Wheels of Aurelia

Wheels of Aurelia is a narrative driving game set along the Via Aurelia, the coastal road hugging Italy's western shore, in the politically turbulent 1970s. You play as Lella, a restless woman who picks up hitchhikers, argues about abortion rights and terrorism, and occasionally gets into car chases. The driving itself is simple, almost minimalist, a side-scrolling cruise where you steer, shift gears, and choose when to slow down for a passenger. That simplicity is the point. The road is a container for conversation, not a challenge to overcome. What Santa Ragione built here is closer to a branching short story collection than a traditional game. Each run lasts roughly twenty to forty minutes, and the game actively invites you to replay it. Different passengers unlock different narrative threads tied to real historical events of the era: the Red Brigades, the Italian feminist movement, the tension between tradition and a society being remade in real time. The writing has genuine texture. These are not Wikipedia bullet points dressed as dialogue. Lella has opinions, contradictions, and a kind of stubborn aliveness that makes her worth spending time with across multiple playthroughs. The presentation earns its place. The art style is flat, sun-baked, and specifically Italian in a way that feels researched rather than aesthetic-farmed. The soundtrack leans into the era without being a jukebox, and there are moments where the music and the landscape and a passenger going quiet all line up into something unexpectedly affecting. For a game this short, those moments matter more than they would in a fifty-hour RPG. Intentional pacing is doing real work here. The honest problems: the controls never feel quite right on keyboard, and the driving physics have a looseness that reads as unfinished rather than stylized to some players. The mixed Steam reception reflects that. If you approach Wheels of Aurelia expecting mechanical satisfaction from the driving, you will be disappointed. It is essentially a visual novel that happens to have a steering wheel. Some players resist that, and that resistance is fair. The short playtime also means the total content, even across all branches, is genuinely modest. This is not a game hiding fifty hours behind a small price tag. But for the right audience, which is people who read literary fiction, who want games to do something other than escalate difficulty, who are curious about a specific historical place and time rendered with care, Wheels of Aurelia is a quiet and worthwhile thing. It knows exactly how long it wants to be, and it ends cleanly. In a space full of games that overstay their welcome, that restraint counts for something.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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