Aphelion Praised for Story and Visuals, Criticized for Gameplay
Don't Nod's Aphelion offers a visually stunning sci-fi narrative experience. However, critics point to repetitive gameplay and technical issues as significant drawbacks. The game's compelling story and atmosphere are often overshadowed by its clunky mechanics.
Coverage across 9 outlets
Aphelion Review – A Stunning Yet Frustrating Sci-Fi Experience | Invision Game Community
Aphelion is a visually stunning but frustrating sci-fi experience from Don't Nod, featuring a slow-paced narrative and inconsistent checkpoint system. While the game boasts beautiful icy vistas and good voice acting, it lacks the character development and meaningful choices found in the studio's previous titles. Ultimately, it's a serviceable walking simulator with a standard sci-fi mystery that falls short of its potential.
Aphelion Review – Keeping Hope Alive
Aphelion is a narrative-driven science fiction adventure that excels in its storytelling and visual presentation, though its gameplay can become repetitive. Players explore the planet Persephone as either Ariane Montclair or Thomas Cross, tasked with evaluating its habitability for humanity. The game features a poignant story, immersive atmosphere, and a strong musical score, making it a recommended experience for fans of sci-fi narratives, particularly on PlayStation 5.
Aphelion review - saving the world, one relationship at a time
Aphelion is a sci-fi adventure game that blends walking simulator, romance, and survival horror elements, set in 2062 on the planet Persephone. Players control astronaut Ariane Montclair as she navigates the icy landscape and deals with a mysterious electromagnetic creature after a crash landing. While praised for its characters, animation, and environments, the game is criticized for its linear story, repetitive gameplay, and technical issues.
Aphelion Review – Spectacular storytelling meets less than spectacular gameplay
Aphelion is a science fiction game that excels in its storytelling and character performances, featuring superb cut-scenes and photorealistic visuals. However, the gameplay is marred by significant jankiness, including clipping issues, stuck characters, and repetitive mechanics, detracting from an otherwise compelling narrative.
Aphelion Review 🪐
Aphelion is a story-driven adventure game where players control two astronauts exploring a distant frozen planet for humanity's survival. While the narrative and atmosphere are praised, the traversal mechanics and character relationship development are noted as areas for improvement. The game is available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Aphelion review: Hope is all we have
Aphelion is a narrative adventure game that draws heavily on classic sci-fi horror themes. Developed by Don't Nod, the game focuses on delivering a compelling story within this genre.
Aphelion Review | TheXboxHub
Aphelion is a cinematic space odyssey from DON'T NOD that excels in its visuals and storytelling, featuring two astronauts on a mission to save humanity. While the game's narrative and atmosphere are strong, the gameplay mechanics, including parkouring and checkpointing, are noted as areas that let the experience down. The European Space Agency collaborated on the title, which is available on Xbox.
Aphelion Review - Hope-None
Aphelion is a third-person narrative adventure game set on the planet Persephone, following two astronauts searching for a new home for humanity. Despite visually striking alien landscapes and well-directed cutscenes, the game is hampered by mediocre gameplay, including shallow climbing and tedious stealth sections, and unlikable, one-dimensional leads with repetitive dialogue.
Aphelion review: "Life is Strange creator's Uncharted-like sci-fi adventure fails to land"
Aphelion, a sci-fi adventure from Don't Nod, fails to impress with its lackluster storytelling and clunky mechanics, despite beautiful alien vistas and a solid premise. The game's Uncharted-like climbing and stealth sequences are uninteresting, and constant monologuing overexplains the narrative. While it shares DNA with Don't Nod's acclaimed titles like Life is Strange and Jusant, Aphelion ultimately feels devoid of life and fails to live up to the studio's previous successes.
