Citizen Sleeper

I totally slept on this game. A wonderful title with heavy narrative and beautiful soundtrack - Amos Roddy really cooked with this one.

When I first discovered Citizen Sleeper I got attracted by the whimsical character designs of Guillaume Singelin and bought the game on a whim upon noticing the sci-fi setting. However, while advertised as a game with the freedom and flexibility of a TTRPG I would much rather describe Citizen Sleeper as a light mix of visual novel, management-sim and dice-game. The role-playing aspects of Citizen Sleeper are in fact largely cosmetic i.e. my choice of character had no deeper bearing on game-play and the story is running mostly on rails without player agency. Dialogue choices are by and large an illusion leading to the same quest outcome. For example, quite regularly I was given the option to Stay Silent in a conversation, only for my conversation partner to go on a monologue, which mimicked responses to the dialogue choices I hadn't actually clicked on. The idea is clever, but its execution doesn't quite sustain itself throughout the 10+ hours of run-time. My only way to opt-out of a particular quest would have been to not show up. In fact, it is possible to skip entire quest-chains as quite a few of them are designed to lead to one of the game's numerous endings. Nevertheless, the game only rewards skill-points for completing drives / quest-chains, i.e. indirectly nudging us to complete as many as possible. I do not think describing Citizen Sleeper as a light visual novel would have been to its detriment either. In fact, for me personally, the most charming aspect of Citizen Sleeper is its similarity to a visual novel, while neither showing too much nor too little of the setting. The descriptive writing of Gareth Damian Martin interspersed with the occasional character designs of Guillaume Singelin was enough to form a solid spring-board for my own imagination. In the initial hours of Citizen Sleeper I found myself to be thoroughly captivated by the highly rewarding effort of fleshing out the world with my own imagination. I walked the cable-strewn back-alleys of the Lowend, felt the warm humid breeze flowing across the overgrowth of the Greenway, I saw places bustling with people who had been stranded on the Eye for one reason or another, I even imagined my own synthetic skin having this smooth and silky touch and the oddity of sensory information not arriving as a sensation but a set of warnings and numbers. It was an infatuating experience. The management-sim and dice-game aspect initially added a sense of urgency and acted as a welcome pacemaker to keep my imagination on the move through this world. Yet, I eventually found myself comfortably self-sufficient and never at the whim of an urgent timer or bad dice-roll. At this point in the game a lot of impetus got replaced by tedium. The patterns of unlocking new areas, earning trust and working jobs were on rinse and repeat. The story wasn't flowing, instead I felt it got held up by an increasingly incessant amount of clicking and tracking back and forth across the map with the mouse-wheel. If it weren't for my patience waning at the half-way mark, I may not have given Citizen Sleeper's story further scrutiny, but at this point I also began to fall out of favour with the writing. Now, I am not one to oppose Martin's aspirations in telling his story, after all I came along for the ride willingly. Yet, I did not appreciate being also told what to think and what to feel repeatedly throughout the story. The story is already pretty much on rails, so I would have preferred to explore my thoughts and feelings, just like I was exploring the world of Citizen Sleeper. It feels almost cliche to be writing this, but please: show don't tell. In my opinion the game hits a low point during the DLC, when Martin's writing has become as nuanced as a soccer-ball to the face and the game-play as tedious as a smartphone clicker-game. Curiously, this is also the part where the highest amount of literary 'touching the Sleeper's shoulder' is happening, i.e. I am interpreting this as a sign of fatigue on the side of the developers. On the upside, the final ending of the DLC's third chapter is somewhat refreshing, giving good closure and surprising with some character appearances that are partly dependent on the ending(s) you have chosen during the main-game. In conclusion, if I could give this game something in-between recommend and do not recommend, I would. If you like visual novels and enjoy filling in the blanks with your imagination, this is in part a really fun experience. If you are looking for a choice-driven RPG, even though the very first word of this game's description reads 'role-playing', Citizen Sleeper is honestly quite far from it. I really had a good time with this in the beginning, but I also struggled with it for about half of its run-time. A very hesitant I do not recommend.

I went into Citizen Sleeper blind and it turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. I’m not usually a fan of visual novels, but this game drew me in with its interesting sci-fi aesthetic, intriguing writing and great character development. The mechanics are simple, but effective. The core gameplay revolves around a dice-based system that determines the success or failure of your actions. Every choice you make can have a direct impact on the outcome of quests and the fate of certain characters. Yet, from what I saw, the choices were often limited to just two or three options and I would’ve appreciated a bit more freedom. Some of the best examples of how well the gameplay can work are the quests involving Lem & Mina and Ethan (my favorite characters) and their stories had real emotional weight. Another area where the game could’ve improved is its visual presentation. While the art style looks nice, the static images feel repetitive over time. A few more animations or visual variations would have improved the overall experience. Still, despite these minor issues, I really enjoyed Citizen Sleeper and its atmospheric sci-fi universe.

And in this frozen moment you focus on only the next step, because that is the only way you have learnt to persist. And to persist is to believe that a future, any future at all, is possible.

Impeccable writing and lots of content. The visual novel does a shiny job of handing you many choices on a platter - choices that confused me into not playing the game for a few weeks after my extractor starved to hell. But I came back because the game was just sitting there, waiting, and I wanted to read something. On my return flight to Airport It's-Over I started exploring and immersing myself in the storyline and tasks, and had a great time. The multiple endings, opportunities to mess up and cycle clocks glaring imminent danger gave the rollercoaster thrill of being part of a dynamic, terrible world that encouraged thought, caution and patience. Half the time I didn't know who to side with, other times I got smacked about because I forgot I wasn't playing a combat-ready robot. As for the music, I sat through the credits to listen to the music. I would have preferred skill trees only open to certain characters, or a larger skill tree to make spending a finite amount of upgrade points a process with more gravitas. Not just making choices in hopes of a different ending being the main way to replay the game. Nevertheless, Emphis must have been in the kitchen, 'cause this game and its creators cooked. 9/10. Fighting fate and feasting on fungus? Living the dream.

Do yourself a favor and go in this game completely blind, and I assure you you will have fun. You will laugh, you will tear up, you will scream at your digital pixels that are some of the characters and you will be at edge of your seat throughout this game. Easy 5/5 from me~ now go and play this great game.

Tremenda historia con un sistema de juego bastante interesante, la única queja que tengo fue con el tema del they/them, pero sólo porque pensé en un momento que tenía que buscar a más de una persona y no me cuadraba xD, pero no es algo que se trate de meter a la fuerza en la trama, con personajes mal escritos o historias forzadas para después decir "miren, somos progres", simplemente está y funciona. Quedamos a la espera del 2. p.d. no tiene traducción al español.

I love this game. It made me feel so many feelings, so deeply. One of the most moving games I have ever played. I feel like a deeper, more complete person, as ridiculous as that sounds. This is art. Beautiful, beautiful art.

"So I guess if you like lore and stories where your character is a cog in a greater scheme, this'll be for you." --- It took me a while to play this game, because it's off putting in its initial setup and has a lot of learn as you go mechanics. Yeah there's some huge boxes of text at the beginning that goes in depth, but it's still a unique system to navigate and I found that while a lot of stuff came easily if I just explored a bit and clicked around, it wasn't quite as seamless as to just pick up and finish day one. In fact, it actually took me a while to go back into it. Again, not because it was hard or poorly explained, just because of how much LORE was involved. That being said, the characters were believable, the dialogue felt natural, and the game itself had an easy to moderate difficulty depending on how much you starved yourself lol So I guess if you like lore and stories where your character is a cog in a greater scheme, this'll be for you.

Interesting-ish concept, not-great writing, meh gameplay. Feels like it was made by nice people.

Cannot understate how good this game is. I do not play a lot of narrative games nor do I commonly write detailed reviews. But this game is one of the best ones I've played ever. Even if you are not totally convinced by this game please, please, please just try it out. The 2 hours of steam's refund policy is more than enough to get to know this game. The gameplay itself is not extremely exciting, I personally never had a challenge with surviving but the story fully makes up for that fact. Damn near cried after finishing the flux storyline. Please play this game.

This game has lackluster gameplay, but the gameplay isn't designed to stand on its own; its designed to make the branching story feel more real and it accomplishes that easily. The characters feel real. The sense of desperation and hope is tangible, especially in the early game. This game is poorly optimized, lasts only a few hours in one playthrough, and gameplay is shallow, but I adore it for the way it can tell the story that it's built to tell. 10/10, highly recommend

Highly recommend this game, highly recommend you play Citizen Sleeper 2 FIRST. There are some decisions and designs about this game that really had me grind my teeth but it's still a real gem. Know that the game is not very tactile, but exceptionally well written with great characters and endings.

The Good: This game is my new hyperfixation. I can't stop playing it. The story is simple yet leads to complex choices and endings and you meet beautiful, deep people along the way that you can't help but care about. After my first playthrough, I cried because I was so happy that I helped my favorite NPCs and got to end the game with them. I will keep playing this until I 100% it. The Bad: Every once in a while there's a period or a quotation mark missing or a typo. Simple stuff that does not ruin this masterpiece. The Ugly?: This is the most beautiful game I have ever played. I made the mistake of not getting the artbook, but the second that thing goes on sale, I am buying it and I am showing it to all my friends. I am obsessed with everyone in this game. The space station itself is beautiful and all the people in it. I wish I could romance characters I need Tala to love me. I recommend this game to anyone with a computer and 20 bucks.

Stellar writing, excellent gameplay loop, enough branching paths to make me want to go again.

A lot of reading.. That said, a beautiful sci-fi! enjoyed it a lot, and how the game ended for me was not what I wanted to and I enjoy that to. Will definitely recommend that game!

Certainly not for everyone, and took a few cycles to get into it. I do like the way that you cant go back on your choices, and the reactions that you have always keep you wondering.

Short and sweet, but an amazing sci-fi game that I highly recommend.

This barely works on my intel mac, but the constant restarting is worth it. Highly recommended for people who like interactive novels, the story is very good and the dice mechanics make gameplay fun and interesting.

Extremely good interactive fiction dicey resource managey thing with a great setting and great writing. Pleasantly short and replayable.

YES YES YES YES YES play it. Talking as a fan of rpgs this game is amazing. The plot, the characters and their arcs, their returning quests, the connections between them *chef's kiss* Forgot to eat 2 meals and then Steam asked me if i enjoyed this game. WELL I DID.

Great stories and concepts, balancing, and relatively easy to nail the right resource management. There are few late game challenges once you get your basic stats stable so it's less challenging than before, but this way you can invest fully in the storylines.

It's a fun game, more of a story experience. The dice mechanic and the health management is a nice twist. Good learning curve. Music is cool. I liked it

I really enjoyed it and would recommend but I wanted to get a few critiques out: I think that the free DLC endgame content feels a bit out of place sometimes. It was nice when it tied in with the many characters I had already interacted with and befriended but for the majority of the time it felt like my widespread connections and work I'd done were pretty irrelevant and I was not really a fan of Peake and Eshe and it's basically all about them. I think many of the other endings are more satisfying than the ones provided through that content. By the time I had gotten to that endgame content it was basically just me unloading all my die on one task, going to bed, repeat with very little chance of failure and enough money to buy anything so in that way it lost a lot of the tension and drive. Also just please make loading bars and things faster lol /.

Keep playing till the very end of the flotilla scenario, and keep those tears of joy and sadness close to your heart <3

just achieved one ending and this game is definitely worth it if in sale ! great soundtracks and story

This game is absolute fantastic! I would've never thought that I play through a TTRPG in 21 hours at one weekend. This game has not a fix main story. It is more that you decide what the story is. There are no side quests. Every event and happening has a reason and an outcome. Every NPC has a story and motive doing things they do. All the stories of every character makes it to a whole story you decide how to make your way through. On top of it a awesome relaxing soundtrack what perfectly reflects the mood this many stories want to convey. What a great and memorable game. If you like the book "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep" or the movie "Bladerunner" you will enjoy this game. I highly recommend this game and I will play it again to seek and take another path through it. Notifier: Be aware this is an TEXT-BASED-RPG. If you don't like reading much text or books at all, don't buy it and give it a negative review, because of you didn't like so much text and call it "bad mechanic". Thank you.

the game is very much narative driven, reminds me a lot of the many scifi novels i read in the 90s it uses a dice placement system to allocate action points and determine the outcome of actions. the art and graphics fit the theme perfectly and i just luuuuuuuuuuv the gentle spacey ambient music

Writing is a bit juvenile and woke but is a wholesome sci-fi/punk text adventure. The soundtrack is great, unique and fitting.

Played it for like 80 hours on xbox, the graphics a stylised perfectly for this game and the music is one of the best soundtracks second only to prob hollow knight. the gameplay is very simple but works well for the game, and the story is top tier only beaten by its sequel and titanfall.

Honestly goated, never thought I'd vibe with text adventure types but the writing and art just hit.

I had no idea what to expect playing this game and boy was I surprised. While typically this is not my style. Very storyboard, its still all luck, chance, and some stat management. Multiple endings and possibilities throughout and I would 100% buy the second game. The sound track is quality and immersive too!

I cried. I'm *not* the sort of person to do so. The ending I got was victorious in such a stirring, beautiful way. Not *everything* worked out and I know that one of the side mission failures will stick with me for years. The game's greatest strength is simple: writing. I'd put it on par with finishing a Becky Chambers novel. There's betrayal, struggle, and corruption, but in the end, it's all the people that push through together who still keep everything spinning.

The best game I've ever read. I don't feel like I can say too much about the story without spoiling things, but I can touch on the theme and mechanics. The basic "game" is being dealt a "hand" of dice, and using those dice on activities. Everyday is a different hand of dice, and outside factors can negatively affect your hand too. These mechanics tie into the story VERY WELL, and at times force you to make choices about what you *really* want. You'll be making these choices on a ring shaped space station, packed to the brim with interesting characters that are heavily stylized and clearly influenced by the "Night City" fashion sense. These characters are just as, if not more interesting to talk to than look at. From stranded mercenaries, street food vendors, doctors, gang leaders, and everyone in between, this game has INTERESTING characters that manage to make you feel something, time and time again. Minor Spoilers Ahead You are asked to determine who, what, and how you are. If you don't like esoteric stories, this might not be for you. What is a soul? At what point does something that isn't, become "human", and is that even possible? You are constantly forced to think about this, and reminded of it by the deterioration of your own body in real time, which detracts from what you can and can't do in game. It forces you to ask, "am i real?", and "do I matter?". And the beauty of this story is that it never answers that for you. You are simply presented with ideas and thoughts, and forced to find what compels you. This game made me cry.

Such immense, intense vibes. Really really good exploration of humanity, transhumanism, alienation. Really emotionally-grounded sci-fi, great characters that are easy to love and hate. Optimistic without being unrealistic

Few visual novels have captivated my attention quite like this one. Its moody settings explores themes of depersonalization, exploitation, struggle, and the drive for self-determination in spite of the odds while taking it in one cycle at a time.

The writing is heartfelt and introspective, and the dice mechanics add a nice flair to the experience. There is a rare sense of urgency and resource scarcity in the early game that I enjoyed, although like in most games, this declines as you enter the mid to late game. Player agency is pretty limited, with your non-ending choices largely revolving around choosing to just ignore an activity or complete it. Fortunately, after choosing the "Change" decision in any ending you can return to before you made the decision, which cuts out the early repetition inherent in any game with little agency. Unless you purposely restrain yourself from pursuing more than one or two quest lines at a time, I don't see much replayability potential here. Enjoy the experience while it lasts. You might learn to love the Eye. I know I did.

Some difficult choices wrapped up in the fluffy cloud of the story driven game play and calming mood. Peaceful to play.

Spellbindingly beautiful. Had me hooked from start to finish. One of the few games that I trust to make me sad without overdoing it. Worth playing for yourself.

This is one of my favorite games. Maybe the ending petters off too much, and the dlc is ok. But the intro and the main part of the game has been one of my best gaming experience

I just finished my first play through, i didn't do everything right, but the ending i got was pretty, it was heartfelt, it was sad. if you are reading this review in hopes of finding a reason to purchase this game, let me tell you. it is beautiful, the devs put a lot of love and soul into this game, i didn't spend nearly enough time my first go around, it is a game truly about the indomitable human spirit, the will to survive at all costs, and what it means to be human... and for that, it is wonderous in such a sad way...

This game was amazing from start to end. I felt like my choices mattered, even the lose:lose ones. One of the best narrative games I have played.

First game I've played in a while that I simply could not put down. Played it from start to finish, only pausing for biological needs.

the game is good, the character is good and so is the way its written with dialogue. heck i even really love the dice management mechanics, i have never seen this before and its implemented incredible here but its SO LONG. i have visual novels games in my library and they are long too but each gives you a conclusion ending or rewards for the efforts that you sat through to read the lore and understanding the characters the musics loop can get annoying just hour in which is not great when you plan to sit 15+ hours for this game you cannot tell which one is campaign and which one is side story meaning all the effort for you to get an ending only to be met with rewards that more or less are rations/money/energy to push through there is no voice acting here either, its not a bad thing but if the music is low and no song lyrics and its just you and this game. it will depletes your sanity, the least it can do is narrator VA or something of similar effect there is no way i have motivation to finish any other endings. especially since there is no manual saves and only auto. yeah no im not in mood for replaying the game from start if i need 100% this

I don't know where to begin. This game moved me in ways I didn't think was possible for a video game. It's deeply poignant and exceptionally written. Yes, it's mostly a graphic novel with time management mechanics woven into it, but that's not a bad thing when you know what you're getting yourself into. Give it a chance and I think you'll enjoy it.

this game was part of the bundle it is very interesting, but I have to drop it, I'm a VN player, there's something about the text that makes my eyes tired idk if it's the text itself, or it's too wordy per paragraph (I feel like VNs try to separate dialogue from narration, this game doesn't, it's like reading a book, but on a monitor) I still recommend it though, it was fun for the few hours that I played it

Chill game in a Cyberpunk-esque space world, would recommend

great game with a touching story and atmospheric soundtrack

Interesting game. Not great, not bad, kept me immersed until the end.

What a wonderfully crafted game. The characters come across so alive and well-rounded. The dialogues through which the story is told are so immersive. I love fungi.