Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

I agree with other reviewers that Citizen Sleeper 2 is a step down in every way from Citizen Sleeper 1. That doesn't make it a bad game, just not as good. Citizen Sleeper 1 was a 9/10 game, Citizen Sleeper 2 is more like a 7/10 game.

Mechnanically more interesting until you realize that normal becomes trivial a few hours in. Well written but could marinate in it a bit more. some nice callbacks to SC1 but a few that feel a little heavy. Contracts are great, but I wish they were a bit meatier. Its well worth your time, but doesnt reach the highs of the first.

This game might not be for anyone, but it is made from a passion of the heart. And I and i'm sure many others will deeply resonate with it's many themes, of identity, of the human condition, the struggle of peoples. Every person you meet in this game feels meaningful unlike in alot of RPGish games where they are alot of the time filler or just meatpuppets to kill. This game makes you feel and resonate with most characters, or atleast understand them. A resonance of life. I think this is one of those games that once you attune and let the game inside of you, it becomes a small part of the self. Personally for me i really resonated with Citizen Sleeper 1 for it's themes of the decaying body and when i noticed that we don't use stabilizer in this one here i was kinda disappointed. i liked how the mechanics displayed this reliance of medicine and the decay of the body. But this game still keeps it up in different and interesting ways, so i'd say my dissapointment was pre-mature. Honestly just Sleepers are used as a good allegory for a bunch of things, the struggle of identity, queerness and being used by capital. This game is art, up there with Disco Elysium.

Citizen Sleeper 2 and its predecessor are two of the most beautiful stories I've ever had the joy to experience. These games have taught me about myself through their exploration of the life of a Sleeper--an artificial being created from the emulation of a human mind. The vibe, the music, the characters, the story, and the choices you make along the way are what make this game special. Play it.

Overall a gorgeous game, but I'll admit, I had a difficult time pulling the energy to finish. I'll start by saying I absolutely loved the narrative of the first game – being anchored in The Eye and the deep roots you create with the community, ultimately leading to an incredibly meaningful decision at the end that beautifully tied together the theme of the game. What I felt the first game lacked was gameplay mechanics that fully meshed with the story in an impactful way. Now for the CS2, the mechanics made up for what the first game lacked in spades. The dice glitches, building your crew and contract missions were engaging and added a level of challenge that I really enjoyed. However, I think the narrative suffered from a lack of focus and maybe the various locations and side plots being too expansive. I didn't have the same emotional investment in the characters and places that I had last time. The only moments I truly found myself moved were the nods to the first game, but I think without the background context, those moments don't pack as much of a punch. And lastly, I thought the writing of the end was beautiful, but this story really only has one end and I wish there was more agency with the final decision. I still recommend CS2! But I'm a sucker for a good story that really utilizes gameplay as a medium, and I think my bar for was a little high from the first game.

I loved the first so I am so disappointed in this one. I just finished an entire job where the payoff was that there was no loot at all. It is also heavily biased towards the player being the operator class, trying to be the other two are a waste of time.

First one felt fresh and new. This one has some nice additions (missions) but ultimately gets real bloated and repetitive quickly. New stations are just like other ones , unlock place to eat, supplies, make money, etc. Writing is bloated for my tastes. First one I was invested in and it felt a bit like a struggle - and with more gameplay choices. This one feels like the choices are purely superfluous and trivial (it becomes obvious which choices are optimal when going to next cycle, what crew to get to supplement your char, you can't do anything with dice until they break, etc), only upgrades that are worth it are the ones to supplement your dice + values - making the upgrade system 1 dimensional, slow and unfortunately uninteresting. It lines you up for just going down the few various side missions (and main) with little deviation (feels on rails). Perhaps this was also true in the first , I can't recall, but this one feels only like more of the same , yet less interesting. It's unfortunate as the first was a surprise like for me and looked forward to this one and possibly some expanded decision making, game play elements , etc in a sequel but didn't find what I was looking for in it as much as possibly others. After 7hrs and getting through 4-5 systems I got bored sadly. Perhaps this genre isn't totally for me.

Continues the excellent sci-fi setting and writing of the first game. There are some differences in the systems and narrative approach but I think they support the way the two games tell different stories.

Citizen Sleeper 2 has a great story, but I still prefer the first one. The main problem I had with it is that after the recon to the Darkside, everything starts moving way too fast. A lot of storylines just suddenly end, and some of the conclusions feel kind of lame or too predictable. It made the whole thing less exciting for me, especially compared to how thoughtful and well-paced the first game was.

Even though I feel like it falls short in comparison to the og, Citizen Sleeper 2 is one of the best and most modern rpgs out there at the moment.

Citizen Sleeper 2 is a perfect sequel, improves on whatever tiny problems I had with the first one and expands on the world drastically. It evokes Firefly, Cowboy Bebop and Mass Effect 2 in its ragtag space-faring crew, where each character that calls your rinkydink ship home have their own motivations and it all intertwines perfectly with your own objective to be free. Every contract is built to be barely survived and you will lose some of them. However, it is in this design choice that Citizen Sleeper 2 finds its biggest strength, to provide us with emergent compelling situations where neither choice is a good option, and that teaches you to value the time where a job actually goes well. My only complaint is I wish it was longer and I had more to do in the Starward Belt. 9/10

A visual novel with interesting game mechanics. The story is fun and engaging and takes a decent amount of time to complete. I would say play conservatively at first, the first mission throws you into the deep-end as far as gameplay goes. Dice are easy to break if you aren't careful and difficult to repair, so you may be stuck playing with 3 of the 5 dice unusable for long stretches of the game if you aren't savvy about stress management.

I really enjoyed the game play changes of Citizen Sleeper 2; being able to travel to different ports, takes contracts, help others, manage my ship and crew. It was a wonderful improvement on the last game and I wish there was an epilogue. Maybe future DLC but just to finish off stuff for my crew or do procedurally generated contract work, build up the ********, get an apartment, or other wise. Not too sure what people mean about the game heavily favoring the operator class; I completed my first run on mechanist and dangerous difficulty just fine; bring the right crew to fill your gaps, focus on upgrading your skills and push then you should be fine. Anyways, the art, writing, music, and pacing of it all is beautiful as always.

This was an interesting one. About five hours into the game—after restarting a few times—I almost rage-uninstalled it. But now, after 18 hours, I think it's a great game (with lots of small issues) and better than Citizen Sleeper 1. I think the first part of the game has some problems: things can go very wrong without the player even realizing what’s happening. I wrote a few long paragraphs about this and deleted them, but to put it simply—at every station, do the given contract last, not first. It sounds like a basic RPG thing, but I personally thought, “Okay, I guess this is what I do now,” and ended up on a horrible journey without proper preparation, only to have my run ruined by two bad rolls. Once I figured that out (around the five-hour mark...), the game became very easy—just like CS1. There are also too many small mechanics and too few opportunities to properly learn them (how many contracts are there? less then ten?). I had a bunch of “Ohhh, that’s how it works?” moments, which wasn’t a great feeling. I also didn’t enjoy most of the characters or dialogue this time around either but that might be just me. In the end, I think it was a great game—and better than CS1. The mission system could use some UX improvements, but I love how it opens the door for expansion packs with a dozen missions (all short stories) to extend the game and its universe. universe, music, vibe, story, writing were all great; I really hope people won't miss out on those because of a rough start like I almost did.

Better than the first game, large open world, good character and lore continuation from the first game and interesting new systems but the ending feels anti-climactic and maybe rushed compared to the first games pilgrim ending. It also failed to create the emotional investment in to the characters you interact with. there is a companion in the game that apparently most people either don't remember or haven't met and there's an achievement for recruiting them. There is a known bug where your game progress can disappear, tried contacting the support email listed on steam but got no response, doesn't matter as when skipping dialogue you can make back 12 hours progress in roughly an hour and a half.

The Citizen sleeper series is a masterwork. This SHOULD be played on the hardest setting unless you suck at chance based puzzles!

Game has fantastic art, soundtrack and writing. I enjoyed my time with it quite a bit. It has several severe flaws, but I think they are worth pushing through for. A major problem is there is no manual saving, its purely autosaved. The problem with that is they don't give you a way to heal your dice unless they are fully dead. You can have 20 healing items (rare components) and no way to heal before your next mission. Because of this, at some point, you will have to go into a mission with 20% of your health remaining and absolutely NO way to mitigate this. This makes the game less about playing an RPG and making decisions. The game is about choosing which mission you want to waste your mandatory failure on because you simply don't have the dice health to get through a mission. Baffling and awful design decision, especially when a central pillar of the story is about unlocking the ability to heal and assembling a network of experts on repairing your body. All the things you care about for this game, the great writing and art direction, are heavily undermined by RPG mechanics that actively incentivize you to meta game and intentionally fail sections to break your dice on purpose so you can actually heal them. Other than that though, the beautiful art direction and music will make your time getting to know the belt and coming to care for its people, its politics, and the skillfully woven web of the live of the people who inhabit it a beautiful and meloncholy one.

[h1]A Solid Sequel[/h1] The first game was truly captivating. with it's fantastic writing, deep world building and evocative soundtrack, so buying Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector was a no-brainier for me. I may update this review after successive play through's, but at this stage, the follow-up is a solid 6 or 7 out of 10 in my books. The expanded universe and it's multitudes of new locations and characters is my highlight here - you really do get a sense of the world the characters exist in and I would love to see it expanded further in a new game or as a TTRPG supplement. The writing is still great, however it feels diluted somewhat compared to the first game, with the action focused in the physical realm as opposed across both digital and physical realms as in the first. While the simplicity of both games is part of their beautiful execution, the lack of additional Save options means a bad roll of some dice locks you out of some Steam achievements unless you play [i]the whole story all over again[/i], and well, who's really going to do that? Over-all, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a solid sequel and absolutely worth getting to spend more time in the Citizen Sleeper universe.

In a cold vast space you will find heart warming characters and a to my taste nice mix of minimalistic gameplay and text based story. Event though I enjoyed the gameplay of the first game more, Starward Vector is a step up presentation wise. The sensitive and intelligent way of writing is paired with a touch of existential tragedy in a cyberpunk setting.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector keeps everything that made the original so great - the excellent atmosphere, beautiful art, the great OST, and the amazing writing - while also making tweaks and improvements to the dice system and y'know what? I'm not gonna beat around the bush. I think Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a perfect game, and it's absolutely going to be my game of the year. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector replaces the large station of Erlin's Eye with the dozen smaller stations across Helion's Starward Belt. A new Sleeper and their friend Serafin have escaped from gangster Laine with a stolen starship and have to cut out a life for themselves, taking contracts and picking up new crew members while trying to avoid Utsubo gangsters hunting them down. But as each new crew member joins, they have their own goals and baggage that needs to be dealt with. The character writing is such a strong point; each character feels distinct, conflicts with each other, and has their own goals in a way that makes the story so interesting. I also love the themes of community; although the Belt is on the edge of calamity, people are still looking out for each other and your looking out for them. In the face of ruin, it's worth building a life as best you can because it doesn't matter if it can all be taken away. You lived it. I love love love the new dice system; mounting stress as you get further and further into a contract, risking failure for a higher reward, makes for such a fun and tense gameplay system tying into the story. It's a massive improvement from the enjoyable, but overly simple foundation that the previous game had. I love these games so much, and I can't wait for the tabletop RPG adaptation that Gareth Damian Martin has hinted at.

I reccomend this game despite The core truth that every other reviewer will point to; Yes. Citizen Sleeper 1 is a better game, absolutely. One hundred percent. That being said, I do not for a moment believe that this game is without merit. I still highly recommend the experience.

I don't usually finish VN's. I don't even play them, actually. But this one is something. The plot is great. You will have moments when you feel chased into a corner with no options left, you will see joyful family reunions, you will face betrayal and unexpected allies. That section before ending when you have limited time and trying to finish all the side stories is awesome, devs wanted you to feel how time slips through your fingers at the end and they did it perfectly. Dice mechanics is great. BUT. If you are a casual player like me - play on easiest difficulty. I found it was way better than "normal" one. It's still challenging but A LOT more doable than higher difficulties. Aaaand it has pretty manageable length. It won't suck you dry like 30-40 hours long japanese VN's.

Starting off the dice rolls, even if RNG, seem to always be ones or twos for me. This was to the point where i restarted 3 times just to make sure. And sure enough, all crap ones or twos. Get some crewmates, they roll all ones or twos. I went on my second expedition, only to find out that after solving two problems, two more problems poped up, meaning i ran out of supplies. Meaning my dice failed more. Meaning more stress. Meaning more lost skills. And oh, one more problem solved and after that is another problem. And another problem solved after that. Then my last two dice roll ones. Completely unfun to play at that point. If there are failure points in a story based game, the failures should be equally as engaging. But it was just annoying. I never felt like i was making any progress. And then the crew I was empathetic to and agreed to help even though they were needy... leaves for reasons poorly explained. Hard uninstall after that. Its a shame because the first game seemed better written and something with the way the dice worked made me feel like i was actually growing as i went. This misses that growth.

Like if FTL and dnd had a baby, sorta. Top tier game so far. Does not work well on steamdeck, the context text is really pixelated and unreadable. But fine on pc.

Citizen Sleeper, the predecessor to this game, was incredible in its own right. But this sequel takes the world of Citizen Sleeper to new heights. New mechanics to freshen up gameplay, new characters that will grip you from the start, and a new take on an escaped sleeper that is extremely compelling. Not only that, but this sequel can be played on its own, with no prior knowledge of the first game. That being said, it does reward those who have played the first game by referencing its storyline and including some familiar faces. This game series has a unique format that is part visual novel, part dice game, and they have absolutely mastered this genre of their own creation. I can't recommend this game enough. And hey, why not play the original while you're at it? See you out there, Sleeper.

Look at the screenshots for this game. If they at all entice you, you will love this game. If they don't, you may still love this game. If you've somehow found a third option, you may still love this game. Really, the Citizen Sleeper franchise is a good story telling experience with a solid game mechanic foundation.

Just as engaging as the first game, with a fresh spin on familiar mechanics that give it its own identity. Thanks for letting me get lost in this world once more <3

This is such a great expansion on the original! It makes for a nice sequel.

A worthy sequel. Even better writing and interesting new mechanics.

can pet the cat 10/10

I liked the first game more.

flint my life and heart are yours

My ship is a clown car of strays

very sweet

It'll give you the feels

really really good game

This game is really beautiful.

very good