A Cinematic Voyage to the Edge of the Solar System
You just have to look at DON’T NOD’s back catalogue of games to understand where their focus lies. Having kicked things off in 2013 with the – in our opinion – underrated Remember Me, the DON’T NOD team have grown over the last dozen or so years to provide gamers with the likes of Life is Strange, Twin Mirror, Vampyr and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Chuck in one of the finest climbing games we’ve ever played in Jusant, and it’s obvious that this is a squad of developers who know exactly what they are doing. And cinematic gaming experiences are very much their bag.
Which is why Aphelion, their intergalactic space odyssey, is so appealing. The fact that DON’T NOD have teamed up with the ESA (European Space Agency) just shows that they mean business.
And this is a game that is strong cinematically. The problem is, some of the gameplay lets it down.
Mission Hope-01
In Aphelion you play as two astronauts, Ariane and Thomas. This duo are humanity’s last hope, as they blast off from an Earth that is fast becoming near uninhabitable. Heading off to the edge of the solar system, they set course for Persephone, the 9th planet; the one place the ESA thinks can save humanity going forward.
From there, the Hope-01 mission plays out, with the player taking charge of Ariane and Thomas across 11 chapters of gameplay. That relationship between the two lands too. There’s a believable tension and warmth between them, and that emotional core helps carry Aphelion through its weaker moments. Alternating between the two lets the story unfold from different perspectives, as navigation, exploration, puzzle solving and clue hunting comes to the fore. Of course, an initial crash landing onto the surface of Persephone is only the start, as the two look to come together again, working their way across a vast frozen, uncharted world.
What plays out is an action adventure that fits nicely into DON’T NOD’s gaming library. Both Ariane and Thomas play slightly differently to each other (for reasons unspoilt), but mostly you’ll be left to traverse the environment, climbing, parkouring, rappelling and more to the best of your ability. Most of this is done as Ariane, who luckily is a dab hand at shimmying along the most narrow of platforms, happy to manoeuvre from one shelf to another, platform to platform. There’s no doubt that Ariane is the more capable of the two.
You see, Thomas is more the puzzle-solver, slowly and surely making his way through discarded bases, hunting down door codes, and trying to get to the bottom of the mystery that this planet holds.
With a Pathfinder tool delicately putting each in the right direction, it’s not too hard to ensure you are always on the right path throughout Aphelion, with the pretty linear world constantly pushing you in the right direction. In fact, through our twelve hour playthrough, there was only one moment that really frustrated, with slightly too much backtracking and back-and-forth navigation of a base an annoyance. We’ll gloss over the fact that an undiscovered door code was all that was needed…
Persephone’s Beauty
The world of Persephone is, however, a pretty stunning one. Ice-fuelled, the Source is what keeps this place going, whilst electro-magnetic fields and a hostile lifeform both aid and push back the two space adventurers at every opportunity. With chasms a plenty, flowing rivers and more than a few hidden secrets to unfold, this is a land like no other. Whether it is actually fit for humanity is debatable…
Aphelion is a game that looks – and sounds – brilliant. As you would expect from DON’T NOD, some of the cinematic elements, of which there are plenty, are of the very highest order; right up there with some of the best looking, best acted scenes to be found in gaming. It’s these which set the scene well, drawing the player in to the mysteries of Persephone, and the relationship between the two astronauts. If you’re looking for a movie-like gaming experience, Aphelion provides it.
But that same game does drop down in quality when you take the actual gameplay, and the mechanics, to hand. For the most part, it’s fine, slow when it needs to be, stealthy at times, speeding up during some ‘chase’ sequences. But the parkouring aspect leaves something to be desired, with a near constant press of a face button, as Ariane verges on ‘losing grip’, all too overbearing. It’s not a difficult QTE to pull off, but it is far too regular an occurrence and we tired of the need to constantly press. Similar goes for any grappling, as movement and jumping doesn’t always come off as intended.
Checkpointing Challenges
Aphelion isn’t helped by its checkpointing system. As a general rule, Ariane and Thomas will both die, probably multiple times each during your playthrough. And some of those deaths will feel cheap, either as a jump goes awry or as a time-limited puzzle completion is missed. All too often we rolled the eyes as death occurred and we found ourselves placed back just that little bit too far for our liking. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not terrible, but we’d have preferred a tighter, fairer checkpointing system. But hey, modern gaming…
There are also a couple of elements of Aphelion which don’t quite add up. Again, we won’t go into specifics for fear of spoilers, and you’ll just have to play it for yourself. But just let it be known that Aphelion is far from perfect in a good few aspects.
A Stirring Story Held Back by Rough Edges
Aphelion may stumble in its mechanics, but when it places focus on the storytelling, atmosphere and spectacle, it’s exactly the kind of experience DON’T NOD excels at. It’s intriguing, mysterious and clever – we just wish it was tighter in terms of save points and how the gameplay is handled.
Important Links
DON’T NOD Reveals Aphelion, Coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass in Collaboration With the ESA | New Trailer Unveiled – https://www.thexboxhub.com/dont-nod-reveals-aphelion-coming-day-one-to-xbox-game-pass-in-collaboration-with-the-esa/
Aphelion Lands On Xbox, PlayStation And PC – And It’s On Game Pass Day One – https://www.thexboxhub.com/aphelion-lands-on-xbox-playstation-and-pc-and-its-on-game-pass-day-one/
Best New Xbox And Game Pass Games For April 2026 – https://www.thexboxhub.com/best-new-xbox-and-game-pass-games-for-april-2026/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/aphelion/9NK8947Z28XL/0010
