Elroy Deluna is a young rocket engineer who is about to showcase his new self-landing rocket prototype to a local newspaper reporter, Peggie Wolfe. His intention is to gain new funding for his project, but Peggie has an ulterior motive: she's more interested in Elroy's father, Diego, an archaeologist who went missing 18 years ago.
After the rocket launch goes wrong, Elroy and Peggie find a mysterious device hidden in the ceiling of Elroy's house. The device contains a message recorded by Diego, in which he states that he is still alive but trapped on another planet. Together, Elroy and Peggie embark on a mission to find a way to get Diego back.
The rescue mission takes the duo through a lost train station to long-lost ruins, where they find a portal to a planet several light-years away from Earth. There, they finally learn the circumstances that led to Diego getting stranded.
Elroy and the Aliens is quite a charming adventure game that reminds me, in a very good way, of many of the golden age classics of the genre. The story and the puzzles flow well together, and together with a solid voice cast, great soundtrack, and nice art and animation, they turn the game into a fresh breeze in the genre. The game isn't quite old-school, but it does bow towards it while being more of a modern take in every way possible, feeling more like an entry to the genre as I remember it, not how it necessarily was.
While Elroy is the main character, at least titularly, some parts of the game are played as Peggie. The biggest part of her gameplay happens when they finally get to the alien world, when Elroy ends up in a bit of a pickle, and she has to find a way to rescue him. There's also a small snippet played as Diego.
As such, these segments give some variety to the game, despite the gameplay and puzzles being similar in style. Elroy has the main bulk of inventory-based puzzles, but all three characters share logic and dialogue-based puzzles. Especially in the latter half of the game, the logic puzzles become something of a crutch for the game and may come off as a bit repetitive. Thankfully, they are not too taxing, but I can see some people finding them a tad annoying.
For a nice little treat, the game has three different endings, all based on what you do as the final action in the ending. This doesn't mean you need to replay the game three times, as the game allows you to continue from a checkpoint before the ending after the end credits
As a whole, Elroy and the Aliens is an easy game, especially if you're a seasoned adventurer. This is thanks to mostly logical puzzles, which also feel like they belong rather naturally to the story being told. For those not accustomed to the genre, Elroy might offer more challenge, but even then, I doubt it ever feels unfair. For experienced adventurers, the game is more of a nice little snack that offers around 8 hours of playtime.
Elroy and the Aliens is a charming adventure game, well worth its full price tag, which shouldn't set you back more than 20 bucks or so. If you're in the mood for a humorous, well-made sci-fi adventure, you can get it from GOG or Steam.
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