Alright. [i]Betrayal at Club Low[/i] is done and dusted. Directly from the mind of the infamous Cosmo D Studios, this is a quirky and marginally surreal PnC RPG with a ton of character and an interesting twist on how to apply RPG mechanics to a PnC where dialogue options are essentially the game's battle system. It's weird and yet intuitive, unusual and yet approachable.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3669959023
Where in most RPGs, you have a build in mind as you raise your stats, in this game, it's more of a reactive system based on dice rolls. You have several ability categories, such as Wit, Physique, and Cooking. Each ability is represented by six dice. Which are your ability scores. So, for example, perhaps your score in Wit is 0/1/2/3/4/5. Those are your potential die rolls when using Wit in conversation (battle). The goal is to increase each base die score so that your min/max rolls are higher. Which you can do with cash earned throughout this adventure. And can do at any point in time as long as you haven't already initiated a dialogue battle.
As such, instead of having a pre-planned build, you will instead raise your stats as you go, and as needed for specific dialogue options. Making this more of a reactive build system. It's not just people you will be battling either. Pretty much anything you need to do will require a couple different dialogue battles using a few different abilities. For example, in order to jump over a bar to serve drinks, you might need to defeat the bar in Physique and perhaps Dancing skill battles. Maybe a bouncer needs to be defeated using Music, Dancing, and Wit. In each of these dialogue battles, your opponent also has their own dice scores.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3670384753
And so, dialogue battles are resolved via a dice battle system. Additionally, as you do things, you will pickup certain limited effects which are basically their own set of dice rolls with buffs and disadvantages. And, as a core aspect of the story, you are attempting to infiltrate Club Low as a Pizza Delivery Guy, and as part of your disguise, you will of course have pizza with you. At various locations in the club, there are pizza ovens allowing you to craft new pizzas as you unlock the recipe and as you unlock ingredients. The pizza ingredients also represent die rolls that will be used during dialogue battles, lol.
As a final bit of the dialogue battle system, you also have health and nerve. If either of the two are reduced to zero, you die and will need to start your mission over. Or load a convenient save slot. Some of the pizza topping can however restore these. :)
So, with all that understood, your goal is rescue another agent who is being held by a mobster in the club. And via a variety of dialogue battles, hopefully you are able to rescue him before you are caught/killed. Each person or object you encounter will typically have at least three dialogue battles required in order to defeat them. Possibly more, possibly less. Some simply unlock new traversal options within the club, new areas to visit, new side quests, etc... while others directly affect your ability to rescue your fellow agent.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3670384723
Now, it should go without saying, but most of the dialogue battles are based on ridiculous and silly premises. Like, maybe you need to get the crowd on your side by coming up with a hilarious dance routine, or you convince a chef to let you take over cooking duties by pretending you are a famous pizza chef or what have you. And that is very much the charm of this game. A steady stream of ridiculousness that is somehow still sensible and easy to understand.
Personally, I thought this was a very fun game with a ton of replayability and a premise that is pretty much uniquely its own, guaranteeing that you get a gaming experience here that is not to be had anywhere else (except perhaps in Cosmo D's other games). Fun is the central theme here, and there is tons of fun to be had. Betrayal at Club Low is well worth a look.
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