A human mind, a bustling space station, a series of settlements separated by tens of thousands of miles of space and connected by hopeful travelers, and a galaxy of stars beyond. All of them consist of smaller pieces working together to make the whole more than the sum of its parts. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector asks us to look closely at each of these systems and make decisions that will ripple out from a single point and affect the greater being. From developer Jump Over the Age and publisher Fellow Traveller, the sci-fi RPG sequel does plenty to separate itself from its predecessor, resulting in a memorable narrative about freedom, history, and holding onto hope.
Much like the previous game, one of the first decisions players will make in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is deciding what kind of sleeper they are. These titular beings are humanoid machines implanted with a copy of a human mind, a human that sold their body and mind to a corporation to pay off their debt. Sleepers, made up of metal and machine parts, are strong, sturdy, and ultimately replaceable, making them ideal for the dangerous roles required for space stations to thrive.
These roles—Operator, Extractor, and Machinist—have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Extractor receives a bonus to rolls affiliated with Endure, but suffers from weak rolls in the Intuit skill. While this deficit could be remedied over time in the first game, this time, the disadvantage is permanent. Although it’s a harsh change, it’s a welcome one that encourages focusing on tasks the sleeper is suited to instead of trying brute force in a task they aren’t compatible with.
Resource management is key in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, but takes away your reliance on Stabilizer.
Resource management is still a vital aspect of Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, but for narrative reasons, your sleeper is no longer dependent on Stabilizer. Instead, you’ll need to maintain your energy level with food and rest because running out of energy leads to a build-up of stress. Since Stabilizer no longer exists, stress is the new threat that can remove dice from your pool. It allows for more room to make mistakes, but accumulating stress can lead to dice taking damage and eventually breaking, with a bad streak of luck capable of breaking several dice at once.
Broken dice can be repaired with the proper material, but you can’t fix a damaged die until it’s completely broken, which can lead to interesting scenarios throughout the game. With several dice on the verge of breaking, it might behoove you to allow them to shatter in a low-stakes environment before repairing them and taking on a more important contract.
Another major change is the absence of passive skills that can be earned through skill points. Instead, Citizen Sleeper 2 introduces one active ability for each class, known as a Push. This ability differs greatly between the three classes, ranging from boosting your lowest die for the day, to allowing you to reroll some of your dice, and more. These useful abilities come with the cost of added stress, but upgrading your Push with skill points allows you to mitigate or change that cost or increase the benefit, making it more worth the risk.
The other caveat with your Push is that they can only be used on contracts, the biggest addition to Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Contracts are new activities where you and your crew will venture out from a settlement for several days, working together to reach your goal. These jobs feel more like a traditional quest in a fantasy RPG, only instead of clearing out a cave of rats and goblins, you’re attempting to retrieve a sample of ice from an asteroid to determine if it’s safe for a settlement to drink.
The name of the game is avoiding personal stress.
Every day, you and your crew members can use your dice (five for you, two for each of the two crew members) to attempt to accomplish your tasks. If you make too many mistakes, though, you risk accumulating personal stress, crew member stress, or, worst of all, contract stress. While stress for you or your crew members can result in fewer dice to use each day, contract stress can result in the worst-case scenario for the job. This can mean you fail to retrieve an important narrative item or you don’t receive some sorely needed funds. But in every case, they should be avoided when possible.
The tasks you encounter on settlements, and especially the ones on contracts, are affiliated with a variety of skills, like Interface, Endure, Intuit, and more. Since your sleeper receives a massive penalty to one skill, reducing even the highest dice roll to a much riskier result, it’s important to instead take advantage of your strengths to survive; this is where your crew comes in. As you make your way through The Belt, the collective name of the settlements scattered throughout the asteroid belt you call home, you’ll meet a colorful cast of characters.
One is good with machines and repairs, while another is a smooth-talking freelancer, and the rest are just as varied, each with their strengths and weaknesses. The techy hacker may not be able to handle much stress and they only specialize in a single skill, but they receive a bonus to their rolls when applied to Interface tasks. Each crew member also brings along their own goals and stories to pull into your own, making each new recruit feel like a substantial addition.
This change highlights what’s special about Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Instead of staying on a single station and visiting and helping various characters in the world, your actions take you all across The Belt and bring you closer to people from all walks of life. Their stories become yours, your relationships deepen, and it becomes more clear that in order to succeed in your goals, one point must become a constellation that can affect change for everyone.
While the narrative stakes never feel dire in my time with the game, which may be because I successfully completed every contract my crew took, the hopeful slant to the story feels earned and sorely needed. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector boasts a story that doesn’t hold back in its writing, with dozens upon dozens of thoughtfully written scenes. But it also doesn’t relish in the harsh, miserable existence that many of its denizens seem to live. It focuses more on the people attempting to escape oppression, chasing their dreams, or simply earning the right to exist—mindsets that feel more relatable than ever.
Like the pieces that make up the whole, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector’s story feels made up of the threads you gather through your campaign. By the end, the threads are drawn tight, coalescing in a single powerful story that, combined with a soft, thought-provoking soundtrack, will leave you ruminating long after the credits roll.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector releases January 31st on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStations 5, and PC.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
9/10
TL;DR
Like the pieces that make up the whole, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector’s story feels made up of the threads you gather through your campaign.