Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2026
Aphelion
Developer DON'T NOD
Aphelion is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Don't Nod. Set in the 2060s, the game follows two astronauts who crash land on a frozen planet. Together, they must find a way to survive while being hunted by a mysterious entity. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S in April 2026. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
87 reactions from 2 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Sep 12, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
—
No Data
Sentiment labels for these sources are still being hand-checked; no score yet.
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
87 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
227 of 350 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
A written summary appears once the title has a score.
Reactions
60 of 87 · most liked first🕹️ We are partnering with DON’T NOD on Aphelion, a narrative science‑fiction game inspired by real ESA missions, astronauts and scientific expertise. Aphelion is out now. 🔗 www.esa.int/About_Us/Bra...
unlabelledView post →I don't like leaving a "Not Recommended" review, but Aphelion really is just passable at best. In short, DON'T NOD have traded their critically acclaimed narrative skills for a frustrating stealth game with janky controls. And I do mean stealth game, because you'll be doing a lot of that by the end (and probably see the game over screen often). First, I do want to stress that this game is clearly made competently, even if I think the end result fails to reach its potential. The character…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You spend 7 hours moving painstakingly slow while not knowing which way to go. The climbing is repetitive. The stealth is frustrating. Playing as the guy is just limping around listening to audio logs and reading chats between people you don't know.. for some reason I just didn't feel emotionally connected to Thomas in the least bit. Pro's are that the graphics are beautiful, soundtrack is really well done, and I can appreciate what the story was trying to do.. it was just too slow. I didn't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hi everyone! I'm Félix, a writer with 10 years' experience, first in the comic book industry, then in video games. I’m the narrative designer and writer of Jusant, and I'm currently working on Aphelion 🪐 with a bunch of cool peeps at Don't Nod!
unlabelledView post →Don't Nod's Aphelion isn't just one of the best sci-fi games I've played, but one of the best sci-fi stories I've experienced in any medium. I cried, and I deeply cared about both Thomas and Ariane, no matter how tragic their situation was. My review for @butwhytho.net👇🏾👇🏾
unlabelledView post →I don't know why DONT NOD could actually fail a game like this. Interesting ideas, good looking visuals, great soundtrack, good voice acting... But omg what a clunky gameplay. Very old "console" focused "QTE" styled gameplay. I don't know who thought that was a great idea, but it's 2026, nobody wants to see the QTE in this kind of game. Also encountered a lot of clunky gameplay, getting stuck at edges, and the forced camera that doesn't understand what to do. Also encountered a bunch of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had extremely high hopes for this game but unfortunately can't get past a number of glaring problems. When the core gameplay mechanic is climbing/parkour it is quintessential that those controls be snappy and flow almost naturally. What I experienced was a buggy and clunky mess of inputs either not registering or performing actions that didn't make much sense when compared with similar actions in other climbing games. The camera feels like it's attached to Santa, post all the Christmas…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After finishing the game in bit under 6 hours I can't help but to feel this is Don't Nods weakest attempt at breaking out of their narrative focused game comfort zone. Aphelion is a sci-fi "adventure" featuring two main characters: One whose gameplay is largely akin that of a walking simulator and other whose gameplay has bit of Uncharted / modern Tomb Raider style traversal mechanics along with some smaller scale setpieces where you are either dodging something while falling/sliding or running…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A sci-fi exploration narrative game is supposed to make you feel something. Aphelion made me feel annoyed. The entire time. As much as I wanted to appreciate the story, I found it impossible due to the overall frustration with simply playing the game. I died numerous times through no fault of my own simply because of janky movement, poor physics collisions, confusing environments, or unclear direction. I only finished the game out of pure stubbornness. That's not a fun challenge to overcome,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →- Really great at conveying a sense of loneliness and isolation on a far away planet - Very good graphics - Pretty good "classical" soundtrack Everything else is so-so - Clunky parkour - So called "stealth" missions - Puzzles are hard to understand - Bad checkpoint placement - Dialogs can't be skipped And it's just boring
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the game has an interesting premise and, on a high level, the story is really cool, the writing isn't great. The female protagonist is pretty boring, but has most of the gameplay mechanics in her sections, while the male protag is much more engaging and has a way more interesting narrative, but is pretty much just a walking-sim. The story makes some odd logical leaps without having done the narrative legwork to make it make sense And the ending falls really flat. The narrative climax in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sorry, but no. I love adventure games, i love space games, i love science based games, so i really wanted to love this game. What i got was space slop (deliberately not using the word science here) combined with a horrible user experience. Some examples of what i mean by that: 1. She starts to slide/fall and when tryin to stop her from falling uncontrollably, by having her break with her feet first on one of the protruding walls, before she reaches full speed, she dies from violent impact.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Aphelion | New "Hide and Survive" Trailer ▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oUU... ▪️Coming to PS5, Xbox (Game Pass), and PC in 2026 ▪️Sci-fi action adventure by DON'T NOD (Life is Strange, Vampyr) ▪️Play as astronauts Ariane and Thomas who have crash landed on an uncharted planet
unlabelledView post →Is it Aphelion or Aphelioff? @yahtzeecroshaw.bsky.social is here with his take on the latest game from Dontnod.
unlabelledView post →Real astronauts vs Aphelion: the new Space Game from the Makers of Life is Strange youtu.be/k_2H53k-yLw
unlabelledView post →I really wanted to like this, I really did. I loved Vampyr and the story in Banishers was amazing, but once again DON'T NOD let bad gameplay get in the way of a good story. Only this time the good didn't outweigh the bad for me. Other reviews have already expanded on the issues and I can only agree with them, clunky controls, beautiful landscapes that just become samey after the first 5 minutes. Also whoever thought that these "perfect grabs" in the Ariane gameplay was a good idea should get…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Aphelion is Don't Nod studio newest attempt in to blend narrative & cinematic story into a more platforming puzzle type of game. its a linear and mostly platforming/ stealth gameplay that let you control two character with it own playstyle and mechanic. Let get the elephant out of the room, yes the character might not be attractive as some other claims, but it still provided satisfaction by its mystery lore of the planets and the events happening there, however there is some clanky on the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wooo, the game I've been working on for the past couple of years was announced today! Aphelion!! 🪐 www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQf...
unlabelledView post →SPOILERS AHEAD!! Slow start, the story and characters did not manage to captivate me. The controls are clunky and repetative dialogues paired with predictable moments managed to disengage me. There were times where i just wanted to skip cutscenes that felt uneccesary just to get along in the hopes of the game improving and actually captivating me. After the characters making some progress you could see the setbacks coming from miles away. They try to captivate you by making the landscape…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Aphelion announced, a new game from DontNod, coming in 2026 #Xbox #XboxShowcase
unlabelledView post →I expected better from DON'T NOD. Nice visuals, great music, boring/pedestrian 'gameplay'. Story may get interesting, but the beginning is so undercooked w/ so little situational setup or reason to care about these characters. Bought to support the dev, but this is the quintessential Gamepass game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not only it is a really boring walking sim with uninspired gameplay and uninteresting leads, but it copies The Invincible quite a bit. Just go play that instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After spending some time with Aphelion, I can say this game isn't for everyone. If you're expecting astronauts fighting aliens on another planet, you'll probably be disappointed. Instead, this game gives strong Interstellar vibes, focusing on its mystery, story, and the relationships between the characters. The voice acting is excellent, and the environments are beautiful. The gameplay is mostly walking, climbing, jumping, and a little stealth, so it can feel slow at times. Overall, I really…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is super repetitious and the story is not that interesting with the gameplay being slow and lack luster the games music is amazing but can not save a bad overall experience
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Terrible controls. A traversal game should have snappier inputs. Jank aside, I'm hard locked on a grapple point that refuses to open. Glorified walking sim. Not worth
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quick sketch of my other new girl for a Daggerheart game. 🦄 Say hi to Aphelion.
unlabelledView post →I can't in good conscious recommend this game. I'm usually pretty forgiving in my reviews for games and try to recognize the good aspects in every piece of work, but genuinely the only good thing I can say about this game is that the music was phenomenal. Everything else was completely off-base. From janky and frustrating gameplay mechanics, to subpar voice acting performances, to an uninspired artstyle, and even completely bland and repetitive story beats, this game underdelivers in everything…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Aphelion by Dontnod is coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass in 2026.
unlabelledView post →I usually don't review games but here's an attempt. I usually enjoy don't nods games and honestly the narrative of this game was pretty good. MY main gripes with the game were the "gameplay": 1. The stealth felt slow and sometimes buggy ( I died in a position I shouldn't have) 2. The checkpoints were some of the worst I have played, losing what felt like minutes over and over on some of the stealth levels and then on one chapter I died and then was at the next checkpoint not the one I was…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is very boring, the controls are weak, and the character's movement is poor
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Coming soon to Xbox Game Pass: Kiln, Aphelion, Final Fantasy V, and more! news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0...
unlabelledView post →Coming to Game Pass: news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0... Ultimate: -Vampire Crawlers (4/21 -Kiln (4/23) -Aphelion (4/28) -Sledding Game (4/30) -TerraTech Legion (4/30) Premium: -Little Rocket Lab (4/21) -Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato (4/21) -Trepang2 (4/29) -Final Fantasy V (5/5)
unlabelledView post →White Men Can't Jump, But Black Women Can
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a massive fan of DON'T NOD, Life is Strange 2 and Lost Records are fantastic it honestly hurts to write this review. I wanted to love this game, but Aphelion just isn't it. This reminded me of a really really boring game i played called "The Invincible", it essentially is the same, you spend hours slowly exploring a desolate new planet, wandering around abandoned campsites, and trying to piece together what killed the previous crew. Walking from point A to point B feels like a chore, the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game keeps crashing. Can't recommend it atm.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Glow #Aphelion #DontNod #VirtualPhotography #PS5
unlabelledView post →I guess Dontnod's new game, Aphelion, tanked, I must have seen it before cuz it was at XBox's thing last year but I just can't pull it out of my memory even seeing footage, it must have had some totally unremarkable CG thing
unlabelledView post →I really wanted to like this game but unfortunately there were too many strange bugs accompanying an extremely slow burning story that kind of ended up ruining an otherwise interesting game. The visuals are stunning and have that ~UE5~ feel to them, everything looks fantastic but it does sometimes feel like a bit of a tech demo of endless rocks and mountains that many other UE5 games also feel like. You could argue though that in this case it was playing to the games strengths with the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game sucks. Graphics are basic, animations are rough and the gameplay is tedious and boring. The game is linear to the point of feeling on-rails with 0 sense of exploration and atmosphere is ruined by a yappy poorly voice-acted MC. The game is buggy too. I had issues with input detection, a segment where a hook-indicator just disappeared and won't come back till i reloaded a checkpoint and 2 instances of the game just crashing during the 90 mins or so I played.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As always, DON’T NOD delivers a high-quality game with beautiful visuals and gorgeous music.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Review by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34633003-Gaming-Masterpieces/lists/] Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam. Is this game a masterpiece? You play as two astronauts stranded on an icy planet, embarking on a life-threatening mission to prevent the extinction of humanity - but this is no masterpiece. The debut title of the Paris-based studio Don’t Nod was the dystopian action-adventure Remember Me, released in 2013, and with their next project, the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Arguably one of the worst modern games I've played. Slow, clunky, awful controls, repetitive, and so often there's no clear way to go. The plot is very dull, honestly the only things that stood out as positive were the graphics and the fact they wrote a British character reasonably well. I cannot in good conscience recommend this game to anyone.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don’t Nod’s next game is cinematic space adventure Aphelion, developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency. vgc.news/news/dont-no...
unlabelledView post →I really, REALLY wish I could recommend this game. The world-building is incredible, the graphics are beautiful, the storytelling is special and unique...but the gameplay is unacceptably bad. The stealth gameplay is messy. The way forward is never clear. I genuinely needed to follow a walkthrough to complete the game. The "correct" choice swaps between "move slow and steady" and "run for your life" seemingly at random in the middle of a segment and it's up to the player to just take a guess…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So far like it. Story driven, beautiful graphics, easy gameplay. do not expect shooting, more like discovering and sneaking with some problem and puzzle solving. OK, after finishing the game.... You guys can ♥♥♥♥♥ about it, and the controls, but.... This game was amazing. You guys should appreciate games like this more. It did worth every penny of my money, Well done! Really hope for continuance. Gonna check out your other story based games as well.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sigh. As a rule, I really like Dontnod's work. They may not be the most cutting-edge of games - you can comfortably put them in the 'AA' category - but they're generally humane and have a lot of heart, with a focus on resolution over confict and a thoughtfulness about the inner lives of the characters. Even their quieter and less expository titles like 'Jusant' have stories to tell through environmental cues and little scraps of life. I'll give anything they make a chance. They don't hype…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'Aphelion' launches in 2026 on Xbox Series, PS5 and PC. Also coming to Game Pass. youtu.be/_oUUnfGffCQ?...
unlabelledView post →Finished the game, it was great. The sountrack is really amazing, as often with DON'T NOD & I liked the story, I really wanted to know more. The charaters are well written with great voice acting. Good art direction too. The gameplay is the weak point of the game. Controls are precise most of the time, but the stealth part was not the highlight of the game, but does it really matter for a narrative game? You're the judge (can't say I heard anyone saying one day that they liked Life is Strange…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game, excellent graphics, story. Not too expensive. People should support more games like this. Game finished in 8.5 hours.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My rating: 5/10 - DON'T NOD, you can do better :/ Ok. So I been thinking about this review after finishing the game. One of those I wish I could give like a horizontal fingers. Because its just that, middle of the road. There are moments I really liked in the game. I liked the environment, scenery and music. But overall I am disappointed in DON'T NOD. I love them as a development company. I love the stories they tell in games like Tell Me Why or Twin Mirror. Gameplay Now the gameplay. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'Aphelion' launches 2026 on Xbox Series, PS5 and PC. Also Game Pass Day One. youtu.be/RZs_IthEb2s?...
unlabelledView post →'Aphelion' is launching this spring on Xbox Series, PS5 and PC. Also Game Pass Day One. youtu.be/bxNZ85YIesU?...
unlabelledView post →Gets more and more annoying and less and less rewarding towards the end. I really enjoyed the first 6 or 7 hours. I had to max out my suspension of disbelief but that's fine because it is so (so!) beautiful. Then i hated the rest of it. I guess it would have been a much better game without the stealth parts. It would be a solid walking simulator then. But there's still the ending which I find... lacking. I don't know - did the developers run out of time, money or ideas? I really feel…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →in APHELION, two astronauts crash-land on a planet 12 million kilometers away... thanks DON'T NOD 🌵Disobey for the game!
unlabelledView post →Games im interested in from New Game + showcase Project Shadowglass Aphelion The Expanse Osiris Reborn Distant Shore Vahrin's Call Dragontwin The Eternal Life of Goldman Duskfade Towerborne Unawake Dark Light Survivor Exekiller Starfinder: Afterlight Crimson Desert Very long but lots looked good
unlabelledView post →*Sips coffee*.. With Aphelion concluded, I'm going to try and finish one more shorter game. Those paying attention might've noticed another factor to these selections.. 😉 Have a great weekend folk! ❤️ #Goodmorning
unlabelledView post →As someone who was in the mood for a Sci-Fi experience with the vibe of Interstellar, I can say that Aphelion scratched that itch... to a degree. Where Aphelion shines is in its atmosphere and environmental design. Some noticeable standouts being the interior of the Nexus base and pretty much all of the snowy vistas. It is clear that the environmental, level and audio design teams put a lot of work into making this game look and sound good, and that shouldn't go under appreciated. The story…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Can't play it in its current state please add ultrawide support and a fov slider I'm really looking forward to playing this game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has potential. Too many things to iron out. Gameplay is not a smooth experience and looses immersion when character or environment glitches out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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