players use pepper grinders, knives, and other weapons to attack fantastical enemies… Battles are accompanied by cries of pain, slashing sounds, and large splashes of blood that stain Alice’s body and the ground. Some enemies can be decapitated, and certain attacks cause them to explode into pieces; in one sequence, young doll-like characters are depicted with bloody wounds that expose their brains.”
Furthermore, the game earned a 70 Metacritic aggregate score.
