Citizen Sleeper 2: A Journey Beyond the Stars
With a modern and contemporary sense of tension, and striking Contract missions, Citizen Sleeper has evolved. This update has enhanced the RPG framework in every possible way.
There comes a point several hours into Citizen Sleeper 2 where I find myself on the back foot and struggling. The dice I use to create actions in the game are failing, and the quest I was confident about completing is ending in disappointment. Timers are ticking down faster than I can manage anything regarding them. Foes I’m fleeing from catch up with me, overpower me, and take me down. Things are exploding. No matter what I do, I seem unable to gain any ground in the game, and I realize at that moment I’m not enjoying myself.
At the same time, I realize: I absolutely love it.
Citizen Sleeper 2 is no longer solely forgiving in terms of allowing you to fail. An entirely new set of mechanics is crafted to heighten the pressure and throw you into desperate situations. The recognition that failure is a possibility creates a remarkably engaging experience: it captivates you, drives you forward, and compels you to pay close attention to your actions. It immerses you deeper into the sci-fi universe, and in Citizen Sleeper 2, it feels as though a whole new dimension of the game has emerged, revitalizing the delicate nature of the original. Under pressure, the experience is completely transformed.
At the core of it all is the game’s new setup: a spaceship and crew. This time, you are no longer confined to one location but instead, aboard a ship and on the move. Right from the beginning, you are paired with another unique individual named Serafin, who rescued you from a ruthless crime lord – Laine – who will continue to haunt you throughout your journey. You – a sleeper (different from the one in the first game) – were Laine’s property, an android linked to a person somewhere in the galaxy, destined to repay their debt. However, much like in Citizen Sleeper 1, there’s something distinctly different about you, something more human, something evolving, and you need to uncover what that is.
This ship and crew arrangement significantly expands the gameplay. It reshapes the format to revolve around traversing an asteroid belt to various locations – asteroids, clusters of floating vessels, tiny stations, large bases, hidden outposts on moons, mining facilities – and what this introduces to the game in abundance is variety, both visually and tonally. Each of these locales looks and feels distinct, each having its own character. Some shine with neon colors and cyberpunk aesthetics, while others resemble cold asteroids with crevices where humanity clings like barnacles. Their smaller scale also allows the camera to zoom in and highlight the tiny habitats, letting us better envision life there.
The ship offers something else profoundly essential: companionship. Not merely with the ship, which may be peculiar (even though it does become somewhat of a character in its own right), but with the people drawn to it. Ships are rare and symbolize opportunity in this segment of Citizen Sleeper’s universe, causing people to gravitate toward them like iron filings to magnets. Can you assist someone? They may make it worth your while. Perhaps they would like to hop on and join you? While Citizen Sleeper 1 focused on personal encounters, with relationships scattered across Erlin’s Survey, Citizen Sleeper 2 is centered around community and collaboration, with you as the guide (or shepherd, if you will). This enables the game to carry experiences with you throughout your journey. It means that not a single day – or Cycle, as termed in the game – passes without something happening, a character approaching you for a conversation, a complication, or a confrontation. This approach significantly enhances the overall experience.
Contracts typically occur off-world (or off-asteroid or off-moon or however you define your hub), necessitating you to journey a short distance to them, at which point you are locked into a scripted narrative for a handful of Cycles, wherein you will either succeed or fail. For example, you might need to recover something from a shipwreck, but as you approach, you realize it’s in such a precarious condition that it could collapse if you disturb it too much – or worse, explode. Your objective is to find and retrieve an item, but locating it and bringing it back may take several steps and potentially multiple Cycles. There is also an element of strategy involved here. You might not be able to accomplish everything – you don’t have all the time – so what will you do?
Your numerous crewmates will assist you on these tasks – it’s likely you might take two of them along with you – and they each bring two dice to utilize, along with their unique set of skills. The dice-rolling system from the original game returns here. It revolves around six-sided dice, which are typically rolled for you every Cycle, and then used for actions in the game, while your skills can enhance or diminish the results. For instance, sixes are assured successes, fives are usually valid, threes and fours present a risk, and ones and twos – well, only use them if you must, or in safe actions where the chance of a detrimental outcome is minimal. Many characters, therefore, are extremely important – they contribute four additional dice to the table and a much wider range of skills to utilize.
Citizen Sleeper 2 introduces another interesting aspect: it’s possible to manipulate crew dice using a Push ability, unique to each character class. As an Extractor, I can add two points to their dice rolls, for instance, potentially turning a four into a six, or a three into a five – each a significantly impactful change. However, there is a cost involved: Stress. Every time I push, I accumulate Stress, and Stress is the most crucial contemporary mechanic in the game.
As Stress mounts, the effectiveness of your dice can decline, and if they break, they are temporarily out of the game. Similarly, if a companion’s stress reaches its maximum, they will also be temporarily removed from the game. This only occurs during Contact missions, I should note; however, it’s during these instances that formulas can begin to pile up, potentially causing the game to not go your way. Missions that are already challenging become exponentially more difficult. Enter a mission complacently, under the impression you can accomplish everything, and you might find yourself undone.
Now, this may sound overwhelming in a way you don’t desire, and it veers quite far from the tone of the original, but there is a safety net beneath it all (on a similar difficulty level; it’s not necessarily on the hardest setting). You can still completely fill your Stress bar and damage your dice, but it’s not the end of the line. Should that occur, you may experience a considerable reset and create a permanent Glitch die, which consistently appears in your rolled hand of dice and complicates matters. It carries an 80 percent chance of a negative effect and a 20 percent chance of a beneficial one, so it’s troublesome, but it’s not a total loss – there are times when it can be advantageous. And I appreciate this; in tabletop RPGs, I find failure to be a particularly fascinating element to explore, and it feels as though Citizen Sleeper 2 agrees with that sentiment.
The game’s newfound energy doesn’t solely stem from mechanics. Sole developer Gareth Damian-Martin (who crafted the game with character art by Guillaume Singelin and music by Amos Roddy) possesses a talent for placing players in exhilarating situations. This is evident in the ‘run for your life’ openings, but it’s also woven into every action you take in the game. Be