Ever since I went to see Project Hail Mary, I’ve been chasing that next great sci-fi fix. The kind that delivers big ideas and memorable characters without talking down to the audience. DONTNOD’s Aphelion seemed to arrive at just the right moment, but does it actually live up to that promise? As you’ll probably gather from the rest of this review, I’m not convinced it quite sticks the landing.

Aphelion can have some brief moments of wonder.

Earth is dying. Resources are running dry, time is slipping away, and humanity is getting desperate enough to start looking skyward for answers. That’s when Persephone enters the picture, a newly discovered planet that might just be the lifeline we need. So, naturally, we send two people and hope for the best. Ariane and Thomas are dispatched aboard the HOPE-01 to figure out if the planet is actually livable. Unsurprisingly, things go very wrong, and they end up crash-landing on the surface.

Separated after the crash, the two are left to deal with their own very different problems. Ariane finds herself stranded high in the mountains, battling brutal cold, jagged terrain, and whatever remains of the HOPE-01 scattered around her. Thomas, meanwhile, is injured and grounded near what appears to be an abandoned human research base. Which is odd, considering they were told they’d be the first to ever set foot on Persephone. As he digs deeper, he begins to uncover what Project Aphelion is really about. And because things weren’t already bad enough, there’s also a lovely little complication in the form of Nemesis, an apex predator that has decided they both look like lunch. Now the goal is simple: survive, reunite, deal with Nemesis, and somehow make it back home.

The game flips between two perspectives, following Ariane and Thomas as they try to recover from the crash that split them up. Ariane’s sections take place high in the frozen mountains and lean more into action, with collapsing terrain, scattered wreckage, and a threat that refuses to go down no matter what you throw at it. Thomas, on the other hand, lands closer to a long-abandoned and badly damaged human settlement. His side is slower and more methodical, focusing on light puzzles and exploring these eerie, supposedly “empty” facilities.

It’s a strong setup for a sci-fi adventure, and to its credit, Aphelion does land a few genuinely emotional moments. The problem is that it takes its sweet time getting there. The pacing drags for large stretches, and it’s not until the second half that the story really finds any sense of intrigue. By then, it feels like it’s playing catch-up rather than pulling you in from the start.

The Nemesis never really evolves as a threat, which is where Aphelion kind of goes wrong

For the most part, Aphelion keeps things pretty simple. You walk, you jump, you occasionally talk to yourself, and that’s about the extent of it. The platforming follows suit. You point in a direction and Ariane or Thomas will clamber over whatever’s in the way, with the odd jump thrown in for longer gaps. The catch is that almost every slightly risky move triggers a quick button prompt as you start to slip. It’s clearly meant to add tension, but after a while it becomes so predictable that you can hit the button the moment it appears without even thinking. You do get a scanner that can pick up strange EMF signals, which adds a bit of light puzzle solving into the mix. It’s a nice idea and helps break up the walking, but it never really evolves beyond a basic distraction. Like the platforming, it works, it’s just not all that exciting.

There’s a single major threat throughout the game known as the Nemesis, a creature that stalks both protagonists for much of the journey. At first, it’s a bit of a mystery. You don’t know what it is or why it’s hunting you, which helps build some early tension. It’s blind, but highly sensitive to sound, so most encounters turn into slow, careful stealth sections where you’re trying not to make a peep. The catch is that the game often forces you to make noise anyway, whether it’s climbing ledges or committing to longer jumps, which usually just ends with you bumping into it again.

The problem is that Nemesis never really grows as a threat. Once you understand how it works, that’s basically it. The same tricks you use in your first encounter will carry you all the way through to the last, which takes a lot of the edge off what should be a terrifying presence. It ends up feeling more like a routine obstacle than something you genuinely fear.

Ironically, one of the best moments comes right at the start when the game introduces its stealth mechanics. You’re crossing a massive frozen lake, and running causes the ice beneath you to crack and splinter. You know you need to keep moving, but every step feels like a risk. It’s tense, it’s memorable, and the sound design does a lot of heavy lifting. The frustrating part is that Aphelion rarely reaches that level again. Surviving an ice storm or escaping a wrecked ship should be highlights, but they end up feeling strangely flat. The set pieces aren’t bad, they just never quite hit the impact they’re aiming for.

Thomas’ chapters mostly consist of walking around and refilling your oxygen tank

The world of Persephone can be genuinely striking at times. There are moments where you’re looking out across vast, hostile landscapes, getting a real sense of just how far these characters have to go, with a decent bit of visual variety along the way. It does a good job of selling the scale of the journey. Unfortunately, that illusion doesn’t always hold up under closer inspection. The visuals can feel a little rough around the edges, and some of the animations and set pieces come off as clunky, which takes away from what should be more impactful moments.

Where Aphelion really shines, though, is in its voice work and sound design. Despite the small cast and the fact that Ariane and Thomas spend most of the game apart, both performances feel convincing and grounded. They sell the isolation well without overdoing it. The soundscape of Persephone also does a lot of heavy lifting, from the constant howl of the wind to the unsettling cracks of shifting ice beneath your feet. It all comes together nicely, and the soundtrack on top of that is genuinely excellent, helping to carry moments that the visuals sometimes struggle to support.

Ariane and Thomas’s journey across Persephone should feel like a fight for survival, but Aphelion never gets there. It has a strong premise to build on, yet the story and gameplay struggle to stay engaging over time. The action set pieces lack the punch they’re aiming for, and the more open areas don’t carry the sense of mystery you’d expect from this sci-fi setting. Instead of wanting to soak in the world, I often found myself pushing forward just to see it through to the end. That’s probably the biggest disappointment. This is a game that feels like it should be better than it is. There’s enough here that some players will connect with it more than I did, but for me, it never fully lived up to its potential.

Aphelion is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB RAM.

A copy of Aphelion was provided by the publisher.