Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review

If you are looking for another year for great RPGs, 2025 might just be the game for you. The success of Baldur's Gate 3 has definitely outshined many others in the past years. Even 2024 was super packed, with the likes of great games like The Thaumaturge, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Dragon's Dogma, and less than stellar sequels like Dragon Age: Veilguard.

Citizen Sleeper, the original game, was an excellent game made, albeit with a lot of criticism, by some wonderful people over at Jump Over The Age. With the same creative minds at the helm, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector looks to carry on the first game’s legacy, all the while being its own thing. In the sequel, you are once again playing as a 'Sleeper;' who, for those in the unknown, is an amalgamation of robotics and biology, solely designed to serve as a labor force.

You start things off working, or rather, running away from one Laine, a crime boss who has basically kept you under his reins by using a drug called stabilizer, which basically is a necessity for sleepers to survive. You are stopped halfway from 'Rebooting' as Laine confronts you and starts his villain monologue. However, out of nowhere comes Serafin, and before you can make sense of things, you are dragged off the space station and into the Rig. The Rig is to be your future home and refuge, which is also what you use to roam around the cosmos.

See, unlike the first game, which was confined to a single station, you will be able to unlock a somewhat large map full of a variety of locations that are extremely unique and well-designed. Owing to its Sci-fi theme and maybe even paying homage to the likes of Star Wars, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is big, expansive, and acts as a space opera of sorts. Again, this is a stark difference from the first game, but that isn't always a good thing.

In these new hubs and locations, you can get a range of new contracts. These range from data collection to rescuing crew members. Overall, the small missions feel less constructed and more repetitive. However, with locations such as Far Spindle or Greenbelt, you will rarely be bored.

The game utilizes a dice system, where you roll a set of Dice every cycle, acting as a time system or a day/night system.  These dice can then be used in differing actions, again, ranging from small things like eating or resting to strenuous and hard jobs and mission actions.

Utilizing your Dice is very important as you'll often have places that just don't have the Dice needed to make a certain roll, so planning is always a given. You need to take chances with your 1s and 2s in minor tasks while using your 5s and 4s in risky, rewarding situations.

The Dice, split into five sides, are the main drivers that affect outcomes. Skill checks come in a few variants. These are the normal ones, dangerous and risky. These aren't harder to pass or anything since they are solely dependent on your dice value. Rather, they give you some negatives if you fail. Both dangerous and risky skill checks will decrease or increase your energy upon winning or losing a check.

Meanwhile, the dangerous check will give you additional good or bad things based on whether the skill check succeeded, failed, or was neutral. Speaking of stress, it is a measure of counting your physical and mental faculties, sort of like a stamina bar. However, having high stress will increase the chances of breaking dice. That's right, in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, dice can break under certain conditions and have to be repaired again, usually at the Rig.

Dice can also get glitched, where they are still usable but have a large chance of getting a negative result. All of these are temporary but can be permanent under certain conditions. In higher difficulties, not having any usable dice basically means death.

Going back to cycles for a moment. Passing a Cycle consumes one energy and progresses the clock, unlocking new events and things to do, basically progressing the story. There's a lot to dice, and it's a really deep system with a lot of figuring that is usually needed. Each class, of which there are three, gives certain bonuses and nerfs to your dice rolls. There are also abilities and currencies that supersede dice and can be used to deal with them, with mixed results.

As you play, you'll receive drives, something that helps you upgrade your skills and class features called a push. These are unique abilities, special to your class, that can be configured and used during important or losing contracts to gain a temporary edge in exchange for gaining stress points.

Interaction between and with the characters is very fun and well-made, and you really get to know all of the cast. The ones not dead, at least. It's a shame Laine is just a cruel BBEG. Although I suppose this is no real place for super deep characters to show up. Gameplay-wise, he is always chasing you down and, well, somehow, always manages to find your tracks.

The Cycle system, while an interesting concept, keeps things moving too fast and doesn't really let you handle things at your own pace. Something the first Citizen Sleeper had was a certain charm from the loose Erlin's Eye storyline. Whereas here, the main storyline, along with Serafin, your first and main companion, gets fast, stubborn, and annoying too fast. The game takes a while to give you access to freely roam the expanse, and while it is larger physically, there's less in it, and at the same time, it feels structurally confined.

All that talk makes the game look somewhat bad, but that's very far from the case. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a faithful sequel that captures the themes, concepts, and ideals of the first game while maintaining much of the narrative and graphical consistency.

Remember how Serafin followed you around? Yeah, that is basically what the crew system amounts to.  See, you'll have access to a litany of characters that you can recruit into your crew. Some of these are naturally found throughout the main story, while others require some prodding. These crewmates are varied, having different skills and variations in their upgrades. This makes them integral in many of the missions and challenges ahead.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector always needs you to have supplies to not starve and fuel to travel. This makes it necessary to complete one of the new additions to the game, Contracts. These contracts are extremely high-risk, high-reward scenarios that require you to take two characters with you to complete tasks and gather resources. Overall, the crew system is nice, and it helps that all the characters are great.

As previously mentioned, there are a lot of characters, and almost all of them are finely crafted in their story. Of course, nothing is perfect, and with Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, the late game really oversees a lot of its problems. Along with the previously mentioned issues, you'll also find that the game gets easier during the later segments, offering a lot of resources with little risk. Added to that, your companions, at least gameplay-wise, don't grow at all; there's very little to them other than their item-like uses.

The gameplay loop effectively uses the narrative aspects of the game to force you to make tough decisions and play on. 'Just another cycle,' you will probably tell yourself, as I've done to myself. And with each cycle, you'll either find something heartfelt or experience heartbreak.

From the writing department, each scene is well-written and very expressive, so much so that the still frames and voiceless writing give you a very clear idea of the character who is speaking. The prose is also appealing to read, not being overbearing and unloading boatloads of Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector's carefully crafted lore. Now, that can get a little diluted and become very wordy later in the game, filling things out with very descriptive essays on things like hacking and space stuff.

On the field of themes, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector does not shy away from portraying the vices of capitalism and what, effectively, is a gig economy.  Surprisingly, it also handles a lot of mature themes without feeling like it's shoving them in your face. The themes and smaller themes carry forward in the main quest but are also played up in the miscellaneous quests.

To that point, many of these side quests actually feel better than the main quests, having very heartfelt and wholesome moments that capture the perfect essence of role-playing in a role-playing game.

A lot can be said about the game's themes and philosophies and how well it meshes with its exploration of those themes with the story and gameplay itself. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector does a splendid job at making you care for the characters and feel for them, no matter how small their screen time is. There are certain points where you'll feel that things are shoehorned in, or you are forced to feel a certain way without being able to decide for it.

With the cycle system, it sort of became a slice-of-life story, where you went around completing people's tasks, helping them out, and striving to do better. A lot of it, despite the commentary-centric world, is extremely charming and wholesome, with great character design to complement things.

The case of amnesia is a wonderful tool, very often utilized in games like these; however, for Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, it seems like a natural part of things. It lets you orient yourself, put yourself in the shoes of the sleeper, and understand, explore, and experience the world.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector really also makes you question your decisions on who to recruit and who to keep. After all, what is an RPG without any real decisions and consequences? The characters and choices are masterfully weaved as well, as certain characters have certain uses in the story, such as having contacts or knowing key individuals integral to your mission. Of course, with companions come companion missions, and these are also some of the more well-made aspects of the game, with better storytelling and greater progression.

The game also does a remarkable job of making things harder and with consequences without hurting the overall vibes too much. Stress is always a looming threat, and so is starvation and dying because you damaged all your dice. This isn't a far-off, offshoot event that happens once or twice due to some failures.

You will damage your dice, and you will have to deal with it, only to find out that no real option of dealing with it is good for you. You can and will fail at multiple points, and as always, with good writing and weaving of the story, people around you acknowledge it, and your mistakes wonderfully bleed into the reality of things.

Something to keep in mind is that you will always be starved of money and have a hard time just getting by. See, the decisions slowly start to become, 'Do I starve for longer, or do I keep having stress for longer'? This makes for a wonderful dilemma, all the while keeping up with the commentary on the systemic issues of the game's society.

The sound design is amazing as well, with some cool tracks that are appropriate and match the level of writing. Sound design is specifically highlighted because, for me, a lot of it played a heavy role in the immersion. The lack of voice actors was not a drawback in any manner and might have even helped with the immersion.

The visuals of Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector are also strikingly good, fitting the sci-fi aesthetic while having a dystopian flair to it. While it may not have visuals like Metaphor: ReFantazio, it's still extremely good and, at certain points, might even contend with it. The 3D map and background are fine and mix well with the earthy and comic-like aesthetic of the characters. The vivid and zero gravity design of the characters, with their dynamic poses, is a memorable thing that really elevates the experience by a higher degree.

Overall, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is an incredibly well-written game with extremely realistic characters and tough decisions. You get stylistic descriptions and explanations of your surroundings and experience everything in an enriched fashion. The gameplay elements, while not being a focus, are great, with some expanded mechanics that might be questionable but often can be overlooked for their wins. The particular weaving of the high-risk situations with the soft, often cozy narrative sections makes things just the better.

The game is about 25-30 hours long if you take your time and are playing on a higher difficulty. Now, replayability is somewhat limited here, even though you can always go around and find out what'd have happened if you had certain companions around during certain missions.

In the end, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is absolutely a recommendation if you have played and liked the first one. Even if you haven't, it's still worth a try. It has everything from phenomenal writing to varied characters to an intriguing plot. The gameplay remains great without being overbearing. While the actual gameplay systems can often rotate between being very hard and frustrating [in a good way] and too easy, it isn't too much of a drag on things.

That, along with the downsides of the crew system having little gameplay value, the narrative aspects of the game are definitely the strong point. Starward Vector is a great sequel and an even greater & immersive RPG that really impacts you. Most of the game is deeply enjoyable, and while it isn't perfect, it remains an unforgettable experience.