Aphelion preview: Don’t Nod sends astronauts to ice world Persephone

Don’t Nod’s new third-person sci-fi, Aphelion, takes place in the 2060s on Persephone, an ice-covered ninth planet discovered at the edge of the solar system. In this version of the future, Earth is becoming uninhabitable and the European Space Agency sends astronauts to explore possible new homes.

The early build I played covered chapters one and four of an 11-chapter game. It opens with Ariane strapped into a crashed ship while her crewmate Thomas is missing; traversal gets a small but effective twist where you must press the jump button and then press it again to actually grab the next handhold, which makes climbs feel more tense.

Chapter four leads Ariane into a crevasse and onto the trail of a single, ink-black creature—labeled Nemesis in menus—that moves like a writhing eel and hunts by sound. When it’s near, the game becomes stealth-focused: sprinting, loud actions, or falls will attract it and appear to cause instant, inescapable death, with no clear way to harm the creature.

aphelion, don't nod, persephone, esa, ariane, thomas, nemesis, ice world, stealth, traversal