A sleeper is an emulated person inside a frame, mechanical body if you will. In this game you play as the same sleeper as in Citizen Sleeper 1. You have escaped the clutches of Essen-Arp, the megacorporation that produced you, just to find yourself in a new predicament.
Citizen Sleeper 2 plays like an RPG. You do actions with dices and you have attribute points which improve the results of your rolls. Compared to other RPGs like Baldur’s Gate or Disco Elysium, this one takes place in space.
The presentation of the game is much like a visual novel. The whole story takes place in dialogue with other characters. It plays out mostly in written text, where you get a profile picture of the character that the sleeper is talking to for reference. I like the visuals though, and I think the character portraits really helps lifting the personality of each character, something that can be hard to discern from the text alone.
Apart from a few new mechanics this is a continuation of Citizen Sleeper 1. The writing and the presentation has evolved somewhat but I don’t find it as exciting as the first game. By now you understand the rules of this world, and it is up to the game to present you with something new to keep it exciting. Here is where I find it lacking.
The story of Citizen Sleeper 2 is less interesting than the first game. In the first game you were holding on to dear life, trying to find the way out of a difficult situation. The situation in Citizen Sleeper 2 feels much less acute. The villain doesn’t feel dangerous and defeating him seems more like a side mission. The main focus of the game seems to be exploring the astroid belt.
I was surprised when the credits rolled because it didn’t feel like I had accomplished anything. The story was not resolved in a satisfying manner. The game just ended. I have so many questions. What was the main drive of the villain? What did he try to accomplish? How did this tie into the megacorporations? What happened to the sleeper in the end? What happened to the crew? It just didn’t have a satisfying ending.
If you liked the first game you should definitely play this one. You get more of the same, which is a good thing. But maybe it could have been a DLC.
I rate this game as GOOD
