Time doesn’t sit still in the world of Citizen Sleeper. It’s a big theme in the first game, really making you aware of the time you do (and sometimes don’t) have. Each decision needs to be thought through, as time wasted could cost you. But spending your hours well can also bring a lot of joy and comfort. With its upcoming sequel, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, I was very much hoping that these ideas would carry through, and having spent a bit of time with the game in a recent hands-on preview, I’m happy to say it does. Albeit in entirely new, and sometimes surprising, ways.
For those unfamiliar with the first one, Citizen Sleeper is a tabletop-inspired RPG set in a sci-fi world where you play as an android, known as a “Sleeper”, whose consciousness is copied from a real person, all for the purpose of working for a corporation. You spend your days working odd jobs, meeting new people, forming relationships, all while you try to stop your body from failing due to its reliance on something known as ‘stabiliser’. Activities can be accomplished by using dice rolls, with stats modifying how successful you are likely (or unlikely) to be, and if you don’t manage your health well enough, you can end up with less dice to work with.
Starward Vector works similarly, once again giving you six dice to work with each cycle – though now you play as a different Sleeper, one who is also on the run from the corporation that made them, but is also hiding from a gang that wants to control them. You’ve managed to alter your android body so you aren’t reliant on ‘stabiliser’, but that comes with a consequence: amnesia. Just like in any decent RPG. Luckily, your friend Serafin is there to help you, as you are to help them.
