Done With #5: Citizen Sleeper 2

Won't waste your time and say that this is an unforgottable cyberpunk space adventure. With the unique dice roll mechanics that make you clench your butt for favourable outcome, and a bigger scope than the excellent first game, Citizen Sleeper 2 is one of the most fully realised text-based RPG in the market. If you're a fan of the genre, and if you have an Xbox Game Pass, this is a must play.

In Citizen Sleeper 2, you take a role of a fugitive Sleeper, one of the maybe amnesiac robots that retain human conscious after being sold to Essen-Arp corporation into... essentially space slavery. Accompanied you is the sassy Serafin, a mysterious young man who shares the mysterious and ruthless pursuer, Laine, with you.

During this adventure, you will meet multiple companions who are willing to venture forth with you (if you wish to recruit them). The colourful cast adds a lot of personality to the game, and each are used to explore subjects such as depression, addiciton or abandonment. While it sucks that some companions shine brighter in the main story than others as the game doesn't do a great job spreading their plot relevancy, they're all well written with their endearing side stories.

Despite its minor flaw in not utilising all the companions in the main quest, it is an incredibly touching one. Citizen Sleeper 2 keeps it simple with the usual cyberpunk theme for individualism, capitalism and the classic question of what makes one a human. However, the way the peeps at Jump Over The Age write this story is very approachable. They find a good balance of keeping it light but at the same time tackle with hard themes head on, allowing the points to get acrossed in a manner that isn't too on the nose but not watered down either.

As for the game itself, it's a very interesting RNG fest that keep you on the edge of your seat. You're provided with 5 dice a day, and 4 additional dice provided by companions when you take on a gig. These are then used to roll for resources and complete quests. Thing is, each character are specialised in different type of skills, which are then used as dice modifier ranging from -2 to +2. Sleeper can pick one of the three "starting classes" which are preset for specialization, and gain points to upgrade these throughout the game. It's simple, yet very nerve wrecking as you're on a timer and you not only have to manage the dice roll (or manipulate it as best as you can) but also keep in mind of the stress mechanic. As characters fail to pass a dice roll, they gain stress which will disabled their dice or make them leave the mission completely. The tension built up by the gameplay loop is enough to keep me on my toes, but doesn't feel too punishing where I feel like I need to save scum.

But aside from its amazing plot and unique gameplay loop, Citizen Sleeper 2's art direction and UI are put together insanely well. It has a bit of 90s space anime vibes on top of the characters looking unique and stylish. The 3D artworks with the space stations, space ship or even asteroids really add to the "loneliness" and "isolation" undertone of the game well, especially whem combined with expertly crafted ambient soundtrack. They really captured the cyberpunk aesthetic well with this game, down to the game's UI itself where the yellow-blue colours stand out despite being rather overused within the cyberpunk genre.

With all this said, it's a no brainer that this game has a huge potential to be in my top 5 list at the end of this year. The 15 hours I spent with it was nothing short of memorable even with its flaws. I absolutely adore this game and I thikn it's one of those games that everyone got to play once or at least give it a chance for a few hours. Its unique gameplay loop on top of the heartwarming story alone make this worth checking out. Got a lot of praises with little to no complaint with this one. Loved it.