Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Alice Is Dead

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alice_is_dead_ch1.png
Alice Is Dead is a popular Flash game trilogy on Newgrounds, made by Lorestrome Games, known for breathing new life into the tried and true Grimmification of Alice in Wonderland, as well as for its beautiful drawn artwork, creepy and cinematic music, and for its mix of old school Disney movie wonder and creepiness with gritty horror. If you trust your nerves, go check it out:

(The theme song can be downloaded here.)

The plot is well known for being extremely convoluted, yet rewarding, with secrets laced throughout all three games. A Q&A explaining much of it can be found here, so beware of the spoilers. Despite the author claiming there won't be a sequel, a strange post has surfaced on Newgrounds, showing a battered and bloodied rabbit next to the dead grass field and tree glimpsed in Episode 2.

In 2021, Alice is Dead: Hearts and Diamonds was revealed. It's a complete remake of the trilogy with the added addition of new entries in the series via episodic releases. It is currently set for release on Steam sometime in 2024, with a demo of the first game's remake available for free.

See also Myosotis by the same programmer.

Not to be confused with the podcast Alice Isn't Dead.


Tropes found in the games:

  • 555: Two phone numbers on the White Rabbit’s notepad start with 555.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Kingdom of Liars 3 shows that somebody made a shrine to the White Rabbit, complete with a portrait of him with "I LOVE YOU RABBIT ♥♥♥" written on it in blood.
  • All There in the Manual: The author originally posted several detailed explanations of the games' Back Story (that's where the more obscure details on this page come from), but has since taken it down. However, it's been archived.
  • Apocalyptic Log: The walls of the starting location are covered in it. But you can't see it.
  • Arc Words: "Kill The Rabbit".
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: The White Rabbit wears a suit and is a professional assassin.
  • Bad with the Bone: You use Alice's leg bone to pick a lock.
  • Bag of Spilling: At the beginning of each game, the protagonist is stripped of all his possessions from the first game (except the bell).
  • Bathroom Stall Graffiti: The club's bathroom stalls are full of these. Some of the walls have phone numbers on them, which you can call.
  • Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the series, the Rabbit is shot dead by the Queen. The Queen gets their just desserts though by Alice, who was Faking the Dead.
  • Black Comedy: Upon seeing a dead security guard in an elevator, the protagonist says "He should have taken the stairs".
  • Boom, Headshot!: At the end of the third episode, the Rabbit is shot in the forehead.
  • Catgirl: Technically, the Cheshire Cat is one. Unfortunately, rather than being a sexy woman with cute ears, she/it is mostly just creepy, and far more so once you discover her horrifying, horrifying origins.
  • The Chanteuse: An unnamed background character. She sings a song that is a mixture of Wonderland surrealism and an attempt to seduce the listener.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Bell. It's always there, even though you can't actually do anything with it. It is vital to the plot, however, representing the White Rabbit's sole remaining connection to his humanity, sanity, and memory. It is such a treasured item, in fact, that it never occurs to him to get rid of it, even when he gets rid of all of his other belongings... Which, tragically, leads to his death, as the bell in his pocket activates the metal detector in the club, alerting The Queen of Hearts that he has arrived and allowing him to get the drop on poor Rabbit.
  • Clingy Macguffin: The bell. You can't get rid of it, and it possibly triggered the metal detector at the club, thus alerting Queen about the Rabbit's presence.
  • Condensation Clue: A mirror in the nightclub has a hidden message that can be revealed by messing with the club's air conditioning.
  • Couldn't Find a Pen: The Mad Hatter leaves a few messages for the Rabbit after he escapes, written in the blood of the guards.
  • Creepy Crossdresser: The Queen is a dangerous crime lord, and his suit makes him all the more unsettling.
  • Daddy's Girl: Burr's daughter, who has become Cheshire Cat after merging with one of her father's experiment cats. She sends you a text message about how she misses you and her father, and one of the reasons she helps the rabbit is that she wants to get revenge against the Queen, both for allowing her father to conduct the experiments and killing him after the Oystercloud was completed.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Dr. Raymond Burr. In Episode 2, his name is mentioned in one of the puzzles, and he has written one of the logs on the computer terminal. In Episode 3, you find his corpse in the Secret Laboratory.
  • Easter Egg: Sort of. March Hare's phone number, which can be easily missed.
  • Faking the Dead: Alice, who we thought was dead in Episode 1, returns at the very end of Episode 3 to kill the queen.
  • Guinea Pig Family: By accident. Raymond Burr was conducting an Oystercloud experiment that involved teleporting cats to other places, and his daughter interfered with the experiment, causing her to merge with one of the cats, thus giving birth to Cheshire Cat.
  • Grimmification: Everything on this game is creepy, especially the second and third parts.
  • The Hero Dies: The Rabbit, who gets shot in the forehead by the Queen in the end.
  • Improvised Weapon: The Hatter "went insane, and stabbed [the waitress] and three other customers to death with one of those little plastic sandwich swords."
  • Karma Houdini: The Hatter manages to escape jail and remains unpunished for his killing spree by the end of the third game. Subverted with the Queen Of Hearts, who wins and kills Rabbit only to get murdered by Alice.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: Whoever was talking on the phone with the Queen at the beginning of episode 3.
  • Never Trust a Title: Check out the cutscene that plays after the credits of AiD3. Not only is Alice alive and well, the entire story was a Batman Gambit she designed in order to find and eliminate The Queen.
  • Obfuscating Insanity: The "Mad" Hatter is only faking it.
  • One Last Job: Just before Rabbit lost his memories.
  • One-Liner: The protagonist is quite good at it, such as quipping "Alice forgot to put on makeup" and "She doesn't smile as much anymore" at the sight of Alice's decomposing corpse.
  • Ontological Mystery: You wake up in a hole in the ground, next to Alice's decomposed corpse, with no idea who you are and how you got there.
  • Professional Killer: The protagonist a.k.a. the White Rabbit and Alice herself.
  • Rain of Something Unusual: In the ending of episode two, it rains fish, as a result of the Rabbit activating Oystercloud.
  • Red Herring:
    • Yes, that spider is completely useless. And the bell, too.
    • The title itself is one as well.
  • Room Full of Crazy: The opening location contains crazed writings on the walls, a mixture of Alice's someone's Apocalyptic Log and, inexplicably, the code to the Rabbit's suitcase. However, you can only see these writings with a special lens. Rabbit's diary reveals that it's made in a special ink invented by the Hatter.
  • Running Gag: several.
    • The bell is most notorious, as noted above.
    • Due to the game's signature Moon Logic Puzzle solution, the player's most likely reaction to the spider is to try using all the items they find (rock, vial, shovel handle...) on it. Eventually the game flat out asks "Why do you want to hurt the spider so much?"
    • The toilet in the second game contains the magic nut. When the Rabbit clicks the toilet stalls in the third game, the game mocks them by saying that there isn't a nut in there, and asks why do they like toilets so much. however, inside these toilets, one can find a secret phone number to call the March Hare, which has zero impact on the game but is a fitting reward nonetheless.
  • See-Thru Specs: There is a lens that's used to reveal hidden text on the four walls, showing a sequence of numbers.
  • She Is the King: The Queen is a "he".
  • Shout-Out: "Do you feel lucky, punk?" and having a plant in his apartment, like any good professional should.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The series ends with the Rabbit getting shot in the head.
  • Step One: Escape: You start Part One at the bottom of a deep pit, which you need to escape from to progress. Part Two begins with you in a locked room that you need to escape from. (Part Three, for variety, is about having to break into various locked places.)
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: If you act rudely towards Hatter in the prison, the message he leaves for you is "You put me in a bad mood". On the other hand, being nice to him results in "Kill them with kindness, Rabbit."
  • Time for Plan B: After the key to the prison cell remains lodged in Lewis' guts, the protagonist asks himself what's the plan B.
  • Title Drop: One is dropped at the end of the second episode:
    The Rabbit: I had more questions than answers, but one thing was clear. Because of me... Alice is dead.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: The ending of episode 1 reveals that YOU are the White Rabbit.
  • TV Head Robot: Not necessarily a robot, but Dr. Raymond Burr's mutilated corpse has a working TV/VHS player where his head should be.
  • Womb Level: When stuck in the prison, you have to shrink yourself and enter your dead cellmate's stomach, as well as having to fight off a tapeworm-like creature.

Top