Running around tiny planets while bullets curve through their gravitational pull already sounds chaotic enough. Perihelion is also going to let you use that gravity to fling yourself around them.
Dreamwave Labs has revealed Perihelion, a new sci-fi action roguelite where orbital mechanics play a surprisingly big part in staying alive. You’ll fight across planetary systems, using gravitational fields to build momentum, change direction, and curve your shots as you make your way through a series of branching missions.
It’s heading to Steam in 2027 with solo play and co-op for up to four players, alongside ship upgrades, more than a dozen mission types, and a story involving the search for a missing sister ship.
So yes, you’ll still need to worry about your weapons and your build, and you may just need to learn a little physics while you’re at it.
Getting Good at Gravity
Gravity affects every encounter in Perihelion, which means learning how to move around each battlefield will be just as important as learning what all your weapons do.
Get close to a planet and its gravitational pull can drag you into orbit, allowing you to build up speed before slingshotting yourself back out. That momentum can help you escape a bad situation, close the distance on an enemy, or put yourself in a much better position to attack.
Bullets are affected too, opening up the possibility of curving shots around planets rather than always relying on a clear line of fire. Of course, the enemy gets to play by the same rules.
Dreamwave Labs has already shown off ace pilots capable of using gravity themselves, so mastering the system won’t suddenly make every encounter easy. Eventually, you’ll be fighting opponents that know exactly how to use those same planets against you.
Choose Where You’re Heading Next
Each run begins aboard your carrier before sending you out across a branching selection of missions. There will be more than a dozen mission types to encounter, with players charting their own course and deciding which challenges to take on along the way. Survive and you’ll be able to improve your ship with hundreds of possible weapon and upgrade combinations, giving you plenty of room to experiment with different builds from one run to the next.
You won’t necessarily have to rely on raw damage either. Dreamwave Labs says players will be able to build around mobility and survivability as well as firepower, or concentrate on completing objectives rather than simply throwing themselves straight into every fight.
Considering gravity can send a carefully planned attack in a completely different direction, having a few options probably isn’t a bad idea.
There’s a Missing Ship to Find
There’s also something bigger happening behind all those missions. Your carrier is searching for a lost sister ship in the middle of a galaxy at war, with more of that mystery gradually revealed as you make your way through the game. You’ll also build relationships with your fellow crew members aboard the carrier, adding another element to what happens between runs.
Perihelion can be played entirely solo, but online co-op will allow up to four players to head out together. Difficulty will scale with the number of players, so bringing three friends along isn’t necessarily going to make surviving space any easier.
Steam also currently lists LAN co-op and cross-platform multiplayer support.
Prepare for Orbit in 2027
Perihelion is currently scheduled to arrive on Steam in 2027, although Dreamwave Labs hasn’t announced an exact release date yet.
Its combination of roguelite progression and orbital combat certainly gives it something interesting to build around. Finding the right weapons and upgrades will still matter, but learning how gravity behaves, when to use it, and how to recover when it sends you somewhere you absolutely didn’t intend to go could be just as important.