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Nearly two years later, and one of my most successful articles of all time continues to be my impulsively written editorial on Citizen Sleeper, an underrated gem buried in the Xbox Game Pass catalog.
Now, we have a sequel for me to extol, once again helmed by the talented wordsmith Gareth Damian Martin, the one-person team behind Jump Over the Age. Martin’s writing has continued to evolve, as has their worldbuilding prowess, with Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector building on the foundation that was first laid down by Citizen Sleeper.
What should’ve been the best birthday present for me is instead a slightly late review for Citizen Sleeper 2, as my Avowed review took precedent. There was no way I was going to let this title languish on my 185-games-long backlog, however, and Jump Over the Age’s steadfast support for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription means that — like its predecessor — it’s effortless to play this game across platforms. It’s even easier to recommend it, too, as Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is in the running for one of my favorite video game sequels ever.
I’ve played hundreds of video games across Xbox and PC, and I make it a point to play diverse titles from different publishers, developers, genres, and cultures. I’m especially drawn to excellent storytelling, so I don’t need a game to be packed with nonstop action to fall in love with it.
This review was made possible thanks to a copy accessed via Xbox Game Pass. Fellow Traveller had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.
What is Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector?
- Citizen Sleeper 2 is the sequel to the dice-rolling RPG Citizen Sleeper.
- A new tale in the same universe, you fill the shoes of a different Sleeper.
Citizen Sleeper marked the beginning of a brand-new universe from developer Gareth Damian Martin of studio Jump Over the Age, and they expanded on it with Starward Vector.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
• Price: $24.99 at Microsoft Store (Xbox & PC) | CDKeys (PC, Steam)
• Release date: Jan. 31, 2025
• Developer: Jump Over the Age
• Publisher: Fellow Traveller
• Genre: RPG
• Players: Single-player
• Install size: ~2GB
• Playtime: ~14 hours
• Platforms: Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Switch
• Xbox Game Pass: Xbox, PC, cloud
• Reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Thousands of years of unchecked capitalism has successfully extended humanity’s reach to the deep recesses of space, but even the most opulent and ambitious colonies have been devastated by decades of brutal corporate wars. Both Citizen Sleeper games occur many years after the Collapse of one of the most influential corporations, with the remnants of those communities now finding new ways to live on the scraps of surviving technology.
You play as a Sleeper, a mechanical entity with the mind and soul of a human. Your original counterpart wished for a better life and agreed to be frozen in time, in the process agreeing to have their consciousness emulated and planted in a robotic frame to work off the debt incurred. Sleepers are essentially legal slaves despite their sentience, but you broke away, finding a would-be savior that disabled your planted tracker.
Except your savior turned out to also be a malicious owner, just dressed in different colors. A desperate attempt to break your dependance on the drug that staves off your body’s planned obsolescence results in a broken psyche and fractured memories, but you successfully flee from your captors. You now explore the Belt, looking for allies, a way to live free for good, and the answers behind why your body seems to be changing — even when that should be impossible.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is now available for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. It’s also a day one addition to Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, and supports Xbox Play Anywhere across Xbox and PC.
Citizen Sleeper 2 review: The good
- The Citizen Sleeper games have some of the most beautiful writing.
- The sequel is no exception, with excellent narrative and character direction.
- The simple, dice-rolling RPG gameplay has also been refined.
The Citizen Sleeper games are not complex. They’re inspired by tabletop RPGs, and it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate to describe them as text-based point-and-click adventures. There’s next to no action, and skill checks will come in the form of time and resource management, not your reflexes or ability to combo button mashes.
Some of my favorite games of all time fall into this category, but it’s always because they deliver in another area. For the first Citizen Sleeper, it was the elegant and insightful writing style, beautifully weaving together vulnerable narration, detailed descriptions, and creative analogies to build an entire universe, grow the people that inhabit it, and make you care about all of it.
I played the first Citizen Sleeper on a whim, and I was inspired to write about it because of how impactful its narrative direction, worldbuilding, and art design was to me. Set in a dystopian universe and seen through the eyes of a machine with the soul of a human, the Citizen Sleeper games invite in-depth discussions of the duality of life, the boundaries of a soul, the far-reaching effects of the past on our present and future, and more.
With Citizen Sleeper 2, I really do feel like Jump Over the Age raised their prose prowess to another level. The writing is flowery and dramatic, but never to the point that it feels pretentious or unwarranted; it’s simply beautiful, and the lack of a single spoken word never deterred me from seeking out every sentence hidden within the game.
Of course, Starward Vector does tell a very different story. Citizen Sleeper begins with your Sleeper seeking any way to escape the company that creates them and ends with a poignant finale that calls into question what even makes a “human.” Conversely, Starward Vector starts with your Sleeper already out of the clutches of the Essen-Arp corporation, instead focusing on the peril and strife that follows.
The first game begins slower but ends with a cataclysmic bang, while the second game maintains pretty consistent stakes throughout. If I had to decide which game personally impacted me the most, the first Citizen Sleeper’s conclusion carved a home for itself in my memories, where it remains today. That being said, I slightly prefer the overall story of Citizen Sleeper 2, so there’s really no right answer here — both games display brilliant storytelling.
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When it comes to gameplay, it’s much the same. I can’t claim that either entry in the franchise is more complex or difficult than the other, but Starward Vector does implement some gameplay changes that do feel more refined, but less intense, than its predecessor.
Both games play similarly — you can explore various locations with set opportunities and ventures, and each will require resources, actions, or a combination of both to complete. Many of these opportunities also come with risk attached, with consequences divided between positive, neutral, and negative outcomes. Which you earn will come down to a combination of luck and skill.
You see, your actions are actually six-sided dice, of which you get five, rerolled at the beginning of each cycle (day). The number on the die reflects your chances of a positive outcome — 6 is 100% positive, 3 is 25% positive, 50% neutral, 25% negative, etcetera. However, you can accrue bonuses or penalties based on your Sleeper’s unique skills, up to -2 or +2.
This is all the same as Citizen Sleeper, but Starward Vector does away with the need to constantly be on the lookout for Stabilizer, the drug that Essen-Arp designs its Sleepers to rely on. Instead, each of your dice has durability; accrue stress during contracts and your dice take damage. Too much, and the die becomes unusable until it’s repaired. You can also build up Glitch, a new status effect that randomly affects dice and locks them to 20% positive, 80% negative.
It’s an interesting and engaging system that makes time-locked missions far more interesting, but does make the day-to-day less stressful. I do prefer Starward Vector’s gameplay, especially given how you can travel from location to location and take on new contracts, but I can just as easily recommend either Citizen Sleeper game to anyone looking for a great adventure inspired by tabletop RPGs.
Citizen Sleeper 2 review: The bad
- A wider space to explore means each location feels less deep.
- There are some minor issues with subtitles and console controls.
One of the biggest departures in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector compared to the first game is that you now have access to your own spaceship, and you can use it to travel between multiple locations across the Belt rather than be limited to one major location (the Erlin’s Eye space station).
Starward Vector is a bigger game. Even including the three free DLCs released for Citizen Sleeper after launch, it still took me a couple of extra hours to fully explore Citizen Sleeper 2. There are more places to see, more people to meet, more goals to achieve; Starward Vector is wider and grander. That approach is excellent for a narrative-driven, choice-based RPG set in an intricately detailed universe, but it does come with one downside.
Erlin’s Eye in Citizen Sleeper always felt like it was hiding more secrets from you. I could never guess quite when I’d discover a new store, or come across a fresh opportunity, or be approached by a mysterious stranger with concerningly relevant information. Citizen Sleeper may have been narrower in scope, but it was deep.
Starward Vector trades some of that depth for range. If Jump Over the Age built the Citizen Sleeper universe in a vast room, Starward Vector does a better job showing you the boundaries of that room — the first Citizen Sleeper makes you never want to leave the middle.
No individual location in Citizen Sleeper 2 ever feels thrown together or haphazardly crafted, but you never get the opportunity to fully fall in love with one place before you’re off to the next.
Apart from that, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is still a little rough in some places. I did notice several instances of text that were clearly missing words or punctuation, for one, but more important are the control issues.
Starward Vector’s menu-heavy interface translates to controller fine, at least for the most part, but some elements are very awkward to navigate. On top of that, my cursor vanished on multiple occasions, causing me to frantically mash buttons and open different menus to make it reappear. I never experienced any crashes or game-halting bugs, but the problems with controls were just frustrating enough to mention.
Citizen Sleeper 2 review: Final thoughts
You should play this if …
✅You loved the first Citizen Sleeper
It’s a fresh story in a familiar universe, with all the writing and storytelling wonder that made you fall in love with the first game. What better recommendation is there than that?
✅You love slowly immersing yourself in a world
The Citizen Sleeper games aren’t in a rush to establish their premise or guide you on your path. Instead, the world and characters are given time to evolve, to settle at your pace, so that each dramatic twist in the story is amplified. This is the game for those who dream about the worlds they’re immersing themselves in.
You should not play this if …
❌You don’t have the patience or interest for text-based games
Citizen Sleeper 2’s soundtrack may be gorgeous, but you won’t find any emotional voice acting to go along with it. You’ll be doing a lot of reading and not a lot of listening or button mashing in this game, and some gamers just don’t vibe with that.
Can you believe I intended for this to be a short review? After all, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector has already been out for weeks. I had so much to say, though, and there are still so many words locked inside that I’m not allowing to spill out on the page. Citizen Sleeper is one of my favorite video games of all time, and Starward Vector is the near-perfect sequel that delivered exactly what I wanted.
When so many modern video games care only about the flashy visuals or exhilarating gameplay, Citizen Sleeper builds a universe full of stars and invites you to walk among them. You’re just one thread in a grand tapestry, but you, not just the character you’re imitating, still plays an important role in that tapestry. That’s exactly what a great RPG should provide.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is now available on basically all platforms, but it’s also a part of Xbox Game Pass. If you have yet to play the first game, that’s also on Xbox Game Pass.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Can you escape your fate while discovering what freedom and life means to you? Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is the long-awaited sequel to one of my favorite RPGs, and it’s just as good as I wanted it to be. It’s a very approachable game, and it’s also a part of Xbox Game Pass.
