Steam Users Can Play Cult-Classic PS3 and Xbox 360 Game Again
After being randomly removed, Steam users can buy and play a PS3 and Xbox 360-era game again. Games are regularly removed from digital storefronts, usually due to expiring licenses or disagreements over a game's publishing rights. The former is the more common, and usually only impacts sports games and other games that use licensed music. However, sometimes games are pulled from digital storefronts and it's not obvious why. For example, Alice: Madness Returns was recently and randomly removed from Steam -- not for the first time -- but is back on the digital PC storefront again as of this morning.
Developed by Spicy Horse Games and published by EA, the psychological horror hack-and-slash action-adventure game debuted back on June 14, 2011. Upon release, it garnered a 74 on Metacritic, which isn't a great score, but oddly enough the game went on to become a bit of a cult classic. The fact that it's a sequel to 2000 classic American McGee's Alice, may have contributed to this. Whatever the case, it was yanked randomly from Steam recently, but now it's back.
"Eleven years ago a horrific fire took Alice's family from her and left her mind horrifically scarred. Afterward, she was confined to Rutledge Asylum, where she struggled to confront her demons by slipping further into her fantasy world of Wonderland. Now, after ten years, she has finally secured her release-yet she still bears the heavy psychological burden of that tragic event."
The game's official description continues: "With her mind in tatters, she is unable to resolve the fear prompted by her strange memories, dreams, and visions. Perhaps she'll do better in Wonderland. She always has. She travels there, seeking what the "real" world can't provide: security, knowledge, and the truth about the past. But in her absence, Wonderland too has suffered. Something has gone horribly wrong, and now a great evil is descending upon what once was her beautiful refuge. Can Alice save Wonderland-and herself-from the madness that consumes them both?"
On Steam, the game runs at $19.99 and boasts a "Very Positive" User Review rating, with 88 percent of 8,304 reviews rating the game positively. If you're on PC and have an EA Play subscription, you can also play it this way, so keep this in mind if you decide to gobble it up on Steam before it's potentially removed again.