Introduction

Don’t Nod has always been a studio I respected for crafting genuinely unique gameplay formulas — even when the end results don’t always land with critics. Remember Me was a game I personally liked despite its mixed reception, and they went on to make Life is Strange 1 & 2, a franchise I love that found real financial success. Now Don’t Nod is back with something new — Aphelion, a narrative-driven game about two astronauts on a mission of utmost importance on an unexplored planet. We here at SunsetNerdVerse got a review copy and sank our teeth into it. Is Aphelion Don’t Nod’s next success story, or does it end with a tragic landing? I’m about to find out with you in our Aphelion review for PS5!

Gameplay

Much like Life is Strange, Aphelion might be marketed as an action-adventure but there’s very little in the way of actual action. Players take turns controlling Ariane and Thomas, two astronauts tasked with a life-or-death mission. Earth in the 2060s is becoming uninhabitable, and the pair are sent to scout a potential new home planet called Persephone. When their ship crash-lands on arrival, the two are separated and spend the game trying to reconnect while navigating a planet that is beautiful, dangerous, and very much aware of their presence.

From the early footage I’d seen before playing, I had a sense there wouldn’t be much traditional gameplay here — and those instincts were right. Aphelion is essentially a walking simulator. You climb mountainsides, traverse rocks, walk around a lot, and occasionally press a button to avoid a fall, interact with an object, or push the story forward. After the first hour, I’ll be honest — I was genuinely bored. Despite the occasional shocking revelation or sliding sequence, Aphelion shows you everything it has to offer within the first two hours and never meaningfully expands beyond that.

My biggest gameplay gripe is the myriad of awkward motion interruptions the game throws at you. Few things are more frustrating than sprinting toward a destination only to be forcibly slowed to a walk for a story beat — especially when you’ve already been through that stretch once and died before it completed. On top of that, jumping and movement feel imprecise throughout. I fell to my death or missed platforming segments not because I misjudged the jump, but because Aphelion simply didn’t respond the way it should have. It’s hard to fully articulate, but the movement dynamics feel like something from an older, less refined era of game design — which is a jarring feeling on a 2026 PS5 title.

The result is a walking simulator that rarely gives you a compelling reason to keep walking. Climb this ridge to reach another ridge to eventually climb that one and catch a bit of story, then slide down somewhere. Even the stealth sections — a threat does eventually emerge on Persephone — felt indistinguishable from the slow walking sequences on the game’s icy terrain. Playing as both Ariane and Thomas should have helped, but it doesn’t. Thomas is semi-spoilers hurt and physically limited compared to Ariane, but his workaround — a winch that grabs objects rather than climbing — barely differentiates the experience. Aphelion had a real opportunity to fuse two distinct playstyles meaningfully. It doesn’t take it, and that’s a clear missed opportunity.

Graphics

Where Aphelion does earn some genuine appreciation is in its visuals. The environments on Persephone are genuinely gorgeous — large-scale ice fields, towering waterfalls, alien landscapes that feel like they belong in a prestige sci-fi film. Don’t Nod clearly put care into making this world look alive, and the character models are impressively lifelike, with facial expressions during cutscenes that show real effort. My only visual gripe mirrors my gameplay one: by Chapter 2, you’ve essentially seen everything the game has to show you. There are occasional surprises, but even the most beautiful image loses its impact when you’ve seen it fifty times.

Sound

The Aphelion score takes some not-so-subtle musical cues from Interstellar‘s OST — but it works. The music fits the mood consistently and kept me genuinely tense during some of the more urgent escape and survival sequences. The voice acting is solid as well — both Thomas and Ariane sound like real people navigating an impossible situation. They process their emotions out loud, trade quips across their comms despite being separated for most of the game, and react with convincing shock to what they discover on Persephone. Like the graphics, the sound is one of the few areas where Aphelion genuinely earns its keep.

Story

Aphelion‘s story is interesting — but nothing I haven’t encountered in a hundred other space sci-fi narratives. Is it bad? Not at all. There are good ideas here and genuinely engaging stretches, but very little that feels fresh or surprising in the context of the genre. I almost get the sense that Don’t Nod intentionally aimed for something more restrained and accessible rather than swinging for something ambitious — which is understandable — but the result is a story that feels too familiar too often. The moments of real greatness are there. They’re just outnumbered by the predictable ones.

Overall Impression

I really didn’t love my time with Aphelion, and I went in with genuine hope. Don’t Nod took the bones of what could have been a great game and built something that lost its way somewhere in production. The gameplay is relentlessly repetitive, the story has flashes of greatness before settling into predictability, and the gorgeous visuals are recycled so frequently they stop feeling special. Aphelion isn’t a bad game — but it’s not one I can honestly say I liked either.

Conclusion

Aphelion could have been something special — and I genuinely believe Don’t Nod had the tools to make it one. There are real shining moments buried in here, glimpses of the game this could have been. But they’re consistently buried under repetitive gameplay design and a story that never commits to being as bold as its premise deserves. At $29.99 I can’t honestly tell you it’s worth the asking price. If it drops to around $15 on sale, it might be worth a curious look. As one of the games I’ve liked least in 2026, though — Aphelion is a reluctant pass from me.