We loveCitizen Sleeperhere at TheGamer (it was crowned the site’s GOTY in 2022), so you can imagine we’ve all been looking out for its sequel,Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Our own Ben Sledgepreviewed the game back in June, but for the rest of us unlucky sleepers, we’ve had to wait for a publicly available demo to get our filthy paws on it.
Well, the time to whip out your paws is now, because it’s Steam Next Fest. We at TheGameralsolove Steam Next Fest because it’s the perfect time to scope out the most exciting unreleased games, especially in the indie space, but I’m especially excited because this round has brought us the first playable demo of Citizen Sleeper 2.
The first game wasoften comparedtoDisco Elysium, with its dice-rolling mechanics (may I refer you toAndrew King’s great featureon how dice rolls perfectly reflect these games’ critiques of capitalism?) and the way its story is told, but in many ways, it’s also a very different game. Citizen Sleeper sits firmly in the science fiction genre, telling a story about a dystopian world where Sleepers are humans with digitised minds, forced into indentured servitude by a ruthless corporation.
The sequel starts like the first: your Sleeper wakes up in an unfamiliar space station. This time, though, things are somehowworse– you’ve lost most of your memory in a botched reboot of your consciousness. The reboot was meant to stop your dependence on a substance called Stabilizer, but Laine, a criminal you’re somehow linked to, was the one who interrupted it, leaving you confused and disoriented as you and your companion make a hasty escape.
Also like the original, the mechanics you’ll find are familiar. You have the same dice roll mechanism deciding your success with various actions, dictating which locations will open up to you. Higher dice mean higher probabilities of success, naturally, but your success rate will also be modified by the class you assigned your Sleeper. The demo had three classes – I’m not sure if the final game will have more, but the three classes here already allowed for a degree of flexibility in gameplay.
There are differences, though. Now, instead of your body decaying, you can feel stress, which damages your dice rolls and even makes them redundant. There’s a map allowing you to travel to different places in the system, expanding the activities you can do and places to explore. You can bring crewmates on jobs off-ship where they can lend you their skills (and extra dice), accruing more currency for a lot of risk. However, they can inhibit your options too, as they have their own motivations which may contradict your goals.
If I had any criticisms of the first game, it’s that the game felt almost too easy after a certain point. Citizen Sleeper 2 isn’t easy at all, at least in the short demo I played. The clock is ticking down to when Laine tracks us down again, and there are so many things to do before time runs out. The desperation your Sleeper feels is palpable, because every action you take might be wasted time, or even to your detriment.
I played through the demo once, and I was already wondering what would happen if I’d made different choices – it felt like everything I did had a real impact on the narrative. I’ll probably go back to it later and see what else I can make happen.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is slated for a 2025 release, though an exact date hasn’t been announced yet. We’re all probably gonna play it regardless of when it launches, though. Until then, you can try the demo onSteamuntil October 21.
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.
