The latest creation from Indie developer Cosmo D bears all the hallmarks of their previous work, set in a kaleidoscopic world full of weird and wonderful denizens to interact with. But rather than offering another first-person walking sim, Betrayal at Club Low sees Cosmo D trying their hand at a third-person point-and-click adventure, with RPG and tabletop elements thrown in for good measure.
Gameplay
You play as some kind of secret agent called Chad. Disguised as a pizza delivery man, you must infiltrate a nightclub and rescue a fellow agent. The game doesn't really give you any more than that; and it doesn’t need to, as just like their other games, it’s all about the journey of discovery.
The central mechanic at the heart of the game is dice-rolling. Anyone familiar with D&D will be right at home here, but even if you’re not, the game does a good job of explaining how it all works.
For all major dialogue options and actions, you roll three sets of dice: skill dice based on your character’s attributes, condition dice that boost or penalize those rolls, and what the game calls ‘pizza’ dice that confer certain customizable perks. You roll against your opponent’s dice - your ‘opponent’ being another character, object, or anything else that you have to ‘battle’ with.
Your skill dice can be upgraded, and you can level up all six sides of a skill di at once or individually if you are strapped for cash. This adds more depth to the upgrade system, allowing you to plunk more into certain sides as you see fit: you may need a high number to beat a certain opponent, but the chances are slim if your other sides remain low.
You can upgrade at any time, even during a battle, so there’s none of that regret of sinking all your cash into a skill that is completely irrelevant for your next contest. The UI also very graciously reveals which attributes are relevant to your present situation when you hover over them, which shows how much care and attention to detail Cosmo D has paid.
The skills or states of your ‘opponent’ that you have to contend with are where the game’s quirky humor comes in. ‘Patience with Failing Infrastructure’ was a particular favorite when a crack in the sidewalk allowed a sewage pipe to vent its stench all over Chad, and ‘Esoteric laser lore’ is certainly a memorable phrase to describe a security system you are trying to fathom.
Expectations
There’s plenty of mystery, intrigue, and puzzling to make Betrayal at Club Low a compelling game. There is also the satisfaction arising from the gentle strategy of choosing which skills to upgrade and by how much, and which combination of perks to go for on your pizza dice. It all seems very well balanced and thought out.
There are a few interface issues that could do with ironing out. For example, you have the option to reroll two extra times, and can pick and choose which of the three dice to hold and which to reroll, but quite often I forgot whether selecting a dice meant that it would be held or rerolled. It does inform you indirectly by removing the effect of the selected dice from the HUD - so you know that that’s the dice to be taken away and rerolled - but still, it would be nice to have this clarified more.
Perhaps my main criticism is that the game’s music doesn't appear to play a prominent role, which is only a shame since Cosmo D’s past efforts have put their excellent productions right to the fore. It's especially surprising given the theme and setting of the game, but there’s every chance this will be rectified in the finished version.
Verdict
Currently available as a demo on Steam, Betrayal at Club Low is self-published under Cosmo D Studios and is due for release this September on both Steam and Itch.io, so keep an eye out and don’t hesitate to pick this one up if an off-beat, dice-rolling adventure sounds like your jam.
