Elroy and the Aliens Review
Elroy and the Aliens is a point-and-click adventure comedy with vibrant, hand-drawn graphics.
Elroy and the Aliens. Motiviti
Elroy and the Aliens is a story-driven point-and-click adventure in the LucasArts tradition. With its vibrant graphics, fun story, and top-notch voice acting, the game stands out as one that genre fans shouldn’t miss.
Elroy is a young engineer whose famous archaeologist father has been missing for 18 years. When Peggie, an investigative reporter, comes to Elroy’s home to interview him, they accidentally discover a mysterious message that shows that his father may still be alive. Elroy and Peggie set off together to find Elroy’s father, facing danger both local and cosmic along the way. The setup makes for a lot of fun characters, locations, and situations.
Elroy and the Aliens. Motiviti
Gameplay is straightforward and user-friendly. You can walk, examine or use objects, talk to people, or use and combine items from your inventory. It’s all mouse-driven, but it works great with a controller; the left and right joysticks each move the cursor at different speeds.
Puzzles are on the easier side, if you’re a regular point-and-click adventure enjoyer. I never found myself stuck at any point in the game, as it gives you plenty of clues about what you need to do to solve puzzles. Item-based puzzles generally make sense, without the crazy combinations you might remember from some classic LucasArts games.
While it felt rewarding to solve the game’s puzzles, the story is what pushed me forward. I loved spending time with Elroy and Peggie, who are multifaceted characters that grow over the course of the story, and seeing their interactions with all the colorful characters they meet. The writing and the actors performing the dialogue were great. I never found anything to be laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s all amusing, charming, and light, with a few powerful and emotional moments as well.
The game’s graphics are vibrantly colorful, with hand-drawn environments, characters, and animation. The cartoon style is fitting for the tone, and it imbues the characters with strong personalities in their sometimes caricaturish designs. While the game features fewer bespoke animations for specific situations than Loco Motive, a recent favorite of mine, there is more than enough here to make Elroy and the Aliens feel visually rich and polished.
Elroy and the Aliens. Motiviti
It took me around 7 hours to complete Elroy and the Aliens. I didn’t earn all the achievements, but I saw the game’s three endings, which are determined by a single choice near the end of the game. I had a great time, and I wouldn’t mind joining Elroy and Peggie for more adventures.
Elroy and the Aliens is available now on Steam.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: Steam Deck, Mac
