The first Citizen Sleep was a resounding success, with its space styled cyber punk aesthetic and the mixture of rich storytelling and board game and RPG elements. In fact, it garnered a dedicated following and even had a card game version appearing. It’s not a massive surprise then to see a second game in the series.
There is no direct link to the story of the first game here.
Continuity wise it is set a little later in the time period, but new players won’t
feel left out if they start here first. To add to this, your character is a malfunctioning
android who has no memory of anything either so it’s very much about
discovering the world for the first time.
There are a handful of classes to choose from, and you can
also upgrade skills and buffs as you get points from completing various
missions and objectives. These then add modifiers to your dice or allow you do things
like create rerolls or fix them should they become damaged.
The premise is simple, at the start of each cycle (or day) ,
you get a number of dice that are randomly generated with which to carry out
actions. The higher the number of the dice mixed with your affinity for
carrying out certain type of task will decide if you are likely to be
successful at it. Once, you have used all your dice you can end the cycle and
start again with a fresh set.
Of course, things are never that easy and there is normally
some kind of cycle timer counting down to a major story event that you need to
be aware of. Time is very much essential so resetting a day just because you
have bad dice is never really an option. On top of this you need food and need
to think about damage caused by stress to your body. There really are a whole
host of things keeping you on the edge of anxiety and always watching the clock.
You’ll spend much of your time investigating around space
stations or out on salvage operations. The interface is simple, pick the location
to move to and then the options of what you can do will show up when you get
there. There are options to work or find food, as well as hunt for clues or
interact with the population. When you are off the station for salvage missions
you need to also think about fuel and the amount of supplies you have with you.
These missions are normally perilous as the hulks you try and get salvage from
tend to breach and fall apart, just in case you needed yet another time clock
to think about.
The initial goal is simply to stay one step ahead of the
people chasing you. After that the mystery deepens and you’ll also encounter new
characters and crew with their own skills and agendas to deal with. The human
interaction element is key to the games philosophy as you will live or die by
your network of crew. In this respect it’s important to think about how you are
interacting as you’ll want as many options as possible as you venture on your
space road trip.
Overall, Citizen Sleep 2 is a beautifully thought out and
refined experience. It’s certainly tough but can be progressed through with
careful thinking (and there are easier difficulty settings as well). It’s quite
unique in its approach to the genre and still manages to stand out from the crowd.
If you are looking for an immersive sci-fi adventure with a twist, then this
comes highly recommended.
Overall 8/10
