Citizen Sleeper

I was really enjoying the game and then it forced me down a path that ruined my run. I stole codes for a guy, not realising the game would then force me to hand them over, instead of having the freedom to choose as was the case the entire game thus far. By being forced to hand them over, I was also forced to end my run a couple days later, ending my run and ruining the game for me. Because it auto-saved immediately after the action, I couldn't go back and revert what felt like a flaw in the game. Maybe I'll want to replay it again in future, but maybe the same thing will happen and ruin my run. Hopefully, this isn't an issue in the sequel because I did like the game, but do not wish to recommend it anymore.

I totally slept on this game. A wonderful title with heavy narrative and beautiful soundtrack - Amos Roddy really cooked with this one.

When I first discovered Citizen Sleeper I got attracted by the whimsical character designs of Guillaume Singelin and bought the game on a whim upon noticing the sci-fi setting. However, while advertised as a game with the freedom and flexibility of a TTRPG I would much rather describe Citizen Sleeper as a light mix of visual novel, management-sim and dice-game. The role-playing aspects of Citizen Sleeper are in fact largely cosmetic i.e. my choice of character had no deeper bearing on game-play and the story is running mostly on rails without player agency. Dialogue choices are by and large an illusion leading to the same quest outcome. For example, quite regularly I was given the option to Stay Silent in a conversation, only for my conversation partner to go on a monologue, which mimicked responses to the dialogue choices I hadn't actually clicked on. The idea is clever, but its execution doesn't quite sustain itself throughout the 10+ hours of run-time. My only way to opt-out of a particular quest would have been to not show up. In fact, it is possible to skip entire quest-chains as quite a few of them are designed to lead to one of the game's numerous endings. Nevertheless, the game only rewards skill-points for completing drives / quest-chains, i.e. indirectly nudging us to complete as many as possible. I do not think describing Citizen Sleeper as a light visual novel would have been to its detriment either. In fact, for me personally, the most charming aspect of Citizen Sleeper is its similarity to a visual novel, while neither showing too much nor too little of the setting. The descriptive writing of Gareth Damian Martin interspersed with the occasional character designs of Guillaume Singelin was enough to form a solid spring-board for my own imagination. In the initial hours of Citizen Sleeper I found myself to be thoroughly captivated by the highly rewarding effort of fleshing out the world with my own imagination. I walked the cable-strewn back-alleys of the Lowend, felt the warm humid breeze flowing across the overgrowth of the Greenway, I saw places bustling with people who had been stranded on the Eye for one reason or another, I even imagined my own synthetic skin having this smooth and silky touch and the oddity of sensory information not arriving as a sensation but a set of warnings and numbers. It was an infatuating experience. The management-sim and dice-game aspect initially added a sense of urgency and acted as a welcome pacemaker to keep my imagination on the move through this world. Yet, I eventually found myself comfortably self-sufficient and never at the whim of an urgent timer or bad dice-roll. At this point in the game a lot of impetus got replaced by tedium. The patterns of unlocking new areas, earning trust and working jobs were on rinse and repeat. The story wasn't flowing, instead I felt it got held up by an increasingly incessant amount of clicking and tracking back and forth across the map with the mouse-wheel. If it weren't for my patience waning at the half-way mark, I may not have given Citizen Sleeper's story further scrutiny, but at this point I also began to fall out of favour with the writing. Now, I am not one to oppose Martin's aspirations in telling his story, after all I came along for the ride willingly. Yet, I did not appreciate being also told what to think and what to feel repeatedly throughout the story. The story is already pretty much on rails, so I would have preferred to explore my thoughts and feelings, just like I was exploring the world of Citizen Sleeper. It feels almost cliche to be writing this, but please: show don't tell. In my opinion the game hits a low point during the DLC, when Martin's writing has become as nuanced as a soccer-ball to the face and the game-play as tedious as a smartphone clicker-game. Curiously, this is also the part where the highest amount of literary 'touching the Sleeper's shoulder' is happening, i.e. I am interpreting this as a sign of fatigue on the side of the developers. On the upside, the final ending of the DLC's third chapter is somewhat refreshing, giving good closure and surprising with some character appearances that are partly dependent on the ending(s) you have chosen during the main-game. In conclusion, if I could give this game something in-between recommend and do not recommend, I would. If you like visual novels and enjoy filling in the blanks with your imagination, this is in part a really fun experience. If you are looking for a choice-driven RPG, even though the very first word of this game's description reads 'role-playing', Citizen Sleeper is honestly quite far from it. I really had a good time with this in the beginning, but I also struggled with it for about half of its run-time. A very hesitant I do not recommend.

I went into Citizen Sleeper blind and it turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. I’m not usually a fan of visual novels, but this game drew me in with its interesting sci-fi aesthetic, intriguing writing and great character development. The mechanics are simple, but effective. The core gameplay revolves around a dice-based system that determines the success or failure of your actions. Every choice you make can have a direct impact on the outcome of quests and the fate of certain characters. Yet, from what I saw, the choices were often limited to just two or three options and I would’ve appreciated a bit more freedom. Some of the best examples of how well the gameplay can work are the quests involving Lem & Mina and Ethan (my favorite characters) and their stories had real emotional weight. Another area where the game could’ve improved is its visual presentation. While the art style looks nice, the static images feel repetitive over time. A few more animations or visual variations would have improved the overall experience. Still, despite these minor issues, I really enjoyed Citizen Sleeper and its atmospheric sci-fi universe.

Impeccable writing and lots of content. The visual novel does a shiny job of handing you many choices on a platter - choices that confused me into not playing the game for a few weeks after my extractor starved to hell. But I came back because the game was just sitting there, waiting, and I wanted to read something. On my return flight to Airport It's-Over I started exploring and immersing myself in the storyline and tasks, and had a great time. The multiple endings, opportunities to mess up and cycle clocks glaring imminent danger gave the rollercoaster thrill of being part of a dynamic, terrible world that encouraged thought, caution and patience. Half the time I didn't know who to side with, other times I got smacked about because I forgot I wasn't playing a combat-ready robot. As for the music, I sat through the credits to listen to the music. I would have preferred skill trees only open to certain characters, or a larger skill tree to make spending a finite amount of upgrade points a process with more gravitas. Not just making choices in hopes of a different ending being the main way to replay the game. Nevertheless, Emphis must have been in the kitchen, 'cause this game and its creators cooked. 9/10. Fighting fate and feasting on fungus? Living the dream.

Disco Elysium-lite writing + VIsual Novel time management. Nice for a couple days worth of simple fun. I say disco elysium-lite because although both the presentation and writing style being eerily similar, it fails miserably in getting anywhere close to the writing quality in DE, to the point that it feels a bit embarrassing, if not presumptuous, that they even tried. It is also really preachy in a middle school kind of way, while being filled to the brim with pretentious sci-fi tropes. Still, worth-it if you want something to click mindlessly for a couple days while you busy yourself with other work.

a good little RPG with an interesting setting! i REALLY wish there was a manual save feature. in a game with multiple endings, and no text auto-skip function, it is really annoying to go back and re-play the same content :/

And in this frozen moment you focus on only the next step, because that is the only way you have learnt to persist. And to persist is to believe that a future, any future at all, is possible.

"So I guess if you like lore and stories where your character is a cog in a greater scheme, this'll be for you." --- It took me a while to play this game, because it's off putting in its initial setup and has a lot of learn as you go mechanics. Yeah there's some huge boxes of text at the beginning that goes in depth, but it's still a unique system to navigate and I found that while a lot of stuff came easily if I just explored a bit and clicked around, it wasn't quite as seamless as to just pick up and finish day one. In fact, it actually took me a while to go back into it. Again, not because it was hard or poorly explained, just because of how much LORE was involved. That being said, the characters were believable, the dialogue felt natural, and the game itself had an easy to moderate difficulty depending on how much you starved yourself lol So I guess if you like lore and stories where your character is a cog in a greater scheme, this'll be for you.

This game is a hybrid between a time management game and a visual novel. While the premise is quite grim - you have just escaped corporate slavery in an artificial body that has built-in planned obscolesence features to basically k*ll you if you don't receive corporate medicine - the overal tone is hopeful. You are an adept mechanic in a world made of failing machinery. You are without hope, yet you give hope to anyone you touch. There's a beautiful melancholy surrounding the story, the feelings of looking at the stars and wondering about freedom. It's a masterpiece of storytelling, that might choke you up at a couple of times. Choices do actually matter, but not in a way you would expect. It's not just choosing the right lines in dialogues, it's spending actual effort and time to solve things. There are multiple endings, I have seen two thus far, both brilliant in their own right. There are some character build options, but they mostly affect the early game and become irrelevant after a couple of hours.

Cannot understate how good this game is. I do not play a lot of narrative games nor do I commonly write detailed reviews. But this game is one of the best ones I've played ever. Even if you are not totally convinced by this game please, please, please just try it out. The 2 hours of steam's refund policy is more than enough to get to know this game. The gameplay itself is not extremely exciting, I personally never had a challenge with surviving but the story fully makes up for that fact. Damn near cried after finishing the flux storyline. Please play this game.

the game is good, the character is good and so is the way its written with dialogue. heck i even really love the dice management mechanics, i have never seen this before and its implemented incredible here but its SO LONG. i have visual novels games in my library and they are long too but each gives you a conclusion ending or rewards for the efforts that you sat through to read the lore and understanding the characters the musics loop can get annoying just hour in which is not great when you plan to sit 15+ hours for this game you cannot tell which one is campaign and which one is side story meaning all the effort for you to get an ending only to be met with rewards that more or less are rations/money/energy to push through there is no voice acting here either, its not a bad thing but if the music is low and no song lyrics and its just you and this game. it will depletes your sanity, the least it can do is narrator VA or something of similar effect there is no way i have motivation to finish any other endings. especially since there is no manual saves and only auto. yeah no im not in mood for replaying the game from start if i need 100% this

I don't know where to begin. This game moved me in ways I didn't think was possible for a video game. It's deeply poignant and exceptionally written. Yes, it's mostly a graphic novel with time management mechanics woven into it, but that's not a bad thing when you know what you're getting yourself into. Give it a chance and I think you'll enjoy it.

this game was part of the bundle it is very interesting, but I have to drop it, I'm a VN player, there's something about the text that makes my eyes tired idk if it's the text itself, or it's too wordy per paragraph (I feel like VNs try to separate dialogue from narration, this game doesn't, it's like reading a book, but on a monitor) I still recommend it though, it was fun for the few hours that I played it

Chill game in a Cyberpunk-esque space world, would recommend

great game with a touching story and atmospheric soundtrack

Interesting game. Not great, not bad, kept me immersed until the end.

What a wonderfully crafted game. The characters come across so alive and well-rounded. The dialogues through which the story is told are so immersive. I love fungi.

can you all believe it took me until ALMOST HAVING MY CHARACTER DIE EARLY for me to figure out i could move the map aorund to find more locations early-game? everyone point and laugh at me if yall wish. still, a fantastically written choices game in space that gives me fond recollection of disco elysium - but if you were robot with cool powers that can make rolls easier and dice were rolledmore often overall. Definetly deserving of the positive reviews its given, and one worth your time to engage with - just take in mind there is a LOT more reading haha.

Fantastic story focused RPG. A simple dice system governs everything resulting in a nice system of resource management that meshes well with the narrative.

First game of this kind of bought. The art and atmosphere it creates is gorgeous. With the limited moves, if brings such an impending source of doom of so much to do but so little time to do it, forcing you to strategies.

Thought about this game just now, last played it some time last year. Immediately got emotional. If that sounds like something you might be into? Get this.

Great game. All your small actions shape the world around you, little by little, and it's a beautiful thing. You do the same tasks, and it's a struggle at the start. You struggle to survive. You struggle to stay afloat. But you get there, and you really start to build a life for yourself, just like you always hoped for. Great writing. Great characters. Great worldbuilding. Shoutout to my coworker for recommending this, you're a real one (redacted).

If you played Disco Elysium, you're going to like this one. Highly recommend. There's a special feeling you get when you play this that's hard to emulate and feel in other games. I am unable to describe it. Human? Intimate? Content? I don't know. It's worth experiencing and taking your time with. This feeling has different shapes as you play through the game. It starts off as small, fragile, and reactive, but as you play, it takes form and slowly envelops you. For me, it was anxiety, uncertainty, trying to scrape by and make it through just another cycle, then it turned into anger and determination because of certain story events. That feeling was roiling inside me, like smoldering embers that kept me going, but unlike a fire, when it cooled down, it didn't mean it was dead. It took on a new form. In the end, what I felt was something akin to serenity. I was happy with my choices; not everything had gone according to plan, but it didn't have to. Failing didn't mean losing. And so, in my final minutes of the game, I had seen the eye, and the eye had seen me. I couldn't ask for anything more. Once you get past the tutorial, it really is hard not to play this game, cycle through cycle, endlessly driven by the shifting world around. And one cycle, far from now, this experience, accumulation of memories, of tastes, of people, and places, and moments, will be the last thing I let go of.

The emotional experiences that this game offers are worth it. The layers of writing, audio, graphics and gameplay have their problems, but are strong enough to support these experiences. I will not talk about them in this review, and will scarcely touch upon the general themes explored. They are to be experienced by you, dear reader. I will only say that they are very evocative and thought-provoking, and often quite sad. I really wasn't sure if this kind of text-focused game would be my thing, but I was pleasantly surprised when the main gameplay-loop decision making process came to have tangible risks, stakes and rewards. There is a sense of a branching paths, and of the weight of your decisions. The first act is really engaging, and the second ties up the narrative threads in a satisfying way. At first I was excited about the replay-value, but I have to say, the game turned out to be very forgiving, maybe even excessively so. Enough so that it feels like I saw everything it had to offer on my one and only playthrough. Mostly because most stories are self contained and I got to see all of them through. In a way it is, or at least was somewhat disappointing. It feels undeserved, it feels like I shouldn't be able to just get to do it, not on my first try. I do wish the game was "harder", and maybe had more difference between the playable characters than just 2 steps into the skill-tree. The narrative very much character focused. The characters are vibrant and diverse, and I cared about many of them. They are a little held back by the over-arching world view of the writer I feel. The world building too often feels like the writer's views on contemporary problems and images of utopias. Often kinda surface-level, sometimes feeling a bit forced. It is what it is. BUT, the sci-fi elements are incorporated very nicely and are quite important to the story. So, overall, it's good. The writing isn't perfect, but it's good. And it is strong enough when it needs to be. That is most of what I have to say that I feel might be relevant to one choosing whether to play the game or not. My advice is to play it if you at all like stories. I hold the view that it is better to play games as blind as possible, and so I warn you that the rest of the text would probably be more suitable for people who have already played the game. Citizen Sleeper is slightly held back by the limitations of the genre, but it manages. Still, by the second act (what is also the DLC) the gameplay part of the game becomes pretty much irrelevant, becomes monotony that you go through to get through the narrative. In a way, in a way.. It kinda makes sense in the context of the world therein. In the end, I can't really say it made my final impression of the game worse. Maybe it could have done what some other indies do and abandon the base gameplay loop for something else in the second half. Or maybe it could have reimagined it in some way. Alas. The game world does feel a little empty near the end. I mean, here is the world, in it characters - I want to interact with them, talk to them! But, if the "quest-line" is complete, the game doesn't offer you an opportunity to do that. There is a strange sense of emptiness I felt looking at the half-empty world map. The game, in the end, for me, is one shot (yes, like the game OneShot). That is, I made my decisions and got my story, and have no desire to play it again - to try to do things differently. The decisions made carry too much weight. I got my story, and that is it.

PLAY. THIS. GAME. If you have even the faintest interest in interactive fiction, cyberpunk storytelling, or speculative sci-fi that doesn’t just talk about identity but makes you live it, then Citizen Sleeper is the one. A genre-defining gem. A late-night fever dream of survival, humanity, and found family among the rusted ruins of corporate collapse. The characters: Lem and Mina, Bliss and Moritz. Sabine, pulling threads of resistance. The haunting AI hunter. The lone fungus farmer. These are not quest-givers. They are people. And by god, you’ll care about them. The art: Moody, minimal, like a graphic novel glimpsed through static. The music: Drenched in longing. Synths that swell like breath. Echoes that haunt your downtime. Perfect for staring at the station and wondering who (or what) you really are. And the lore: It’s a world not over-explained but remembered. Part archaeology, part prophecy. If you’re into Kentucky Route Zero, Roadwarden, Disco Elysium, or anything that asks more questions than it answers, this is your cathedral. So please. Play this. Let it seep into your bones. Let it remind you what it means to choose, to endure, to connect.

Pretty great game, but be warned there is lots of text to read. Story is pretty engaging.

One of best VNs/resource management I've ever played. Love the story, love the art, love the music. Will make you stay up the entire night to see what comes later and stress you out over time limits and rng

I would say that as a game this is very poor but as a bit of media it is excellent. In terms of gameplay as a management sim and an RPG, this game has precious little of it and what it does involve is spending dice to advance storylines, gain items and gain money. Outside of the first few hours where money is tight and deadlines are looming, there is precious little real risk to the player as long as they sensibly balance their time doing a variety of activities. Once the money is sorted and the deadlines are not as urgent, the game really turns into a choose your own novel which is great, but hardly a game. Shame the dialogue options merely offer the illusion of choice The writing and story of this game really is it's highlight. Nothing here is groundbreaking for the scifi genre but it is overall well executed. The overall story premise is interesting, the multiple different storylines interesting (if totally lacking in player agency) and the characters colourful. There are some very engrossing scenes which really had me leaning forward in my seat. Shame the space between the excellently written dialogue is filled with tedious timers and very barebones gameplay. I did feel the game was starting to overstay its welcome by the time I reached one of the ending. I did not touch any of the DLC content so cannot comment on that. Overall I'd say a 7/8 out of 10. I do feel this game would have worked better as a pure choose your own adventure or as a visual novel.

beautifull, atmosperic game

Love a game that respects my time and can deliver a thoughtful experience in less than 9 hours.

fresh idea after fresh idea. the writing is consistently engaging, intriguing, and frankly literary, it's a lot harder than i thought it was going to be, but the repeat dialogue is simple enough to get through to get back where you were, and to me the "cycle system" feels like Celeste where you had control of the room you were in til you mastered it. there are lots of clocks going on but somehow absolutely no rush to it. of course, you wind up cornering yourself and are left to dangle with your lost cause. but it's really refreshing to be able to lose side quests and still hope to get lucky from another storyline. really great gameplay and great ideas throughout. i'm on my third playthrough now and have resorted to pen and paper to write down notes, names, missteps, etc. i was spreading myself too thin and now have to find a way to save currency very easy to lose track of where you went wrong. total blast.

Played this on a whim after seeing a tweet, just booted it up to poke around and maybe put an hour in tops. I then finished the whole thing in one day, gripped by this world from start to finish. The gameplay is nice and chill, yet still involved enough that it felt like more than a VN. The music and ambience were perfect, some of the most fitting and natural of any game I've played. I got super attached to the characters, to my friends, in this world, and enjoyed each of their quest endings. If this setting looks interesting to you, I'd highly recommend you pick this up, or at least grab it on sale sometime.

An amazing world with interesting characters and concepts hiding around every corner. The story pulls you in so many directions its certainly a game I will replay. Very satisfying to queue up actions and struggle against the limited actions and cycles your character has left. The tutorial pages can't be revisited (at least I couldn't find them in the options menus) so screenshot them when you see them. And the later stages of the core game include lots of clicking through travel locations if you need to access different ends of the map.

I was recommended this, by an IT coworker, and aside from the reading…. lol I absolutely love this game. Just finished my first run and can’t wait to try one of the many other ways

The gameplay was not that exciting but fitted well for this kind of story telling. However, the art style and story 9/10 both of them.

Completed the game from the first attempt in 6 hours. So it's pretty short and easy. I had fun playing it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to replay it. The starting choice of the character isn't that important outside of the early game since you will increase (and max out) your stats during the game, which seems to be the only different thing between the characters. Many of the things will have to be repeated between runs, although you can choose several different ways to finish the game. Also, the game has quite a lot of text with lore, which I wasn't very interested in, so I kind of skipped most of it. You don't really need to read it to complete the game, which is probably good since there is too much text for my liking. Overall, nice gameplay, but perhaps somewhat lacking in content and challenge.

Great game - can't wait to play the next one! It might be a little bit too linear for a RPG but choice and consequences do exist. Story, setting, art, gameplay, and duration are perfect (5/5),

I went into this game with pretty moderate expectations and mostly to catch up before playing the second one but this game is so well done, the dice rolls add enough amount of tension to the extremely well written characters and plot, especially the later added free dlc chapters are so well done. My only complaint is the game got wayy too easy by the end when I had enough credits to buy the entire eye. 8/10

Beat it, only did one ending so far. Really enjoyable. I would simply describe it as if Disco Elysium and Blade Runner had a baby. Very well written and thought provoking.

Incredible atmosphere, story and music in this deep space masterpiece of a game.

Beautify written story, filled with moments of stress but tasks never felt impossible to achieve. Some moments can go wrong due to bad luck, but it didn't feel like it hindered the game experience. I played through the whole game at least twice, and never felt bored. Just be ready to read, and enjoy!

This is NOT really a game. It's story telling through gamification. And it's amazingly great! As a lecturer on game design, I used to reference "To The Moon" for great story telling via game titles, and these often present more of an experience than an actual game. Citizen Sleeper has now become my main reference today to my students on this topic. The writing is really really good, and the immersion is awesome. The game is super low budget with mostly text and some pictures, and then one single 3D model of a space station that honestly isn't even difficult to sculpt at all. And it works - The writing simply carries it all. And the best part about the game is that it does not overstay its welcome. The length is perfect. Kudos!

First time playing a game like this. Overall great experience, the dice roll mechanic was interesting. The art style was nice and the soundtracks went well with the game. There are multiple different paths and relationships to explore. Some better than others. I believe it has 8 different endings, so it does have a lot of replay value. Only complaints I have, the way you navigate the eye could be better/faster and the dice roll mechanic can become tedious at times, more so toward the end. Overall great game, that i will return to in the future. 8.5/10

The writing is excellent, the story is thoughtful. The characters are archetypal but engaging. There aren't many games that I think about when I'm not playing, but Citizen Sleeper is good enough that I do think about it in those off hours.

Probably the most immersed I have ever gotten in an RPG. The cyberpunk/space setting is one of my favourites and even as a text-based game the few visuals did wonders to enhance the experience. The characters feel believable, realistic and relatable. It was easy to get immersed into the position of the Sleeper and to feel like part of life on the Eye. The only thing I would change is more interaction with certain characters after their storylines are 'over'. Quite a few characters you meet and grow attached too are just kind of 'gone' when you finish the respective drive. This was quite disappointing and broke my immersion a little. Overall a fantastic experience and one a wish I could play again for the first time.

I stumbled across this game with no expectations, and I have to say it was a beautiful experience. It's not a game you can rush through, you need to slow down as it's really text-heavy, but it's absolutely worth it. The choices you make, the stories you discover and the questions the game explores about humanity, existence, community and perseverance are all wonderfully narrated. The gameplay is easy to learn, the art style and music are great and the story made me cry. 10/10

Absolutely recommend, one of the best games ever made. The environment is fantastic, your choices matter to the story, and the vibes are immaculate.

Incredible. Only critique being that there is a lack of change-ups within the actual gameplay, but the writing, music, and art are all pure excellence. Guillaume Singelin, how you spoil us with your talents.

Great graphics, simple but telling of both the characters and their environment. Story works well in where it lacks dialogue routes it has choices on what to do per day and who to work with e.c.t. Didn't expect much getting it on sale but getting the sequel after I'm done, which should be soon because I'm binging this one