Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Last updated: 2025-02-22
- Excellent story, art, and music create immersion.
- Great sequel, expanding on the original game.
- Engaging new gameplay mechanics add strategic depth.
- Challenging difficulty offers a rewarding experience.
- Emotionally impactful story explores thought-provoking themes.
- Choices lack meaningful impact, short unsatisfying ending.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 91% · Negative 9%. Score: 9 / 100
Positives:
- The game excels in its narrative, art, and music, creating an immersive and emotionally resonant experience. Many reviewers found the game to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, with a more engaging story, enhanced gameplay mechanics, and a deeper connection to the characters and world. The game is praised for its ability to evoke strong emotions and leave a lasting impact on the player.
- The sequel successfully builds upon the foundation of the first game, expanding the world, mechanics, and story while retaining the core elements that made the original enjoyable. Reviewers appreciate the meaningful callbacks to the first game and the way the sequel enhances the overall experience for both new and returning players.
- The game introduces new mechanics, such as the crew system and contract missions, that add depth and variety to the gameplay. The dice system is praised for creating tension and rewarding risk-taking, while the contract missions offer engaging challenges and meaningful consequences. These additions enhance the overall gameplay experience and make the game more strategic and immersive.
- The game offers adjustable difficulty levels to cater to different player preferences, with the 'Dangerous' difficulty providing a challenging and rewarding experience. New mechanics, such as the stress system and die damage, add complexity and consequence to gameplay, making the game more engaging and strategic. The increased difficulty is seen as a positive change, encouraging players to think carefully about their choices and manage their resources effectively.
- The game's story is emotionally impactful, eliciting strong feelings and a sense of connection with the characters. Reviewers praise the game for its ability to evoke tears and goosebumps, highlighting the emotional depth and resonance of the narrative. The game explores themes of hope, humanity, and the strength found in friendships, leaving a lasting impact on the player.
Negatives:
- Choices often feel inconsequential, with limited impact on the main story and a lack of meaningful consequences. The game can feel railroaded, with the player's agency being undermined by forced story beats and dialogue options that don't reflect their intentions. Some reviewers also noted a lack of character distrust and drama, making choices feel even less impactful.
- Several reviewers felt the game was too short and the ending was rushed or unsatisfying, leaving them wanting more content and a better resolution to the narrative threads. Some felt the ending was pre-ordained, diminishing the sense of player agency and impact on the story's outcome. The game also lacks a New Game Plus mode, further limiting replayability.
- The dice mechanics, particularly the stress and dice breaking systems, are frustrating and poorly explained. Reviewers felt that bad dice rolls could lead to inescapable doom spirals, and the inability to repair partially broken dice added to the frustration. The game also lacks clear information about these mechanics, making it difficult for players to understand and manage them effectively.
- Resource management becomes trivial in the mid-to-late game, removing tension from contracts and undercutting the dystopian setting. Some reviewers found it too easy to accumulate wealth, making the game feel less challenging and undermining its themes. The game also lacks strategic options, making the gameplay feel pointless in the latter half.
- The game relies heavily on reading, which may not appeal to all players, and the lack of voice acting detracts from the storytelling. Some reviewers also found the writing style to be overly optimistic or saccharine, which detracted from the world's texture. The lack of language support for some regions also hinders players from fully enjoying the game.
Gameplay:
- The core gameplay revolves around dice mechanics used for actions, skill checks, and progressing the story. Higher dice rolls generally lead to more favorable outcomes, while lower rolls can result in negative consequences. Managing dice health, stress, and glitches is crucial, adding tension and complexity to the gameplay loop.
- The sequel expands upon the original game with new mechanics, a larger world, and a travel system that connects different locations. While some mechanics are more complex, the core gameplay loop remains similar, with a focus on dice rolling and resource management. The game also features a crew system that affects dialogues and mission outcomes.
- Contracts are high-stakes, time-limited missions that require strategic dice rolls and resource management. Players must carefully select crew members to compensate for weaknesses and manage stress to succeed. These contracts offer high rewards but also carry significant risks.
- Crew members provide additional dice and skills to aid in contracts, but their effectiveness can vary. Players can assign crew to jobs to passively gather resources while docked. Managing crew stress and strategically selecting crew members for contracts is important.
- The game combines visual novel elements with RPG mechanics and a dice system. It is described as an interactive novel with impactful choices and resource management. The game features a dice strategy mechanic that complements the visual novel aspect.
Performance:
- Many reviewers report that the game is stable and has few bugs. Some users have experienced crashes, while others have reported UI issues, including on Steam Deck. The game seems to run well on Steam Deck, aside from minor UI problems.
- Some users recommend specific OCR and translation settings (DeepL) or external translation programs (MORT) to improve text recognition and translation quality. This suggests that the default translation options may be lacking.
- Several reviews mention that the game has poor controller support. This may make the game difficult to play for some users.
- A reviewer mentioned that some dice are missing from the game. This is a specific bug that should be addressed.
- The game's instability on Linux laptops may be related to GPU switching during runtime. This is a specific issue that should be investigated.
Recommendations:
- Many reviewers recommend the game, especially to fans of the first Citizen Sleeper. They highlight that the sequel expands upon the original's strengths and is a must-play for those who enjoyed the first game's story, world, and themes. Some suggest playing the first game beforehand to appreciate returning characters and references.
- The game is highly recommended for its engaging narrative, immersive atmosphere, compelling characters, and meaningful choices. Reviewers praise the game as an unforgettable experience, highlighting its ability to evoke emotions and leave a lasting impact. Many consider it a must-play for fans of story-driven RPGs and interactive fiction.
- Some reviewers express extreme positive sentiments, rating the game 10/10 and considering it a Game of the Year contender. Others express disappointment, stating that the game is a step down from the first or that it did not meet their expectations. Due to the high variance and lack of specific feedback, this point has a reduced importance score.
- Reviewers suggest adjusting the difficulty level to match the player's desired experience. Easier difficulties are recommended for those who want to focus on the story, while harder difficulties provide a more stressful and challenging gameplay experience. Some reviewers recommend playing on the hardest difficulty to fully experience the game's tension.
- Reviewers suggest that both games in the series are enjoyable and worth playing, each with its own unique strengths and creative achievements. They recommend trying both games to fully appreciate the series' offerings. This point is of moderate importance due to its general nature.
Miscellaneous:
- The game shares similarities with the first Citizen Sleeper, featuring returning characters, similar writing, and consistent art style. However, it is not a direct sequel, focusing on new characters and themes while retaining the same universe and lore. Appreciation of returning characters is enhanced by having played the first game.
- The game is a text-heavy visual novel with branching dialogue choices, reminiscent of a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' book. It lacks voice acting and animated cutscenes, presenting information through pages of text. There is also no manual save function.
- The player controls a Sleeper, a biomechanical android, exploring themes of personhood and objecthood. The Sleeper is hunted and struggles with their identity as an artificial being trying to escape their past.
- The game presents a hopeful vision of the future, emphasizing the value of freedom, dignity, and agency. It uniquely conveys its story and character relationships, reminding players to fight for a better future.
- The game is set in a cyberpunk space setting with politically progressive themes, including anti-capitalist politics and working-class resistance. The story also subtly explores themes of body confusion, transformations, and androgynous characters, adding depth to the narrative.
