Aphelion is an intriguing space-themed title from Don’t Nod, most well-known for their Life is Strange games. Astronauts Ariane and Thomas are sent out on a mission to an icy world to determine if it’s possible for life to survive and thrive, but unfortunately, as it usually goes with things like this, something happens which throws their mission into disarray.
Is Aphelion another one of Don’t Nod’s banger story-driven games, and should you check it out? Let’s find out, shall we!
Aphelion
Aphelion kicks off with Ariane and Thomas closing in on Persephone, an icy world that’s humanity’s last hope for survival. The game kicks off with Ariane and Thomas making a crash landing onto the planet and this is where things really get complicated quite quickly.
The game introduces you to the two characters with an intimate cutscene which seems to indicate that they are in a complex relationship with each other. This is then immediately juxtaposed with the crash landing sequence and Ariane has to fight for her life to make it out of the ship’s wreckage.
The intro sequence of the game reminded me a lot of Tomb Raider from 2013 with a lot of running, jumping and climbing while avoiding certain death. For an introductory sequence, Aphelion certainly did a great job of onboarding players and grabbing their attention. However don’t let this fool you… I’ll get to why in a bit.
Without spoiling too much of the story, Ariane manages to escape the ship but also realizes that Thomas and his escape pod are missing. Thus you set forth out into the icy wasteland in search of Thomas.
Now this is where things to slowly fall apart. Playing as Ariane is an excruciatingly slow burn. You’ll spend long periods of time walking and climbing through an icy unforgiving landscape that’s definitely eye candy but lacking any sort of substance. Most of the chatter you’ll listen to is Ariane monologuing to herself about finding Thomas and there’s barely any meaningful lore building going on even with the few notes that you come across since it’s rather cliché.
Gameplay involves traversing an icy landscape and trying to not fall to your death. A problem that is compounded by the fact that the checkpoint system is ridiculously inconsistent. For example, at one point you need to get across an icy lake.
Walking too fast means that you will fall through the ice and die. However because of the way the checkpoints are set up, if you happen to die just before making it across the lake, you have to restart a good few minutes away and have to basically start your walk on the ice from scratch. This isn’t only limited to the lake segment since a later mountain climbing segment has the same kind of issue.
The problematic checkpoint placement coupled with the game’s slow pace means that if you die a few times, the fatigue kicks in with full force and you’ll start getting really annoyed. That’s always a bad sign.
Later on in the game you’ll be able to play as Thomas and also interact with objects a lot more. Again though, this slow burn pacing keeps the game from excelling and when you throw in Oxygen meters and containers into the mix, this causes more issues.
Graphically, Aphelion looks gorgeous with beautiful icy vistas and effects. The game has a photo mode and you can take some really gorgeous screenshots in game. Character models also look good but none of the visual flair is enough to keep the game afloat alone.
The voice acting is well done but the problem with Aphelion lies with the fact that there just isn’t enough character development or story to make you want to care about them in a deeper way. Ariane spends so much time trying to find Thomas but the emotional connection and foundation is lacking. There’s also no real major choices to make here like we’ve seen in Don’t Nod’s Life is Strange series of games and it’s a bit jarring knowing that the same studio that made those games made this one and didn’t think to incorporate more narrative into it.
With all of that said, Aphelion isn’t actually a terrible game. It’s just very slow paced, has a linear story and a lot of wasted potential. The game features a lot of climbing reminiscent of Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted but severely lacks the action components of those games which balanced out their gameplay.
Ultimately what we have here is a “Walking Simulator”, on a beautiful ice planet with photo mode, and a serviceable story with a sci-fi mystery to it. It could have been so much more and the developers are clearly talented enough to have made it happen but alas, this isn’t the case here. In the roughly 10 hours of gameplay, there were plenty of frustrating moments that could have been ironed out with some more playtesting and development time to smooth over the glaring issues.
Aphelion is the equivalent of a burger from a fast-food restaurant. You know it’s not good for you, it’s not the greatest and it’s not going to blow your mind but it will satiate your hunger. Give this game a try if you don’t mind playing through a slow-burn, climbing, walking and light puzzle solving game with gorgeous visuals and a rather standard sci-fi story.
Aphelion Launch Trailer
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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
Reviewed on PC.
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