Mothergamer Plays Aphelion

I have enjoyed quite a few games from Don't Nod such as Tell Me Why, Vampyr, and most recently Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. I was curious about Aphelion because it looked interesting just from the teaser trailer so I was ready to dive right in. First, the accessibility options for the game were excellent just like the previous games of theirs I had played. I was also able to adjust the difficulty setting so I could just enjoy the story. I do appreciate that they also had trigger warnings about some of the topics in the game as well as a warning about flashing lights. 

Aphelion introduces us to a future set in the 2060s where climate change has pretty much devastated Earth and two European Space Agency astronauts Ariane Montclair and Thomas Cross. They're heading to a distant frozen planet known as Persephone to do a scout mission to investigate something only known as The Source and to see if this newly undiscovered planet could be a new home for humans. Things don't go as planned because their ship's controls go haywire and the ship crashes. Both are separated. From here we get to play as Ariane as she tries to navigate Persephone and find Thomas. 

The game itself is beautiful. Yes, it's a frozen tundra and the sky is very different, but it's beautiful all the same. There's a lot of commentary from Ariane about what to do next and the voice acting is great and you can really feel the urgency as Ariane does everything she can to complete the mission while trying to find her partner. 

Ariane takes in the pretty view. 

There's a lot of walking, climbing, and puzzles and not much combat which is fine. This is also a dual narrative story meaning that we get a few chapters with Ariane and then switch over to a few chapters with Thomas. It does give an interesting perspective on their differing points of view and scenery as they try to unravel the mystery of Persephone and how certain events happened. Ariane's chapters are more action based with some puzzles while Thomas's chapters are more slow paced and focuses more on investigation and quite a lot of puzzles. It does work for the story because we get to see some gaps filled in as we switch between the two and get a better picture of what exactly happened when their ship crashed and how they got separated.

Ariane solves a puzzle.

The majority of Ariane's chapters are climbing and parkour level jumps which again is fine, but sometimes the game would glitch and Ariane would miss a jump that I had clearly made with her and she would fall to her death and I would have to start again. There were also a couple of weird visual glitches with the lighting which caused issues with a few of the frequency puzzles I had to do. This made me feel more than a bit frustrated many times. There's also the issue with the stealth. Now, Aphelion boasts no combat and it's a purely narrative game. That's almost true. I say almost because there is a creature only known as The Nemesis which is a strange life form that comes after both Ariane and Thomas. Ariane had to deal with it more and after what felt like the tenth time of this creature showing up I was over it. You have no weapons so Ariane has to hold her breath and walk quietly. The slightest sound causes The Nemesis to be right on top of you and there's no way to defend against it so if it gets you, it's a game over. I can't count how many times that thing killed me. It was that much and while I get that they needed conflict for the story, by the time I was reaching the final chapter of the game I was no longer scared of The Nemesis, I was irritated and wanted to smash it with really big rocks because that's how much this aggressive creature showed up. 

Thomas explores where he is. 

Thomas's chapters are slower paced because of a pretty serious injury he has from the crash. While his chapters are more focused on investigating and finding audio files and emails to piece together what happened on Persephone regarding a rogue corporation that snuck their way onto the planet and yet there's no one there. Thomas's whole arc is trying to find out where they are and figuring out a timeline for the events that happened to them. I admit I found his chapters slightly more intriguing because of the mysterious aspect of finding a whole functioning lab, but no people anywhere and the reveals were wild and paid off. Thomas does have a couple run ins with The Nemesis too, but his were far more less and the solutions in his chapter for dealing with it I feel were slightly better and made more sense. 

I liked both of the characters a lot. Ariane is incredibly smart, brave, and quick on her feet with thinking of what to do in the moment even when things are really bad. It was very clear why Thomas is a good foil for her even though they are separated after the ship crash. Thomas is also very smart and whereas Ariane is quick on her feet, Thomas is more methodical in how he approaches solutions to problems. Both work for the story and for their individual chapters. The emotional investment is there for both of them and I was emotional at the end which is a point in favor of the storytelling. The main thing that frustrated me was so much of the gameplay especially in regards to game bugs, the overuse of The Nemesis, and very clunky controls. If those things had been worked on more, Aphelion could have really shined. I did like Aphelion, but I didn't love it the way I have their previous games. This was very much a one and done for me. I appreciated the journey, but I was relieved to be done with it after seven hours in spite of really liking Ariane and Thomas. 

Ariane takes a moment. 

*Aphelion is available on the following platforms: Steam, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X/S

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