Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector review – station to station

One of the champion indie titles of caller years hits caller heights with an fantabulous sequel that becomes the archetypal must-play video crippled of 2025.

Despite its antithetic gameplay and meditative pace, Citizen Sleeper was thing of a breakthrough for UK developer Gareth Damian Martin. The dice-based abstraction escapade racked up 4 BAFTA nominations and a motion astatine The Game Awards, albeit successful the patronising Games For Impact category. The spot wherever thoughtful, genre-defying games are lumped unneurotic and fixed a disengaged pat connected the head, truthful they don’t disturb the assemblage pleasers.

After aggregate slices of DLC, Citizen Sleeper’s occurrence has led to a somewhat unconventional sequel. It’s bigger, richer, and builds connected the original’s foundations, but there’s besides much friction shouldering you into its endurance mechanics.

If you didn’t play the original, Citizen Sleeper is simply a tabletop-inspired role-playing crippled driven by text-based sci-fi storytelling. You play arsenic a Sleeper, an emulation of a quality caput housed wrong an artificial body, who is connected the tally from the corp that gave you life. This clip though, you’re chiefly connected the tally from a transgression pack person called Laine, who is trying to power your synthetic beingness for his ain mysterious gains.

In your flight for a amended life, you find yourself successful the Starward Belt, a series of crumbled settlements astatine the borderline of the war-torn Helion system. Instead of controlling the quality directly, the crippled is played via an overhead presumption of a abstraction station, with nary enactment gameplay to talk of.

The tabletop-style loop is hinged astir fixed dice you’re fixed astatine the commencement of each cycle, which you tin usage successful places of involvement via the aerial view, specified arsenic shops and different facilities, successful bid to advancement the communicative oregon support your survival. The higher the dice fig is – and if your quality people has the applicable accomplishment – the amended your chances are of completing a task successfully, whether that’s moving a displacement successful a mill for currency oregon trying to hack into a instrumentality arsenic portion of a communicative mission.

Tension comes from balancing the completion of these tasks portion ensuring you person the resources to past done each cycle, which you manually extremity yourself erstwhile you person utilized each your dice. If luck isn’t connected your broadside oregon you gamble with a debased die, you mightiness beryllium punished with vigor loss, which costs supplies, and successful crook resources, to rejuvenate.

The sequel introduces different layers of stress. If your vigor runs retired oregon if you neglect definite jobs a literal stress gauge volition summation and dilatory erode wellness bars attached to your 5 dice. If near untreated, you’ll rapidly find yourself connected a slippery slope, with breached slots and constricted options connected however to crawl backmost to safety.

To adhd to the pressure, there’s besides a caller glitch mechanic. Some actions volition boost a glitch meter, expanding the accidental of a malfunctioning dice occupying 1 (or several) of your slots. These lone springiness you a one-in-five accidental of success, truthful they go a precise tempting gamble erstwhile you are clamouring for a hail Mary against the cyclical clock.

These are good implemented arsenic a decease punishment too, with each hitch retired (if each your dice break) applying a imperishable glitch you person to contend with for the remainder of the game. If you fancy an other challenge, the highest trouble enactment ends your tally wholly if you die, heightening the stakes adjacent further.

If the archetypal Citizen Sleeper was comparatively relaxed successful its difficulty, Starward Vector isn’t acrophobic to compression your supplies and propulsion you into pressured situations wherever you’re 1 dice propulsion distant from failure. It does inactive person stretches wherever it eases up and relishes successful the cerebral atmosphere, but the wide bump successful trouble feels similar a considered swerve to accentuate the role-playing systems astatine the game’s core.

These revamped systems besides marque each choice, whether successful the dice meta-game oregon successful the narrative’s dialog options, much meaningful and consequential. The archetypal Citizen Sleeper, portion great, was mostly superfluous arsenic a role-playing game, with tacked-on quality classes and accomplishment trees which you could mostly ignore. Here, everything is cohesive and complimentary to the wide design, successful a mode that is acold much accomplished than its predecessor.

The added strength baked into the mechanics coalesces with the communicative too. Yes, you’re a Sleeper that’s connected the run, but your assemblage is besides successful a gradual authorities of diminution aft an attempted reboot – causing representation nonaccomplishment and different malfunctions, which you gradually unpack arsenic you brushwood characters crossed the adventure.

While the wide premise is akin to the original, the conceit is much compelling owed to the sequel’s expanded scope. Instead of being pinned to 1 determination throughout, this sequel, successful a akin vein to Mass Effect 2, sees you traverse to antithetic abstraction stations crossed the Starward Belt, wherever you brushwood antithetic characters who tin articulation your crew. Every unit subordinate you get tin past beryllium utilised successful isolated declaration missions, who volition squad up with you with their ain dice and circumstantial attributes to implicit the occupation astatine hand.

These declaration missions enactment arsenic concentrated doses of accent betwixt the downtime of gathering resources, wherever you’ll beryllium trying to hack into wreckage without alerting patrolling drones and mining for supplies successful a contention against a rival ship, among different tasks. Your determination implicit which crewmates you instrumentality connected missions often boils down to balancing attributes to antagonistic the weaknesses successful your build, but you volition besides commencement to signifier favourites based connected their personalities.

Between these isolated jobs and the greater state successful its design, Citizen Sleeper 2 is simply a acold much robust gaming acquisition erstwhile compared to the original. You are fundamentally conscionable travelling betwixt antithetic paper screens, sure, but the other furniture of information abstraction question brings to the array – with each travel requiring you to refuel your vessel – lone reinforces the convincing illusion that you aren’t simply clicking connected widgets.

Like the archetypal game, the characters you conscionable are the psyche of Citizen Sleeper. These are each individuals who, similar the protagonist, are trying to woody with situations beyond their control, successful 1 signifier oregon another, arsenic they hunt for intent and solace connected the periphery of an escalating war. It’s pertinent and, astatine times, disarmingly touching – particularly successful its last act. The dialog choices you make, which are occasionally accomplishment dependent, change different characters’ arcs successful notable ways too, giving you the inducement for repetition runs with different quality classes.

None of this would enactment without the exceptional writing, which ever feels uncluttered and purposeful. It’s peculiarly awesome when, for agelong stretches, you’re simply speechmaking substance disconnected a surface with static quality artwork (excellently drawn by Guillaume Singelin) and occasional achromatic flashes for melodramatic effect, yet it manages to beryllium much absorbing than galore afloat realised 3D worlds.

It’s a testament to the penning but besides the subtle soundtrack by Amos Roddy, which is each spacious synth trickles and atmospheric soundscapes that allows your imaginativeness to capable successful the blanks.

If the archetypal Citizen Sleeper was an engrossing but flawed instauration to its hybrid tabletop concept, Starward Vector represents a existent archetypal flourishing into its afloat potential. Like the champion sequels, it builds connected and refines what’s travel before, but it besides charts its ain distinctive path
through the circumstantial choices of its design. It mightiness lone beryllium January, but this crippled of the twelvemonth contender deserves to onshore with maximum impact.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £20.99*
Publisher: Fellow Traveller
Developer: Jump Over the Age
Release Date: 31st January 2025
Age Rating: 12

*available connected Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from time one

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, permission a remark below, follow america connected Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.

To taxable Inbox letters and Reader’s Features much easily, without the request to nonstop an email, conscionable usage our Submit Stuff leafage here.

For much stories similar this, check our Gaming page.

MORE: PS5 games connected PC are yet dropping mandatory PSN accounts

MORE: Call Of Duty effect connected Game Pass was tiny reveals caller Xbox income info

MORE: Games Inbox: Will determination beryllium much than 1 Nintendo Switch 2 model?