Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is the second game in the Citizen Sleeper series from the developers over at Jump Over The Age. I absolutely adored the first Citizen Sleeper when I played it in 2022. The risk reward gameplay, mixed with the time based elements, meaning you couldn’t just wait until you rolled better dice made the stakes feel so real. It really made me connect with the world and it’s characters and the storylines were so compelling I ended up having a bit of an existential crisis at the ending.
So obviously I was incredibly excited to play Starward Vector. Would I love it as much as the first game, or would it struggle to hit those same high, highs? Let’s find out!
Rolling the Dice
If you’ve played the first game the basics of Starward Vector will be pretty familiar. If not let me explain the main gameplay loop. Each day you roll 6 dice, and using these dice you perform certain actions to progress towards a larger goal. Each action can have a positive, neutral or negative outcome, and using better dice increases your chances for a good result. All of this seems simple enough, and it is, but it’s the modifiers to this system that makes Citizen Sleeper really shine.
You choose from 3 distinct classes; Operator, Machinist and Extractor. They each have their own skills, and more importantly they each have a skill line that cannot be upgraded. This is going to make a big difference to your playthrough – so choose carefully. I chose the Machinist – who gets an initial boost to Engineering, but can never upgrade Engage, meaning they’re very good with machines but pretty useless with people (just like real life). A new feature added to Starward Vector is the push abilities, which are again unique for each class. These abilities can only be used in the contracts of the game and each of them increases Stress.
Workplace Burnout
Contracts and Stress are new mechanics, which are tightly intertwined in Starward Vector. Unlike the first game where you’re running solo, in Starward Vector you can hire crew members to help you as you travel across the system gathering supplies and money to help you unravel the mysteries of the game.
During these contracts you will have various different ways to tackle the objectives, and recruiting crew that make up for the skills where you are lacking is a must. Each time you get a negative outcome or run out of supplies you, your crew (and sometimes the mission objective) will accrue Stress. For you, higher stress levels will cause damage to you dice, and if the gain too much they will break and be unusable until fixed. For your crew, if they gain too much stress they themselves are unusable for the rest of the contract. Paired with the time limits, it can make for incredibly harrowing experiences, where you need to push yourself to the limit in order to achieve your goals.
I found the Contract system incredibly satisfying – changing up the way the dice deteriorated from the first title was a great way to enmesh the Contracts into the gameplay, and utilising the ragtag crew I assembled throughout the game made me all the more invested in them, their personalities and their motivations.
You’ll also find yourself accumulating glitches as the game progresses, making tasks outside of contracts more difficult. These can be cleared by using the glitched dice, which again you’ll need to do wisely as every negative outcome sees you a little closer to failure in the demanding world of the Starward Belt. The whole system made the game feel a bit more desperate than the first, although I can see some people getting slightly frustrated by the fact it can feel less predictable to know when dice will be out of commission.
Storytelling, Worldbuilding and Music
One of the best things about the first Citizen Sleeper was how lived in the world seemed, despite it being a brand new title. I’m happy to say this level of fantastic storytelling and worldbuilding continues in the second game of the franchise. Even without playing the first game you immediately get a sense of the stakes of this universe, and how difficult life is for it’s denizens. As a Sleeper you are a synthetic being, with an emulated human consciousness. Broken free from the shackles that generally bind your kind to the mega corp that manufactured you, life is a game of hide and seek as you try and carve out a living in a universe that sees almost everything as a resource to be used.
Each area you travel to, each Contract you take on and each crew member you meet is scramblimg to survive in this sci fi world where resources are scarce, and what there is available is exploited by gangs and corporations. Citizen Sleeper 2 does a wonderful job at immersing you in this world through it’s gameplay and the people you meet. In order to buy supplies, you’ll need money but first you’ll need to spend your rolls getting to know the locals, or scouting out opportunities to find work. If you fail a check the consequences may be minor like some added exhaustion, or major like missing out a valuable source of information or income due to the time constraints you’re under. On Contracts it might mean failing completely – and if that happens the Contract is gone for good. You’ll need to find another way to continue your story.
There are three difficulty levels – Safe, Risky and Dangerous. I played the game on Risky difficultly (which I believe is the standard experience), and that’s the one I’d recommend. Safe mode disables death and makes the Stress mechanics less well, stressful, but the time limits and resource management really enhances the entire atmosphere of Starward Belt. Life is not easy here. Your story of escape and survival is also one of hardship, perseverance and the strength of the human spirit.
Starward Vector a text heavy game – inspired by ttrpgs there’s no voice acting here. But the story and dialogue is so well written, the characters and world so fleshed out that I enjoyed every moment reading and getting to know every detail about the people and background of this universe full of mysteries. The music is also fantastic, a mix of serene space faring wonder, dystopian anxiety at a world you don’t know your place in and, painful longing for a universe where things are a little more simple. It’s a exercise in melancholic beauty that will transport you beyond the screen and into the stars.
Final Thoughts
Going into to Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector I had high expectations based on my experience with the first game, and I’m so happy to say that it absolutely smashed those expectations out of the park. It builds on the world and mechanics of this first game – changing and expanding enough that it feels like a fresh experience. For fans of TTRPGs, the two similar but distinct gameplay loops will scratch that mechanical itch. And for those that love storytelling, the choices you make as you play through the game will absolutely leave you eager to fire up a second playthrough to explore what happens at the end of another road.
The Starward Belt is a shifting hubbub of anxiety, exploration and stories. From your own, the ones of your friends and crew, to the ones of people that carved out their own lives and meaning before you. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a game that asks you to walk through the vastness of the universe and sit in the anguish, heartbreak, strength and softness of the human condition.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector was reviewed on PC – Gamer Social Club would link to thank the publisher Fellow Traveller for the code. The game releases on January 31st on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. It will be included day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC.
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