Motel 51: Papers, Keys & Aliens Preview – A Grey Area On Intergalactic Hospitality

I’m gonna need some ID. No, not to prove your age, but you are who you say you are, and you’re from where you say you are. Oh, you have your ID? What about your permit to be able to visit this humble planet we call… Earth. Wait a second – Motel 51: Papers, Keys & Aliens sounds like a sci-fi experience. That’s because it is.

It’s the first time in about a couple of years, I’d say, that an unknown relative has left me their business. Over the years, I’ve played/reviewed a lot of first-person simulators, and they’ve almost always been about a grandpa who’s snuffed it and left me their legacy of bottle caps, castle restoration, or a suspender manufacturing plant.

In Motel 51: Papers, Keys & Aliens, that relative is a distant uncle who used to run a motel near Area 51. Yes, that Area 51. However, this place isn’t about hush-hush, sneaky-sneakys as the aliens parade around like it’s nobody’s business (aside from the hospitality industry), and they’re allowed to do it as they’ve been granted permits. In some cases, they may have expired.

Stamp, Refuse, Repeat

You’re no man in black or have an exposition of having an eye for detail; you’re a distant relative roped into the family line of business. It’s a familiar setup for anyone who’s played Papers, Please or any of the 4000 or so clones we’ve seen. An alien, or human, will come to the front desk and ask for a room. You then have the power to grant or refuse that.

Actions have consequences, however, but in Motel 51: Papers, Keys & Aliens‘ case, it’s not the end of the world if you refuse someone/thing to stay at your poxy motel, though you won’t earn any money. Good ol’ Uncle has also left you with some debt, and the bank will periodically dip into the till through this one-week demo. Good ol’ Uncle, good ol’ banks.

While you don’t have that attention-to-detail background, you are still required to spot out discrepancies in the paperwork provided. This starts slow and steady with date checks, then as you progress, there are other nuances to look for. It doesn’t help that the time is continually ticking, and you have to make money.

Room For One More

Another thing stopping you from this, besides poor judgment, is the rental of Room 4 and mysterious calls coming through telling you to refuse certain visitors and whatnot. There’s plenty of value in the demo alone, as you can also masquerade as a cleaner, make beds and mop up slop.

The art is good, but that could be down to the AI usage, and I have no way to determine which has been created by press any key with flint and sticks, and what has been generated from a prompt. I don’t particularly care as long as the game has some substance, though there are a fair number of Steam users who loathe that. If that’s you, don’t bother with Motel 51: Papers, Keys & Aliens.

But, as I said, I don’t know what’s AI and what’s not, and from the perspective of someone playing a Papers, Please clone for free, I was entertained in the time I spent with it, and I suggest you do the same if you’re also intrigued by how you manage illegal aliens. Greys, nothing topical.