crossover_chick | Alice Plays!

There's still a bit of stuttering at times, but overall it's pretty smooth. I'm taking a short break at the moment for ice cream and Nostalgia Critic, so have some thoughts:

-->Start out at the beginning of the Dollhouse again. Time to jump around and collect stuff now that I'm back in business. Miss a few jumps, explode into butterflies -- you know the drill.
-->Memory collected from Dr. Wilson -- it's a rather sad one about how children are sometimes considered disposable treasures by their parents, much like dolls are to kids. :(
-->Sidequests for bottles, wandering around trying to figure out where I'm meant to go. . .
-->I think I'm missing out on a lot of stuff this playthrough by not realizing which path leads to the plot and which leads to stuff. I've already apparently skipped one Bumby memory, and apparently I got the next two out of order. XD Though I think they make more sense in the order I got them in. Also, Bumby? Fucking mental. "Everyone has a purpose, it's my job to help guide them into their chosen place. . ." Why do I hear "YOUR SISTER'S PURPOSE WAS TO MARRY ME WAHHH" in the background of that?
-->Wandering around, collecting stuff, deciding I don't care what Yahtzee says this level IS fucking creepy. . .It's not even the broken doll heads and stuff. It's the fact that many pieces of furniture and all of the levers HAVE FUCKING EYES. Also, some of the pinned-up stuff in frames (like butterflies, shoes, LIMBS) have blood on them. Guh.
-->Cool part of the scenery, though -- there's a book featuring the Jabberwock! Also a Humpty Dumpty reference later on. :)
-->More traveling, make it into a cutscene (which stutters just a bit, making me worry) and HOLY HELL KIDS WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU?
-->These kids are creepy. They mention the Dollmaker and how he likes to take limbs from them to make his creations. Alice sympathizes, I try not to look at the ones with EXPOSED BRAINS.
-->New enemy! A dolly with two scissor blades! You have to disable her by first taking out the screws on her back -- fortunately the splash damage from the teapot cannon makes this a little easier. Then you work on smashing her open and -- eewww, beating heart. . . .
-->Defeat her, collect some stuff, wander around looking for more -- the hole I fell down renders itself again, then breaks itself again. XD Incidentally, the stuff you can smash or slash open are cakes in this level, and the breakable walls are gingerbread people.
-->Catch a memory from Nanny: "He who eats with the devil must have a long spoon." A reminder from me: Alice works for Dr. Bumby. If this is leading up to what I think it is, she's going to have guilt VOLUMES by the time this is over.
-->Continue making my way around, going in through a doll's crotch (seriously. American McGee, you need HELP), solving pressure pad puzzles, hearing pig snouts but never finding them because I keep going in ways that advance the plot. . . . Must remember I can replay all of these later.
-->More fighting -- little ruin and another dolly! Hello, allow me to OH FUCK IT BREATHES FIRE RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
-->Defeat those, solve more pressure pad puzzles, and -- hello, why the spiky headless dolls on swings? And why when I'm on a steam vent?
-->Fortunately I manage to get past it. Do de do, going around, going the way that advances the plot instead of the way that lets me grab a pig snout because I thought it was the other way around (evil American Mcgee!)
-->Arena of doom! Fight an Insidious Ruin, another Doll, and some Drifting Ruin. The teapot canon tends to make short work of most of them, once I finally break the defenses. Up and around and--
-->Oh nice, a whole LINE of spiky swingy bastards! American McGee, you so crazy. All right, let's see --
-->A pressure pad puzzle. Have I mentioned lately I HATE you, McGee? Oddly enough, though, I manage it on my first try. (Or was it my second?) Either way, go me.
-->Keep going around, making my way through more spiky lanes of doom and eventually getting sealed in a dollhouse. (I'm starting to wonder if I'm gonna end this chapter with only the one pig snout. I hear them all the time, but I never SEE them. Not even while shrunk! Ah well, replays and walkthroughs. . . .)
-->The dollhouse is a sliding puzzle. Let's go get some blocks!
-->As usual, we have a couple hidden behind doors activated by pressure pads (the trick here is that there's an invisible path between two doors activated by the SAME pad -- you gotta move fast), one hidden behind a keyhole (or a pair of same this time), and one where you gotta fight some enemies. This time, another Insidious Ruin and some slithery ruin. Took longer than I wanted to defeat the big guy, but eventually it worked.
-->Sliding puzzle! Got in one go, yay me.
-->Side opens up, more creatures to get past and -- what the hell --
-->*SNORK* One of the enemies is a flying doll's head that acts rather like a swifter version of the Drifting Ruin. It's out and out called a BITCH BABY. Alice takes her teapot and, after some trouble, takes them out.
-->That's about where I paused for now -- it was 8:30 and I wanted ice cream, so I went ahead and exited. I MAY have to refight the bitch babies, but I reviewed the memories I collected before leaving, which saved my game again, so we'll see.

It's also thunderstorming here at the moment. I'm not TOO worried, but it's another reason not to be on Alice right this minute. But damn, is it good to be back. :) Let's see how long it takes me to get to the end. First, though, the Nostalgia Critic's doing Milk Money. :D