Even if you’re not someone who caught the originalCitizen Sleeper, it’s time to share why you absolutely need to put the sequel, Starward Vector, on your collective radar.
I am a fan of narrative adventures and games with dice, which was a big reason I volunteered to tackle this ambitious, sprawling, space-bound adventure.
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Not only isCitizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vectora compelling game with a diverse and eclectic band of characters, but it is also deep, complex, and full of mechanics that are fun to utilize even without fully grasping their nuances.
It’s a game that vindicates my lifelong fandom of science fiction, and a road map for more projects to follow in its wake. But, if you want to know if it’s a cult classic like its predecessor, then you better stick around.
The Odds Stacked Against You
As is pretty much custom in this series, you awake to an enigmatic scene, feeling as rough as sandpaper, and as the thread unravels, you can slowly piece together your role in this world.
You play the titular Sleeper, a synthetic humanoid on the run from a menacing individual named Laine. This is the narrative pillar upon which everything else balances, but this life on the run theme is just the spine of an ever-branching story.
The painfully obvious thing at play here is that there’s something dreadfully wrong with you, which results in your inability to remember much of anything about your synthetic life.
Thankfully, you aren’t reliant on Stabilizer this time around, but believe me when I say, there are plenty of things besides a slow decay from withdrawal to worry about this time around.
From this rocky start, you slowly gain a foothold within this vast solar system, and you’ll come to realize that Starward Vector is every bit as brilliantly written as the original; from the colorful cast to the impossible decisions you’ll face, it’s a rollercoaster, but the kind that you immediately line up to get on again.
I could wax lyrical about the deep bonds you form, the relations that come with slowly piecing together your past, and the exquisite peaks and valleys that help ensure this narrative is paced perfectly. But that would be to deny you everything that makes CS2 so special.
However, what I will say is that it’s a much grander tale than before, but that’s primarily down to the gameplay additions that ensure that this isn’t just a like-for-like expansion on the original.
Just a Roll of the Dice
Just in case you’re not aware of the mind-boggling systems that Citizen Sleeper employs, let me break it down for you as best as I can.
It’s sort of like a D&D campaign, where dice are used to calculate everything. Primarily, these involve skill checks and the use of action dice. The latter is used to earn Cryo (the game’s currency) by doing random jobs from welding to signal listening and much, much more.
You’re always aiming for a Positive effect, but there’s also Neutral and Negative. And much like in that iconic game it’s loosely inspired by, the dice RNG can occasionally be a bastard.
The system is tough to get your head around at first if you’re not a returning player, but before long, you’ll be using your dice in the most optional way possible to get the most out of each day and push back the inevitable, chasing you down for another cycle.
It’s more or less the same core loop as the first game. Use your dice to work, to gain reputation among the station you inhabit, and this eventually triggers quests that can further the story. And as was the case before, inactivity is basically a death wish.
You need to always be busy, and if you are, you’ll rarely go wrong.
Refining, Not Re-inventing
It’s more or less the same as before where systems are concerned, but there have been small refinements that make things rather interesting, and the biggest change by some distance is the operations you’ll go on as a crew.
Instead of simply being confined to one station where all the action will play out, the player is able to gather a ragtag crew together and, more importantly, take them on odd jobs to earn some cyro.
During these excursions, the action not only plays out differently depending on who you take with you, encouraging repeat playthroughs, but you’ll also need to control their actions alongside your own, meaning there are three sets of dice live at once.
Plus, each character will have their own class, meaning you’ll need to play to everyone’s strength if you want to stand a chance of completing the job, and maybe even getting some additional loot if you’re really on form.
It’s this, alongside some other tweaks to the already stellar dice system and progression, that make strategizing and agonizing over every decision so engaging. But most importantly, the developers knew they had a good thing here, and thankfully, they kept all the good stuff intact.
Keep Moving
What keeps the game engaging, though, is how you’re constantly pursued by Laine. You want to avoid the turn clock running out of time because when it does, bad things happen.
This gave the game’s proceedings a constant layer of stress, but one which effectively motivated me to pay close attention to how I used my time and trying to do so efficiently.
This is no different from the feeling of someone breathing down the back of your neck from the original, but the way you push back the inevitable has changed significantly.
CS2 allows you to travel the Starward Belt, as you are no longer confined to a huge area like The Eye, but rather a series of smaller but equally substantial areas, and with each time you move, you buy yourself more time as Laine must track your position once more.
However, to do this effectively, you need to map out your cycle with precision, have enough supplies and fuel to take off again, and as time wears on and things get more stressful, it becomes painfully clear that you’ll need to make sacrifices, or come face to face with the reaper.
It’s a new format that promotes more player freedom and agency, and less of an on-rails sort of feel to proceedings, but above all, it’s a new layer of gameplay that urges the player to strategize and plan down to the finest detail, charting a course to see as much as possible and help as many NPCs as you can, while also looking out for yourself.
It adds a sense of scale and variety to the game that was perhaps lacking in the self-contained environment of the original, and when it all goes wrong, and things get sweaty as you make a last-ditch escape, there are few games that can match that feeling of tension and relief, and damn near none in the text-based sub-genre.
Mushrooms, Anyone?
My favorite part of the game, though, was simply how it’s a choose-your-own-adventure. You’re always choosing how best to use your time, and your choices at pivotal moments determine not only who joins your crew, but whether they live or die.
I tried to make space a better place, taking on silly chores and helping spread goodwill when I could. This involved helping Aki make the Greenbelt thrive with some food samples, moving around cargo for a fatalistic cook, spray-painting my ship and showcasing it for an artist, and much more.
But knowing that Laine was always just a few steps behind me forced me to consider each decision deeply.
When I wasn’t earning goodwill, I picked more dangerous missions. Mining meteors for ice cores, scavenging ancient ruins for powerful ancient technology, and even trying to organize workers against horrible corporations.
You might think this makes the UI a chore, but thankfully, you have a lot of control over how you organize things by toggling on markers for your selected mission.
It’s also very easy to click around the map, scrolling up and down to view the available locations, and a quick right-click brings you right back to your Rig, where you can rest, recover, or repair your dice.
Don’t Just Exist, Evolve
While I very much enjoyed my time withCitizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, I do feel that it’s so dense and complicated that it could be off-putting to those who don’t play a lot of visual novels.
Even after spending my first couple of hours with the game, I still feel some nuances of the game’s systems are a bit archaic for potential newcomers, which was a common jumping-off point for the first game. Not in a way that prevented me from playing or enjoying the game, but just in a way that limited my full understanding.
Additionally, the learning curve is initially pretty steep. If you’re brand new to CS, I assure you, it gets better over time, but that assumes you’re willing to put up with potential confusion or uncertainty for a few hours.
Also, while this may seem like an odd critique, I found the black background overlaid with plain white text made it occasionally hard to read. At times, it made my eyes blur uncomfortably after more than an hour of playing the game.
Admittedly, I’m someone who wears glasses, but I think it’d be helpful for the game to offer a variety of visual settings to diminish this potential issue.
That said, it more than makes up for any shortcomings with gorgeous artwork, complex characters, and a sprawling sci-fi story in the Starward Belt.
Closing Comments:
Even if you haven’t played the first game, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a rousing sci-fi adventure. It features complex but fun dice mechanics, a choose-your-own-adventure playstyle, and many memorable characters to interact with. If you’re able to push through the initial learning curve, you’ll find a worthy and long-lasting VN experience.
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