Aphelion

[h3][3/10][/h3] Закинув це непорозуміння. Враховуючи скільки зараз існує цікавих та якісних ігор, витрачати час на це - дуже важко. [u]ГАРНЕ:[/u] - Саундтрек в головному меню. [u]ПОГАНЕ:[/u] - Все. - Гру писали активісти а не девелопери - слухати діалоги неможливо, рівень шкільних фанфіків. (що типово для сучасних DON'T NOD) - Кожна фраза персонажів визиває нудоту. Наратив банальний. - Працездатність на таку прісну картинку дуже погана та типова для UE, 70 фпс на 4090 в 4К з DLSS B. - Керування не зручне та подекуди баговане. - Левел дизайн місцями дуже топорний, а рівні проходити зовсім не цікаво та нудно. Студія вже давно в творчому деклайні, нічого і близько до рівня першого life is strange очікувати від них не приходиться.

I'm really not sure what to say here that hasn't been said before. And it feels so completely weird not recommending a Don't Nod game to other people, when they're in my top 3 studios of all time. But like others have said, this game just isn't fun to play. It's a ledge climbing simulator with repetitive controls and a mediocre stealth mechanic that is neither challenging OR fun to play. It's actually so boring that you'll find yourself trying to rush through these stealth segments which cause you to die in a stupid way and be put back a considerable amount of distance at your previous checkpoint. The story here is actually quite cool, and its refreshing to get a decent sci-fi script in a game. Game plays well, and is really nice to look at. The voice acting is great, as is the music. But they just overshadowed all of these positives it with insanely dull game mechanics. Because there's no real "choices matter" moments in this game, they could have just did it in more of a linear visual novel style that would have cut the playtime in half and condensed the story into something more concise and enjoyable to play. Instead you have to borderline torture yourself to finish this one. Don't Nod, please don't do this again. I want you to make lots of money and make more Lost Records games ,(tape 3 please?) but whatever Aphelion is just ain't the way to get there.

I am normally very fine with mediocre games but this one is a disaster. It has great visuals and many good views but the whole game feels like a chore and I don't think I'll be able to finish the last chapter. If you can survive past the enormous jankiness that the introduction presents, you might end up playing the whole game. I read many times this was a "parkour" game. There is no parkour (which is not a bad thing). In fact when I started the game, seeing how bad the animations were, I could not believe it was going to be based on parkour. This is more like a walking simulator in 3rd person, with some running sequences. The climbing is the oldest kind of climbing you can imagine (think Tomb Raider 2). The main characters seem to be in a competition for which will be disliked more. Bland story and exploration on rails (which is not necessarily always a bad thing), not a good experience overall.

I like Don't Nod, space sci-fi, and walking simulators. That being said, I'm not sure what the point of this game was. Outdated mechanics and an overused narrative just lead to a boring game.

It's pretty, and the storytelling tries, but the gameplay and dialogue suffers from a lack of polish. So many times the player character would jump to their death in a direction I wasn't directing, or I would jump straight at a handhold yet the character would fail to try grabbing it, or several times an enemy attack would appear right beneath my feet with no warning as I ran and would instant-kill me with no possible time to react. The dialogue feels silly sometimes, as it tries to say something meaningful, but it falls flat. Ariane's delivery also feels odd throughout much of the game. The emotional weight left me feeling, "aw, that's sad...", but never brought tears or a torn feeling. It was an okay time, but you're not missing much if you skip it. Lots of unanswered questions with side plots, but the setting was solid though!

Aphelion is a very strong, sometimes beautiful, science fiction narrative adventure. I'm very surprised that there are so many negative reviews. I know some are written in bad faith, but others I think simply don't enjoy this type of sci fi narrative game. I do and DON'T NOD have produced a very strong one. If you enjoy titles such as The Invincible, and Deliver Us Mars, you will probably very much enjoy Aphelion. The acting, both visual and voice acting, is outstanding. The characters of Ariane and Thomas are deeply realized. In Aphelion, earth is dying. Two astronauts have been sent to Persephone, an apparently frozen planet, to see if it can act as a new home for humanity. They discover many mysteries and struggle against the environment and bizarre alien antagonists to survive. They are not nearly as alone as they thought they would be. The game has traversal puzzles to navigate the environment. I enjoyed these overall. I have seen it refered to as a walking simulator, which is so wrong it makes me wonder if the person claiming this is limited to just a few dozen words in their active vocabulary. It is not a walking simulator. Dear Esther is a narrative walking game. Aphelion is a science fiction adventure title. DON'T NOD are masters of narrative and deeply felt characters. This game is somewhat slower, but it's also genuinely more mature than most titles. This isn't for everyone, but it is for many people. If you donate your allowance to Asmongold, you're not going to enjoy it. If you can appreciate strong narrative, beautiful visuals and orchestration and deeply drawn characters, you will likely really enjoy Aphelion.

Brutal terrain where every 10 meters feels like a chore. Endless climbing replaces actual gameplay. It borrows heavily from Europa Report but never captures the same sense of mystery. The characters are forgettable, and the ending is a complete letdown. One of DONTNOD's weakest games.

There's a mysterious structure in the valley down below, wrapped in streams of some kind of magnetic energy. The Steam overlay shows an achievement notification: "First Contact. 70% of players have unlocked this achievement." Does it mean that 30% of players dropped the game even before this point? Sounds about right and totally expected. I certainly won't go any further. First of all, the game is boring. I spent about 2 hours with Ariane and never got to Thomas's part, so maybe I missed the real fun. But Ariane's mechanics are extremely exhausting. All she does is jump and climb through a gorgeous but boring landscape, and a lot of moments feel like a strange kind of soulslike experience. Hesitate to press the button at the right moment, and Ariane falls to her death. The game has no manual save, so each death means reloading from the last checkpoint. Sometimes the game is generous, and she's revived just seconds before the tricky part. But sometimes the checkpoint is far behind, so you have to redo 5 minutes of intensive climbing to get to that moment - only to press at the wrong time again. Die. Repeat. Sometimes the checkpoint reload freezes, so the only way to retry is to quit and relaunch the game. Very fun, much immersive. The level design is pretty linear, so eventually you'll find the exit to the next part of your journey - but not before bumbling around like a headless chicken, hitting a few dead ends. Because everything around you is just ice and snow. Everything is white, everything looks the same. And there's not enough stimulus to push you forward through this inconvenience. The Big Mystery? We don't know much about the mission or the planet at this point. To find Thomas? We hardly know him. We spend a couple of minutes with him in the game's prologue - a scene that would look good in a mumblecore indie movie, but isn't enough to build a connection between the player and the character. It's always been the biggest strength of Don't Nod games - characters that you care about, that you love. Aphelion fails at it from the first moment. Wonky controls and unlovable characters can't motivate me to finish the game even just to tick the box. So do yourself a favor: skip the game and watch a walkthrough, or find a story recap on YouTube. I watched a 40-minute one, but I wish I'd watched a 20-minute version instead. Turns out there's not much of a good story after all.