I discovered Cosmo D’s work through a Jacob Geller video (this one called “Bad Graphics”). It looked so weird yet so cool. Maybe it even looked cool because it’s weird? The design is intentionally odd, and yet all set up in a coherent way. It interested me. A few weeks later, I saw this game, and saw the dev, and remembered the vid, so I wishlisted it. And when it went on sale, I immediately bought and played it. I had a lot of fun! Let’s now review Betrayal at Club Low!
What’s it about? Betrayal at Club Low has you infiltrating a club to save your associate who’s on an intelligence mission. You have to use your various qualities to overcome obstacles, as you roll the dice to succeed. Also, it’s weird as fuck?? Yet very fun.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Betrayal at Club Low has you assuming the role of an agent of The Circus, which, quite honestly, I’m not sure if they’re an actual circus or what, considering one of their members is an intelligence agent but ALSO someone who manages to ride a unicycle on a moving platform, but NONETHELESS, you are this person and you are part of this group. You are a simple working-class citizen trying to survive in this gig economy of a world, and now you have to get through your mission through utilizing your six skills: Cooking, Deception, Music, Observation, Physique, Wisdom, and Wit. How do you utilize them? Well, by rolling dice!
In this game, you encounter a lot of unexpected obstacles and opportunities. You can try and drink puddle water, you can try to convince a chef to Let You Cook for the club, you can try to beat up a bouncer, etc etc. To succeed in doing all these things, you have to roll your skill dice. Each skill has a dice associated with them, with each starting at their base values (the six faces having the numbers 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, and 1). This is how “combat” works in this game: roll the dice against other entities and obstacles who will also roll their own die. If you match or beat their roll, you win and get progress!
With each win you get, you get progress and some cash. You then use cash to level up your skill dice, giving you the opportunity to increase the value of each dice face thereby increasing your odds of beating enemy rolls. So not only is this a rowdy wild west of dice combat, it’s also a careful resource management game: get more cash to upgrade your stats so that you can get MORE cash. But be wary, if you fail challenges too much, you are liable to lose some Health or some Nerve. Lose all of your Health or all of your Nerve, and, well, you lose…
Whew! That was a LOT of explaining. All in all, I found the gameplay to be VERY fun. There was actual strategy involved in managing what dice faces to upgrade, and what challenges to take on. And despite me feeling like I explained a lot of it, in reality the game feels simple and organic. It really feels like a fun one-shot TTRPG campaign! I loved it.
Oh, and there’s pizza dice! They give you cash and other goodies apparently!
I want to talk about the aesthetics of this game. Seeing the world and the tones of color, it is very much a seedy nightclub vibe. The graffiti, the airs assaulting your senses, the random road puddle you can actually drink from, it’s all strangely dark yet whimsical. The world may be shit, but people are still gonna play in it.
Your character, the undercover pizzaiolo, looks like a mannequin, a statue come to life. They remind me of this one surreal artist I follow: Person918x. Cosmo D and this person probably use the same software, but they somehow evoke the same oddness, a sort of liminal space. Here are a few works of Person918x that I like. See how strange they are? Looking into these images and artpieces, I can’t help but feel a vague sense of dread. But here, in Club Low, the fact that I can move through the place makes it feel less surreal, more vibrant, more alive.
And the music! It’s absolutely BOPPING. I wanna dive in that dancefloor and just jive with the beats!
This game just OOZES with style. It’s a unique aesthetic that I really like. The game is also apparently also set in the same universe as Cosmo D’s older games, so I can’t wait to play more of his games!
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
Here’s the down low at Club Low: Your coworker, Gemini Jay, is trapped in there. You are now charged with saving him, infiltrating the club under the guise of a pizza delivery guy. With your various skills, you have to get in and out with him in tow, bringing him back to The Circus.
The premise is simple enough. It’s the wacky hi-jinks you get up to that make this game. Convincing the coat rack receptionist that the shiny blue coat in the back is actually yours, aggressively punching out the laser security measures put in place to keep out those who aren’t hipster enough, concentrating on the CCTV monitors until you merge your consciousness with the security system… these are all things you can do in this game.
Earlier, I was talking about how surreal Person918x’s works were. Still images evoking liminal spaces. But here, the images are no longer still: you move through them, inspecting, interacting, even finding out about their history. You see skulls from a century ago, left behind by peoples’ ancestors. You see an ominous mirror that wants… something, emitting a strange green aura. Even the club itself is strange: it was once a coffin factory, passed down through generations, now turned into a club. You even see the DJ set mounted on a coffin.
The sights and sounds might muffle it all, but the world will always be there, waiting for you to listen to it.
I like the world of Club Low. The story shown here is simple enough to have fun with the gameplay, but I definitely want to experience more of its worldbuilding.
VERDICT
Betrayal at Club Low is a short but fun ride into Cosmo D’s brand of games. If you are up for a unique one-shot experience, definitely get this game! It’s energetic, it’s funny, and it’s delightfully strange. Get this game!!
Door Rates Betrayal at Club Low: 4/5!