Citizen Sleeper is a roleplaying video game that was developed by Jump Over the Edge and released in 2022. Citizen Sleeper's sci-fi narrative places players in the shoes of a Sleeper — a human whose mind was inserted into a synthetic body by the Essen-Arp corporation. After escaping from indentured servitude, the Sleeper ends up stranded on a massive space station called the Eye. With limited energy, limited time, and a decaying body, the Sleeper must decide how to best prioritize their time aboard the station to not only escape but survive.
Citizen Sleeper's thematically poignant story and tabletop-inspired gameplay made it one of 2022's standout games. It was nominated in the Games for Impact category at The Game Awards and won the Social Impact Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. Thanks to Citizen Sleeper's success, a sequel is on the way and looks to be making some meaningful additions to the first game's formula.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Hands-On Preview
The Best War Games gets a hands-on look at the early hours of Citizen Sleeper 2, a highly anticipated sequel to the tabletop-inspired indie RPG.
How Citizen Sleeper 2 Changes the Game
The Story So Far
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector sees players return to creator Gareth Damian Martin's sci-fi universe as a new Sleeper. This Sleeper starts the game by waking up aboard a spaceship with no recollection of their past. On the run from a corporation and a gang — both of whom seek control over the protagonist — the Sleeper finds themselves traversing the Starward Belt. In order to survive the experience, the Sleeper must recruit allies and take on profitable yet dangerous contracts along the way.
Citizen Sleeper 2's Setting
While Citizen Sleeper 2 takes place in the same universe as the original game, the portion that players are able to explore will be much more expansive. Rather than being stuck on a space station like the eye, players will have the ability to travel throughout the Starward Belt. The Starward Belt is described as "a richly realized, ramshackle set of habitats in an asteroid belt full of secrets, stories, and characters trying to make ends meet."
Gameplay Updates
The first Citizen Sleeper offered players a unique gameplay experience with its dice-based resource management. Like in many tabletop roleplaying games, the outcomes of the Sleeper's actions are determined by rolling a series of six-sided dice. However, instead of rolling dice every time the Sleeper attempts to perform an action, the player is instead given a pool of pre-determined rolls at the start of every in-game cycle. With a limited number of both successes and failures, the player must then decide how to allocate their dice between the many jobs and quest lines available on the Eye. This forces the player to constantly reassess their priorities.
If life wasn't already stressful enough for the Sleeper, Citizen Sleeper 2 is now adding an actual stress system to the game. The new system is inspired by RPGs like Blades in the Dark and Mothership and Heart: The City Beneath. Martin shared in an interview with The Best War Games that, "Those systems generate so much tension and excitement, and I really wanted to bring that feeling into a game space for people who haven’t had the chance to experience it."
Whenever a player fails an action or receive a negative outcome for on of their rolls, they will gain stress. If they gain enough stress, then they run the risk of breaking one of the dice in their pool. Down a die, the player will be able to perform fewer actions in a cycle. This combined with the game's updated autosave system — designed to keep players from save scumming to avoid failure — will add more stakes to each decision that the player makes.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 87 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- January 31, 2025
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Violent References, Use of Alcohol And Tobacco, Drug Reference, Language
- Developer(s)
- Jump Over the Age
- Publisher(s)
- Fellow Traveller
WHERE TO PLAY
The highly anticipated sequel to one of 2022’s most acclaimed RPGs, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector takes players to the Starward Belt, a richly realised, ramshackle set of habitats in an asteroid belt full of secrets, stories, and characters trying to make ends meet.
You are a sleeper, an emulation of a human mind housed in an artificial body. You are on the run from the corporation that made you and the gang that seeks to control you. Commandeer a ship, build a network of crew and allies, and take on challenging contracts as you seek to build a future for yourself.
Choose a class, configure your skills and assemble your crew in unique tabletop-inspired gameplay. Your future depends on the roll of a dice, as you make difficult choices in a complex world. Reinventing the award-winning systems of Citizen Sleeper, this dice-driven RPG will satisfy both fans of the original game and new players alike.
- Number of Players
- 1
- PC Release Date
- January 31, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- January 31, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- January 31, 2025
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- January 31, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, PC
