Aphelion

Aphelion is a beautifully created game by Dontnod and while it's gameplay has its issues, the narrative is pure sci-fi perfection.

Aphelion may not allow players to connect as personally as they did with Max and Chloe to Thomas and Ariane, but it does represent many of its themes admirably. The vast, hostile and seemingly uncaring landscape of Persephone is beautiful regardless of the pain it inflicts upon the protagonists. Worthy of its playtime, Aphelion is the interactive equivalent of binging a single season of TV over a few nights – the rough bits don’t stick around long enough to ruin the overall experience.

Aphelion is a pleasant, well-crafted, and visually captivating sci-fi adventure that remains engaging to play, especially thanks to its setting and the credibility of its spacefaring imagination. DON'T NOD builds a world that is beautiful to explore and a story solid enough to carry the journey, but it never quite manages to give the gameplay the same strength as its artistic vision.

Aphelion has some excellent moments regarding the story, but is let down by consistently frustrating gameplay where you feel punished for no reason.

Aphelion is a deeply frustrating mix of both brilliant and baffling design: part gorgeous, best-in-class narrative adventure. One boasting cinematic presentation backed by superb lead performances, further enhanced by the year’s most compelling, science-grounded sci‑fi story. But also, part dreary third-person action-adventure, undercutting the pace of its narrative with clunky platforming, tedious stealth and puzzle sections, and Thomas’ oxygen-management nonsense. In the end, this tight narrative adventure is stretched into an over-long slog. Sure, it’s well worth seeing through for the story, but with a sharper gameplay focus, Aphelion could have been essential.

After an initially positive impression, Aphelion fails to achieve liftoff. Shallow and outdated climbing mechanics, coupled with an abundance of boring stealth sections, make the narrative the only hope for this mission. However, with a lack of compelling characters or performances, the gravity of two unlikeable leads proves too strong for Aphelion. Despite strong visuals, instead of reaching for the stars, this sci-fi journey ends up falling back to Earth.

Coming from Don't Nod, it's a shame that both Aphelion's storytelling and climbing mechanics feels so lackluster, with Uncharted-like sci-fi action failing to make much of an impact at all. Some gorgeous alien vistas and a decent premise fail to interest for long when simply controlling characters feels clunky and uninteresting.

These reviews are unbelievable. Typical, there are also some bad reviews again because of alleged "political statements." It's just baffling. The game is definitely much better than the ratings here suggest. I played it on the regular PS5. There were a few minor glitches, but I've seen far worse bugs in much better-rated games. The relationship between the two main protagonists is very interesting, and the gameplay is fine too; some people are complaining about that, which is completely incomprehensible. Especially since you can customize a lot in the settings. The graphics and sound are good anyway. I would have given the game a 7 or 8, but when I look at some of the scandalous and biased reviews here, I simply have to give it a 10!

Narrative & Character Development is AMAZING; Visuals & Art Direction is GREAT; Music & Sound Design is AMAZING; Gameplay Mechanics are MIDIOCRE; Pacing & Length is OKAY; Technical Performance is OKAY; Technical Performance is OKAY. Overall is an GOOD game.

Ideal for players who love pure storytelling. There is no combat involved; the mechanics are limited to stealth, evasion, and platforming. While the story is beautiful, the game has its drawbacks—specifically the navigation. Finding your way is difficult, and backtracking through the map can get annoying, especially in the last two chapters. Since the gameplay is heavily focused on walking and climbing, it might not suit everyone. Play it for the story, but don't set your expectations too high.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Meh. I expected much more from Dontnod with this game. The gameplay is sterile, repetitive, and at times frustrating due to the imprecise controls. The voice acting is a whole level worse than what you'd expect from Dontnod. The story has hardly any engaging moments. The planet explored in the game is also quite poorly designed. A real shame.