Between this and Off Peak I have only started working my way through Cosmo D’s oeuvre, so I may view this game in a different light when it is more properly contextualised within the a more substantiated assessment of his project (and I’ll probably append a more graduated review onto this one for Betrayal once that roping back around occurs). Despite being relatively new to D however, I think, at least on 1½ playthroughs, the tenor of Cosmo D’s style is extremely vulnerable to the valuable plastic melodies RPG mechanics lend to the maintenance of orchestration and harmonic storage video game interactions (and particularly the anti realism of Cosmo D’s cityscapes) are intrinsically underscored by. I thought immediately after first rolling credits that the linearity and mostly inflexible shape of the narrative of Betrayal at Club Low ironically betrayed the RPG systems that were integrated and most commonly used not for enabling play styles or modes of aggressive progression but instead delivering context narrative - but on thinking about it for a while, I feel now that Cosmo D has worked a type of cubist portraiture that is inlaid through time as opposed to perspective: the RPG mechanics are not so much utilised for fleshing out the player as canvas subject but for shaping the subject canvas for player viewership. In simplest terms, if the typical role RPG mechanics take in games, say Fallouts 1 and 2 or Vampire: The Masquerade, is that of illuminating the what the boundaries are of the game world by way of empowering the player to make them, then Betrayal at Club Low’s mechanics work more as illuminating the game world via the role of PC for the player; instead of seeing a world tailored and navigated by choices made in your progression, the world is herein only lights up one of its fractal edges when investigated down a route of particular role, contrasting RPGs of broadening scope to this one of narrowing. In jerryrigging this restricted and somewhat obfuscated combination of mechanics, scope, and budget, Cosmo D makes an excellent case for disempowering play in the pursuit of more meaningful worlds and interactions. Of course there is more to be done, and whether or not chance in the form of die rolls is the best route for this type of play being best is certainly up to debate (even if that tension is tremendously fun in the moment to moment), in the refining and encountering prohibitive exploratory play beyond just this small game, but it is an interesting idea that sits far better once the session has ended than the facility and falseness other RPGs smoke around with after they have faded from sugary sensation.