Betrayal at Club Low
Developer(s)Cosmo D
Publisher(s)Cosmo D
Designer(s)Greg Heffernan
Programmer(s)Greg Heffernan
Artist(s)Greg Heffernan
Composer(s)Greg Heffernan
EngineUnity[1]
Platform(s)
ReleaseSeptember 9, 2022
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Betrayal at Club Low is a 2022 role-playing video game video game developed and published by Cosmo D. It is set in the same world as Off-Peak, The Norwood Suite, and Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1.[2]

Gameplay

Players sent to Club Low to rescue a compatriot being held there. Unlike Cosmo D's previous games, which were first-person adventure games, Betrayal at Club Low is a role-playing game played from a third-person view. Characters have seven skills: cooking, deception, music, observation, physique, wisdom, and wit. To succeed at tasks, players roll dice based on their skills. They can improve their chances by buying skill increases and finding pizza recipes, which unlock bonus "pizza dice". Various bonuses and penalties can affect the chances of success, both for the player and their opponent.[3] For example, convincing a DJ that his mother is in the audience can make subsequent challenges easier.[4] The effects of previous decisions can carry forward, granting large bonuses toward the completion of complex and difficult tasks. All the details about dice rolls are openly presented, and players can choose to put them off until they are better prepared. Dice can be optionally rerolled up to twice. There are eleven endings.[3]

Development

Greg Heffernan developed the game himself under the name Cosmo D. In the past, Heffernan had made several games combining elements of walking sims and adventure games. As a longtime fan of role-playing games, he wanted to make a more mechanics-heavy game.[1] Betrayal at Club Low was released on September 9, 2022.[5]

Reception

Betrayal At Club Low received positive reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[6] Rock Paper Shotgun called it "an honest-to-goodness RPG" with very fun dice mechanics[3] and said it boils down the best parts of role-playing games into a short, surreal adventure.[4] Commenting on the game's replayability, Slant Magazine said "going through the same motions hardly dulls the sheen of Cosmo D's latest clever and wholly invigorating gaming experiment".[7] Eurogamer praised the game's ability to craft relatable situations and tell interesting stories about the people working at the nightclub.[8] Adventure Gamers praised the game's replayability and 3D environment, but they said the randomness inherent in dice rolling may frustrate some gamers.[9] GameSpot praised the use of dice in dialogue, which their reviewer found to give more depth than in traditional role-playing systems.[10]

Writing for PC Gamer, Alexis Ong identified Betrayal at Club Low as one of her favorite adventure games of 2022[11] and, in a roundup of the best of games of 2022 for Eurogamer, called it "a luxurious escape from a reality defined by economic speculations and predictions".[12] Rock Paper Shotgun selected it as one of the best games of 2022.[13] At the Independent Games Festival, it won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the Nuovo Award, and it was nominated for Excellence In Design.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 Couture, Joel (2023-02-23). "Betrayal at Club Low uses dice to pull players into compelling, surreal narrative situations". Game Developer. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  2. ↑ Stanton, Rick (2022-03-16). "Betrayal at Club Low is another mini immersive sim from The Norwood Suite's Cosmo D". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  3. 1 2 3 O'Connor, Alice (2022-09-09). "Betrayal At Club Low review: a delicious snack-sized espionage RPG set in a nightclub". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  4. 1 2 "The RPS Advent Calendar 2022, December 9th". Rock Paper Shotgun. 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  5. ↑ Wales, Matt (2022-08-10). "Norwood Suite dev's surreal dice-chucker Betrayal At Club Low out in September". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  6. ↑ "Betrayal At Club Low (PC)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  7. ↑ Scaife, Steven (2022-09-12). "Betrayal at Club Low Review: A Pizza-tastic Blast". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  8. ↑ Ong, Alexis (2022-09-09). "Betrayal at Club Low review - a dice-fuelled night on the tiles where everything and anything can go wrong". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  9. ↑ Parkin, Erik (2023-01-04). "Review for Betrayal At Club Low". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  10. ↑ Handley, Zoey (2022-12-28). "Best Of 2022: Betrayal At Club Low Opened My Eyes To The Possibilities Of Dialogue". GameSpot. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  11. ↑ Ong, Alexis (2022-12-25). "2022 was a stellar year for adventure games". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  12. ↑ Ong, Alexis (2022-12-25). "Games of 2022: Betrayal at Club Low was the best examination of the weird world of working". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  13. ↑ "Our 24 favourite games of 2022". Rock Paper Shotgun. 2022-12-27. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  14. ↑ Castle, Katherine (2023-03-23). "Betrayal At Club Low wins IGF Grand Prize". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
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