Title: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Developer: Jump Over the Age
Publisher: Fellow Traveller
Release Date: January 31st, 2025
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Price: $24.99 (USD)
Expanding on its 2022 predecessor in nearly every meaningful capacity, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is an elegant and engaging dice-driven RPG set in a rich and immersive sci-fi setting. Whether it’s the compelling narrative, the addictive tabletop RPG-inspired gameplay, or the diverse cast of well-realized characters, there is plenty within this sequel to draw in both fans of the original Citizen Sleeper and new players alike.
Synopsis
Citizen Sleeper 2 places you in the role of a Sleeper, an emulation of a human mind housed within an artificial body. You are on the run from not only the corporate overlords responsible for your creation but from a criminal gang and its enigmatic leader, Laine, who is looking to seize control over your body for reasons mostly unknown. To make matters more complex, you are also suffering from amnesia, which adds an extra layer of mystery and suspicion to every encounter. After all, how can you be sure that any stories or details recounted about your past are truthful?
Accompanied at first only by your fellow escapee and experienced pilot, Serafin, the story begins with the two of you barely managing to escape Laine’s clutches by stealing a battered and worn ship, lovingly referred to as the ‘Rig’. This jumpstarts your journey through the Starward Belt, an asteroid belt with several scattered hubs residing within, each housing their own ongoing conflicts and secrets to unpack.
As time passes you will quickly find yourself in need of several resources such as fuel, food, cyro (the primary form of currency), and perhaps most vitally, fellow crew members. Thankfully, the ramshackle abodes of the Starward Belt are not short of opportunities to work and regularly seeking employment at such haunts tends to be the best way to ensure that a steady supply of resources continues to flow.
The type of work you are capable of performing early on will be heavily dictated by your choice of class, of which there are three options: Operator, Machinist, and Extractor. Choosing the Machinist, I found myself primarily playing the role of an anti-social engineer, favoring any jobs requiring mechanical prowess while avoiding those that required negotiation or direct confrontation.
It is during these employment opportunities that you will most commonly come across many of Citizen Sleeper 2’s recruitable characters; the collective cast covering a diverse set of personalities, skill sets, and backstories, allowing each to stand apart and fill a unique niche within your crew. It is the recursive loop of traveling to a new location, sniffing out any opportunities for work, and recruiting additional help along the way that continuously progresses the narrative toward the end goal of freeing yourself from the pursuit of those on your trail; the dream of freedom and the prospect of improving the decaying world around you often serving as your primary motivator.
Gameplay
The backbone of Citizen Sleeper 2 is its intuitive and elegant dice-based gameplay system, through which the outcome of nearly all conflicts and encounters is determined. Dice rolls are frequent and occur whenever you commit to spending one of your dice on a specific task, most commonly when laboring on one of the various hubs within the Starward Belt. While it may be easy to assume a dice-based system would skew toward being luck-based, you go into each ‘cycle’ knowing exactly which dice values you will be working with. This transparency creates a fulfilling risk and reward balance as you decide how to best utilize each of your available dice. As you could assume given the tabletop RPG-inspiration, any dice rolls will be further modified depending on how you choose to use them, with the modification dictated by the respective stat being tested compared to your modifier for that stat. As you progress through the story, there are naturally plenty of opportunities to increase your stats and improve your overall chances for success in the process.
Your ability to manage and optimally utilize the ‘hand’ of dice you are dealt is never tested further than during some of the time sensitive excursions new to Citizen Sleeper 2, known as Contracts. These tense missions often leave little time to waste as you are required to manage your food supply as well as the stress levels of your crewmates. While on a Contract, stress will often accumulate on any rolls with a neutral outcome and almost always increases on a negative outcome. Raising your stress enough can result in dire consequences such as temporarily losing dice or being forced out of the venture entirely, so it’s imperative to keep a close eye on your current stress level before making any hasty decisions.
Due to the time restraints of Contracts, you will often feel required to find a means to work with your less than ideal selection of dice. It is in these moments that an ability fresh to Citizen Sleeper 2, known as ‘Push’, can be utilized to help weigh the odds in your favor at the expense of taking on a higher stress level. The exact ability of your ‘Push’ will differ based on your selected class and can be modified through the playthrough by expending accumulated experience to do so. To further skew some control into your hands, you can also select two crew members to bring out on each of these Contracts, effectively adding 4 extra dice to your pool each cycle. Similar to your own character, each crew member will naturally be more proficient in particular stats, so it’s important to round out your crew and bring along someone who can help cover your weaknesses.
Presentation
Citizen Sleeper 2 is a treat for the eyes thanks to the colorful, heavily-stylized in-game art crafted by renowned comic book artist, Guillaume Singelin. This distinct and expressive artwork serves as the perfect contrast to the sleek, minimalist UI. Humming behind these visuals is a dissonant and immersive collection of music and sounds composed by the celebrated Amos Roddy. The atmosphere resulting from this pairing of art and sound is often one of mystery, tension, and in some cases, hopefulness.
Final Score
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector’s combination of immersive storytelling, dense world building, and addictive gameplay left me wanting more from the moment I concluded it’s roughly 12 hour story. Jump Over the Age managed to take everything that made the original Citizen Sleeper special and expand on those ideas in consistently creative and compelling ways, making this an absolute treat to experience.
Have you played Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector or has it piqued your interest after reading this review? Let us know in the comments or on the Boss Rush Discord.
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