Review: Betrayal at Club Low

destructoid.com:

When discussing video gaming’s propensity towards violence, I often say, “ballistics are easy, discussion is difficult.” Simulating the path of a bullet has been part of the video game landscape for almost as long as it has existed. However, we still struggle with creating meaningful communication. We don’t often argue with the end boss, they’re usually not in a talking mood.

I’m always intrigued to see games make an attempt at simulating discussions. At the bottom rung, a game will have you pour stat points into charisma and maybe pair it with a dice roll. You only sometimes get games like Alpha Protocol, which has a smidge more nuance. You have to read the room to figure out how to shmooze your target (into bed, hopefully).

I never expected to find a new high-water mark set by the creators of Off-Peak and The Norwood Suite. Don’t get me wrong, I love those games. However, I love them for their aesthetics and attitude. I felt that their inventiveness wasn’t likely to stretch beyond presentation and storytelling. I have never been happier to be so shockingly wrong.

Betrayal at Club Low (PC)Developer: Cosmo D StudiosPublisher: Cosmo D StudiosReleased: September 9, 2022MSRP: TBA

You don’t really need to be familiar with the other games in the Off-Peak family to understand what’s going on here. In fact, playing those previous titles will mostly just set you up with some knowledge of how its nebulous and strange world works and prepare you for the fact that you’re stepping into an interactive modern art piece.

Betrayal at Club Low sets you up with a simple mission to enter the eponymous club and extract an undercover agent. The game world is compact, consisting largely of the nightclub built from the remains of a coffin