Wheels of Aurelia

Nintendo Life

Liam Doolan·Nov 1, 2017

Critic30/100

Agreement—

As a visual novel, Wheels of Aurelia is a lacklustre experience. As a driving game, it's even worse. However you wish to identify it, this title lacks genuine substance; it's a solid idea executed poorly. The key themes and settings are deceptive, making the title seem like it is built on strong foundations when in reality, it's made up of a series of convoluted verbal exchanges between characters who forcefully touch on an array of dicey topics relevant but not always central to the time. The historical-links also suffer as this information is often overridden by an aggressive sense of agenda-setting that robs the exchanges of impact. Then there's the main narrative focused on a person you're likely to not even care about due to the concise nature of each road trip. It's simply not on par with the best titles this genre has to offer, and although you could argue that the esoteric nature of the game means it will illicit wildly different emotional reactions from different people, the core package just isn't compelling, challenging or appealing enough to back up that line of debate.

Game Informer

Suriel Vazquez·Oct 5, 2016

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Wheels of Aurelia has dreams of open roads, but stumbles along the path to freedom.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Adam Smith·Sep 23, 2016

Critic—

Agreement—

I love being exposed to new places and histories, but the distancing of Aurelia’s structure had me looking for a way to get closer; that brush with the familiar pulled me right in for a moment and I wanted more of the same.