Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review
Wake Up, Sleeper. Again!
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is Jump Over the Age’s triumphant return to hope in an era of deep space capitalist collapse. This time around, players build a crew and travel between humanity’s outposts among the stars, chasing post-corporate intrigue, odd jobs, and personal goals. Many of the sci-fi elements are familiar aspects of grungy space exploration à la Cowboy Bebop, Firefly, or Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers: the small ship skirting financial ruin in a gig economy, beauty in brokenness, the restorative power of found family, and the struggle for freedom. But Citizen Sleeper 2 is unique in its unflinching exploration of how people and societies are shaped by and rebel against external forces. It is a unique celebration of community in the face of history’s inexorable scars.
As in Citizen Sleeper, the protagonist is a sleeper: an artificial being who contains mental aspects of a human debtor serving their sentence in cryosleep. Unlike most sleepers, this one isn’t an indentured corporate possession or dependent on chemical stabilizers to prevent their body from breaking down. Nevertheless, planned obsolescence can’t be ignored for long. Life is dangerous and they’re falling apart. The technology and politics that lead to this thorny state are a lot to absorb, but they wend through the story in a way that invites curiosity rather than obscures. The Starward Belt is far from Erlin’s Eye, the setting of Citizen Sleeper, but longtime fans will be happy to know many of its stories continue. Like Erlin’s Eye, the Starward Belt is an area of former corporate influence, rife with technology and repurposed holdings from a period of unchecked growth. Corporate war is far away but not so distant that its shockwaves are inconsequential.
Up to two crew members can join on each contract. Each crew member provides two dice per cycle as long as their stress is managed.
Traveling the vastness of the Starward Belt requires planning. Fuel and supplies aren’t cheap, and their absence leads to decidedly sub-optimal decisions. None of the explorable locations are as large as Erlin’s Eye, but they offer far more variety for salvagers, xenobotanists, and asteroid miners. This variety is especially apparent during contract missions, which only last for a limited time. Small, personal missions like sketching unique architecture share space on the itinerary with longer, more far-ranging quests like confronting the powerful criminal on the sleeper’s trail. While some of these contracts pass through locations that feel like sparse, underdeveloped pit stops, the memorable locations and the conflicts they create are in the majority.
The dice system, which drives all conflict resolution, builds on a similar turn-based mechanic from Citizen Sleeper: a healthy sleeper receives five dice per cycle. Each die can be assigned to a single action, with its value determining the chance and degree of success. Failing risky or dangerous actions leads to consequences, including stress and loss of energy. Ad hoc surgery can stave off total system failure, but materials aren’t free, and even the cleanest repair can lead to glitching out. Choices abound with few ideal solutions. This system is conducive to Citizen Sleeper 2‘s story, prioritizing constant, grinding financial and physical strain over its predecessor’s sink-or-swim demand for a steady supply of drugs.
The game can be completed in 12 hours on the standard difficulty, although it feels longer due to the dense, well-crafted text. None of this time is extraneous, as life in space is a tight cycle of tension and relaxation. Limited supplies constrain even the most sedate missions, and many contracts also have built-in countdown clocks. A structure may fall apart or explode after a set number of cycles or phases, leaving its salvage to drift forever in the endless void.
Contracts take the sleeper to otherwise hidden locations, like this rusting, pre-collapse ship.
Despite the tensions of time and resource management, the game is structured to avoid discouraging the player. Many contracts include optional objectives, which reward luck and planning. One notable mission stretches the sleeper’s resources to their limit, but failure on standard difficulty only results in a permanent glitch. It’s a substantial wound, but it doesn’t come across as punitive or require relentless save-scumming to avoid. As the sleeper survives and recruits crew to cover their weaknesses, the starry black begins to feels less scary and more homey. On one hand, this is an excellent example of mechanics and narrative working in unity to communicate a message of mutual aid; on the other, a little more danger during the endgame would match the story’s grittier beats.
As powerful as the sleeper grows, some tasks remain easier than others. Each of the three sleeper classes shapes character growth, providing a unique push ability and skill weakness. Push abilities showcase the classes’ strengths, allowing an extractor to rally their crew in stressful circumstances or a machinist to focus and improve their lowest results. Additional runs offer a few new experiences due to different class abilities and easier and more challenging difficulty levels. However, there don’t seem to be major branching narratives or mutually exclusive endings.
Building a crew is another area that is more linear than it first appears. Although “Do you trust them?” is a common narrative beat when encountering a new ally, it’s pretty toothless. The potential crew members are, for the most part, lovable sweet potatoes with all upsides. Crew provide broader skill coverage and access to compelling stories. One hire worth special mention is a choice between two siblings, which is a nuanced, meaningful choice of the sort that would have been great to experience more frequently. Building a crew doesn’t require much in the way of resources or risk, which sometimes makes them feel less than human. However, they are a joy to fly with — except for one shifty so-and-so. The characters are fleshed out and memorable, aided by Guillaume Singelin’s detailed illustrations.
Do you trust Juni?
Here’s another name: Amos Roddy. Amos Roddy’s soundtrack is stellar. The synth-forward space jams are excellent for chilling during the solar glow of a deep-space salvage run or solo listening while earthbound. The audio establishes a lonely, contemplative mood that swells into moments of triumph and connection. Sound effects dial into locations, providing rustles and clanks of human warmth to humanize the shining expanse. Not every game benefits from being enveloped in headphones and the dark, but this is one of them.
Citizen Sleeper 2 is a timely story about hope in the face of collapse and how the inevitability of endings can’t negate nobility, sacrifice, or human connections. Although it doesn’t offer as much narrative freedom as suggested by its expansive maps, the strength and depth of its stories more than recommend a play. It’s dark in space, but the points of light we find and nourish can guide us.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
More of the great writing that made Citizen Sleeper so great
Mechanics and narrative work harmoniously to tell an engaging, thoughtful story
Enveloping soundtrack perfect for grooving
Smaller locations often feel mechanically similar
The story is less linear than it's initially presented
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