Some people complain that there's no innovation in the AAA games anymore, just TPP loot crafting shooters with stealth elements. Well, on the other side we have Wheels of Aurelia that is trying super hard to look like nothing else, combining a racing game with visual novel. Too bad it fails at pretty much everything it tried to do.
We're a rebelious women that doesn't need no man, a feminist (or the one that only looks like one) that picks up another chick at the disco. Both then decide to have a long ride to France along the Via Aurelia road, having all kinds of topic to talk to - abortion, kidnappings, abortion, family issues, music, feminist movements, traditional values, abortion etc. If I'm being not clear enough, the game has a statement to make, and the year of the game isn't random. It encapsulates two main events from 1978 that have taken place in Italy - Moro kidnapping and legalisation of abortion. Both of these topics will be pretty much on our tongues no matter where we'll ride or what hitchhiker we take next. No matter what you'll get 'strong independent womyn' vibe from the protagonist, Lella, that is as rebelious as annoying. Every once in a while you'll have an option to pick up a topic for conversation or your passenger will ask you a question about another topic. These can then be answered in one of two ways, and it can be summarised by 'yes', or 'sarcastic yes'. Many topics present no real input on the conversation, your answers will always be in the spirit of the defined character, later even called a communist. Opinions of your character will always be skewed in one way - someone said something controversial and you want to disgree? Nope, you can either agree or say something mildly controversial too. Question about abortion is a prominent example - you can say it's either just a medical operation or it might be a traumatic experience. Other time you can say that men are no longer needed. The whole story feels like it's been written by a raging feminist who tried to put as many leftist ideas as possible. Later in the game (as 10 minutes later) you can ditch your friend for different kind of passenger, a priest or a has-been race driver, and these conversations aren't that bad, but first couple of runs you'll probably keep Olga till the end and you'll get sick of woke comments.
That one thing that is somewhat competent are splitting ways and different outcomes. You can change your destination by turning to different road, you can pick up hitchhikers that will give you optional dialogue options and sometimes can alter your ending (or drive them to different place they wanted), you can change your passenger in the city and alter some endings by dialogue options. The gameplay is pretty solid on paper too - at one point you can run away from the police, chase a terrorists car, enter the race in supercar or just drive recklessly to piss off your friend. All of these you can ultimately lose to get different ending. Finally there are some unlocks, as changing your car in story missions will let you choose that car in new game+. My complaint here is that motives and reasons for your passengers change as well. Nothing is set in stone. If you ignore one topic long enough it'll also rub on your friend, who will now either have different story to tell or will forget about given objective. Olga for example drives with you to catch a fascist terrorist with a gun, but if you miss him she'll sell you to the paparazzi, as you've been a victim of a kidnapping two years ago, all pregnancy and abortion topics eventually being just a void blabber
Now all would be nice and dandy but the driving - essential element of racing game - is atrocious. You can turn left and right or speed up, but you can't slow down. Driving into oncoming traffic won't damage your car or other car, you'll just bounce a little. Driving into the side of the road will also bouce you a little, but your speed won't change. On another note the road is too narrow to not hit a curb here and there. Traffic on the road is another problem, as cars in front of you will drive slower than you. You're forced to overtake them but with oncoming traffic you'll be also forced into a crash. Another story is that you can even ingore all steering as your car will try to stay in the middle of the road on its own, taking nice turns on the curves. It will hit other cars and occasionally bump into the side but other than that you can ignore the driving part. I think it's a compromise between two types of gameplay mechanics - car will drive on its own for people who want to enjoy the story. Too bad anyone caring about driving physics will be annoyed, to say the least.
I'm not 100% disappointed with Wheels of Aurelia though, as it comes with a neat encyclopedia. Every time your conversation hit a specific name, event or place you'll get a new inscription explaining the meaning. These are all excerpts from Wikipedia though, so a minimal effort has been put there, yet I found these extra bits of information a true highlight of the game. Finally it's also interesting how many different events we can encounter in this game (where one full playthrough will end at 30 minutes max), from trailing someone to being chased, to driving through traffic recklessly, racing someone to win his car. Too bad all of that is locked inside this game. If you want to broaden your horizons or just drive casually through basic looking Unity game you might want to check this, otherwise you'll get offended it's being sold for money.

Some people complain that there's no innovation in the AAA games anymore, just TPP loot crafting shooters with stealth elements. Well, on the other side we have Wheels of Aurelia that is trying super hard to look like nothing else, combining a racing game with visual novel. Too bad it fails at pretty much everything it tried to do. We're a rebelious women that doesn't need no man, a feminist (or the one that only looks like one) that picks up another chick at the disco. Both then decide to have a long ride to France along the Via Aurelia road, having all kinds of topic to talk to - abortion, kidnappings, abortion, family issues, music, feminist movements, traditional values, abortion etc. If I'm being not clear enough, the game has a statement to make, and the year of the game isn't random. It encapsulates two main events from 1978 that have taken place in Italy - Moro kidnapping and legalisation of abortion. Both of these topics will be pretty much on our tongues no matter where we'll ride or what hitchhiker we take next. No matter what you'll get 'strong independent womyn' vibe from the protagonist, Lella, that is as rebelious as annoying. Every once in a while you'll have an option to pick up a topic for conversation or your passenger will ask you a question about another topic. These can then be answered in one of two ways, and it can be summarised by 'yes', or 'sarcastic yes'. Many topics present no real input on the conversation, your answers will always be in the spirit of the defined character, later even called a communist. Opinions of your character will always be skewed in one way - someone said something controversial and you want to disgree? Nope, you can either agree or say something mildly controversial too. Question about abortion is a prominent example - you can say it's either just a medical operation or it might be a traumatic experience. Other time you can say that men are no longer needed. The whole story feels like it's been written by a raging feminist who tried to put as many leftist ideas as possible. Later in the game (as 10 minutes later) you can ditch your friend for different kind of passenger, a priest or a has-been race driver, and these conversations aren't that bad, but first couple of runs you'll probably keep Olga till the end and you'll get sick of woke comments. That one thing that is somewhat competent are splitting ways and different outcomes. You can change your destination by turning to different road, you can pick up hitchhikers that will give you optional dialogue options and sometimes can alter your ending (or drive them to different place they wanted), you can change your passenger in the city and alter some endings by dialogue options. The gameplay is pretty solid on paper too - at one point you can run away from the police, chase a terrorists car, enter the race in supercar or just drive recklessly to piss off your friend. All of these you can ultimately lose to get different ending. Finally there are some unlocks, as changing your car in story missions will let you choose that car in new game+. My complaint here is that motives and reasons for your passengers change as well. Nothing is set in stone. If you ignore one topic long enough it'll also rub on your friend, who will now either have different story to tell or will forget about given objective. Olga for example [spoiler]drives with you to catch a fascist terrorist with a gun, but if you miss him she'll sell you to the paparazzi, as you've been a victim of a kidnapping two years ago, all pregnancy and abortion topics eventually being just a void blabber[/spoiler] Now all would be nice and dandy but the driving - essential element of racing game - is atrocious. You can turn left and right or speed up, but you can't slow down. Driving into oncoming traffic won't damage your car or other car, you'll just bounce a little. Driving into the side of the road will also bouce you a little, but your speed won't change. On another note the road is too narrow to not hit a curb here and there. Traffic on the road is another problem, as cars in front of you will drive slower than you. You're forced to overtake them but with oncoming traffic you'll be also forced into a crash. Another story is that you can even ingore all steering as your car will try to stay in the middle of the road on its own, taking nice turns on the curves. It will hit other cars and occasionally bump into the side but other than that you can ignore the driving part. I think it's a compromise between two types of gameplay mechanics - car will drive on its own for people who want to enjoy the story. Too bad anyone caring about driving physics will be annoyed, to say the least. I'm not 100% disappointed with Wheels of Aurelia though, as it comes with a neat encyclopedia. Every time your conversation hit a specific name, event or place you'll get a new inscription explaining the meaning. These are all excerpts from Wikipedia though, so a minimal effort has been put there, yet I found these extra bits of information a true highlight of the game. Finally it's also interesting how many different events we can encounter in this game (where one full playthrough will end at 30 minutes max), from trailing someone to being chased, to driving through traffic recklessly, racing someone to win his car. Too bad all of that is locked inside this game. If you want to broaden your horizons or just drive casually through basic looking Unity game you might want to check this, otherwise you'll get offended it's being sold for money.