After playing a bunch of intense games — whether that intensity comes from combat, puzzling, platforming, strategy — I sometimes need more of a cinematic adventure. Aphelion came around at the perfect time, and allowed me to witness not just one, but two beautifully-related stories unfold before my eyes.

This sci-fi adventure from DON’T NOD takes place at the edge of our solar system on the planet Persephone. Two ESA (European Space Agency) astronauts, Ariane and Thomas, are separated from each other when they crash land on the planet. Now, they must survey the planet while trying to survive.

Aphelion is pure story — no combat, no items to find, no hidden paths — maybe a couple of small collectibles, but I didn’t come across many of them. I did find plenty of letters and logs, but those were used as storytelling devices. Your main objective is to guide these characters through their story and experience it with them. There are some moments of stealth, panic, and terror.

Playing through Aphelion brought me back to the experience of playing Inside, Limbo, and White Shadows. While those may be 2D platformers, all you are really doing is controlling the characters movements — similar to Aphelion. It’s the rich storytelling that made these games feel memorable — and those three examples didn’t have any dialogue. Aphelion has achieved this same feeling, but with stunning, hyper-realistic visuals in a sci-fi world — also with dialogue.

Throughout Aphelion I can see the DNA of a few other DON’T NOD titles I’ve played. The real-world visuals are similar to the Life is Strange series. The exploration and movement feels like Koira at times, especially when the camera zooms out. Ariane’s climbing takes me back to playing JUSANT. I’m sure there’s more in there from other DON’T NOD games that I haven’t experienced.

Two Stories

In Aphelion you control two different characters throughout the game, and at times it can feel like two different games. You start off as Ariane Montclair, who is fully capable. She’s able to walk, run, climb, swing, and more. Thomas Cross is injured and running low on oxygen, so his adventure is slower-paced and exposition-based.

Ariane’s Adventure

The first trailer for Aphelion made me think of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 film, Gravity, where astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are stranded in space. Throughout the film, Ryan (Bullock) has many close calls. Every time something starts to go right, everything quickly flips upside down. If you are looking for a new irrational fear of being stranded in empty space, then I suggest you go watch Gravity right now.

The common thread between these two stories is how things can so easily fall apart. There are plenty of moments where Ariane is making progress and the rug is pulled from right underneath her. Your main objective may have been to reach a spot on the map, but it quickly becomes to survive.

Ariane’s story can even feel like an open world at some points, but it’s really a story on rails. I noticed some instances where there are multiple routes to the same goal, which makes the player feel more in control. It’s not like those 2D side-scrollers (Inside, Limbo, and White Shadows), so you are given more options.

Ariane is brought to life by Vanessa Dolmen (voice and mo-cap). As Ariane you are really able to explore Persephone and all its terrain. She’s able to climb, swing, and rappel across various landscapes as she learns more about this planet. The sole reason they were sent to Persephone was to find out if the planet is livable for humans.

This is a common trope in many space stories (and the real world) today. Why are humans so terrible? We were given this big beautiful blue dot to inhabit, but we continue to waste away its resources. Instead of trying to fix the problems we created, we think, Maybe we can get a new one? Perhaps this is part of the moral behind Aphelion?

When Ariane realizes that her partner, Thomas, may still be alive at his crash landing spot, her mission changes. She must try to find Thomas, so they could finish their shared mission together. I originally thought I would only be playing as Ariane in Aphelion and was surprised when I gained control of Thomas on a separate part of Persephone.

Thomas’s Tale

Thomas’s story is much different than that of Ariane. He’s been injured as a result of his crash landing, so he can only move slowly. No climbing, no running, no jumping for Thomas. This already gives Thomas a different play style, which I thought was nice. I’m also happy they chose to make the female the strong lead and the man the helpless character.

Thomas also suffers from having a leaky oxygen tank. This makes Thomas’s traversal more like a classic video game, where you have to make it from “checkpoint-to-checkpoint” — or oxygen station to oxygen station.

His story is used to give us more exposition on the planet of Persephone and what has actually been happening here lately. Everything isn’t as it seems.

Ariane is given the brunt of the gameplay, which works best. Too much time controlling Thomas would have gotten to me. They wouldn’t have been able to use the storytelling of The Last of Us: Part II for Aphelion, where you would play the entire story as one player followed by the other.

There were a few interesting moments, where I revisited a location as Ariane after going through with Thomas. Those were executed well, since as the player you are familiar with the zone, but there are differences in how each character goes about them.

A Love Story (*Spoiler-y Territory)

Overall, Aphelion is a love story. [SPOILER’S AHEAD] The first cutscene to start off Aphelion shows us that Ariane and Thomas were in some type of romantic relationship on the ship, but Ariane was also being very distant. It was more of a physical relationship.

Ariane was trying to keep her distance, and keep it “professional,” while on the ship. Once she cannot be near Thomas (after the crash landing) she realizes that she was wrong. It’s funny how she doesn’t want to show Thomas her true feelings, until it is too late and she can’t.

Aphelion is basically a love story that takes place on an “abandoned” planet. Two lonely souls end up searching for each other, after they were together but didn’t make the most of it. It’s a story about exploration, fear, terror, loneliness, and being stranded. 

Ariane and Thomas may be the last hope for the human race to find a new home, but that mission must be put on hold while they first try to find each other.

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*myVGBC was given a review code for Aphelion by the publisher.