Rogueside has released its detective visual novel RPG Best Served Cold, and it’s an intriguing concoction.
Set in an alternate history Europe, you play the owner of The Nightcap. It’s the last speakeasy in town, and it could well be gone before too long too. Saving your bar is the priority, but the clientele bring their own problems for you to deal with.
The fictional city of Bukovie is beset with issues. Labor strikes, rationing, unrest, and the ever-present shadow of war are hanging over the city. People need an escape, and The Nightcap is a place of refuge for all kinds of people. People who could hold some juicy information that might aid you and those important to you.
Best Served Cold Trailer
The game features five different cases, and you’ll need your gumshoes and your detective’s hat on to examine every clue, question, and suspect to save lives and your business.
Over the course of these five cases, you’ll meet 22 unique characters from all walks of life. Not everyone is trustworthy, but buttering them up or leveraging them could be key to your salvation. There’s everyone from crooked cops to shady criminals to contend with, and you need to keep your wits about you when trying to navigate the increasingly complex relationships you build with them.
It’s not an unfamiliar structure for a visual novel RPG, but the wrinkle is that while you’re squeezing information out of clients, you’ll have to squeeze lemons and mix spirits as you fulfill their drink orders. Working in a bar while conversing with the clientele was rarely this intriguing for me when I used to work in them. That said, I was probably in much less mortal and financial danger, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
Best Served Cold is now available on PC via Steam. It will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch at a later date
