Citizen Sleeper 2 finds a new push in its heist-like contracts

You are floating in space, and all around you are meters and numbers. A derelict hunk of spacecraft, left behind and abandoned, could be the key to the Cryo you need to stay ahead of your past. But right now, you’re staring at pips, bars, meters, and dice, all of which are telling you one thing: you might be screwed.

Because right now, you’ve got a die that could make or break this gig. You’ll either crack the last security measure needed to break through or start up some new calamity to deal with as the space hulk continues to tear apart in the vacuum. So, you push. You exert your body, stressing it a bit further than you should, just to try and bump that low-roll die a little higher. The tension in that moment is Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, to me. It’s the push to risk it, just to stay ahead of the ever-rising tide.

The original Citizen Sleeper was a fantastic meld of tabletop and virtual ideas. Sleepers, for those who missed the first game, are digitized human souls within artificial bodies. Before, you were on the run from corporate interests who wanted their “property” back; here, you’re a Sleeper again, but now on the run with a friend named Serafin, after trying to rewire your body and free you from servitude.

At its outset, Citizen Sleeper 2 feels much like the first. Each cycle, you can roll a new set of dice based on how much energy you have. Then, you slot those die into an activity—exploring a part of a station, talking to some locals, doing an odd job, etc.—to see whether you get a positive, neutral, or negative outcome. A higher roll, like a five, may offer nothing but good or neutral outcomes, while a one or two could have you rolling on a 50-50 chance to either go neutral or take a negative result.

This resource management forms the core of Citizen Sleeper and its sequel, and it still works well. Landing on the remote space station of Hexport, you and Serafin spend a few cycles just getting to know the lay of the land. You know you have heat on your tail, measured by a different clock, counting down towards impending doom. So in case you were wondering why you’d even take a roll on a one or two, that’s why: the clocks are always counting, and sometimes a risky roll could save you from a different clock’s countdown.

Both games have you trying to outrun your past, in your own way. Where Citizen Sleeper 2 puts a surprising new spin on things is in its newfound drive of crews.

Space cowboy

In my time with a preview build of Citizen Sleeper 2, I was able to pull off two different jobs; contract offers where I’d take my ship out to some part of the system, complete the work, and return for, hopefully, some rewards. Where the first game mostly took place on or around Erlin’s Eye, this one lets you use your ship to actually move around the space in each system, adding in considerations like supplies and fuel.

Taking on a job will mean putting together a crew, too. In one gig, my crew was essentially laid out for me, while another optional one let me bring along a character I’d grown to know while exploring the space station. It was a neat way to tie in the choices I’d made thus far. More than just having a familiar face I could rely on, Citizen Sleeper 2 lets some of those faces join your adventuring party, at least temporarily, to tackle these difficult jobs.

And let me tell you, the jobs are tough. In one, I was trying to pick apart a ship, dismantling it while searching for a data core I needed to barter for some special-order parts. At all times, I was surrounded by different meters. Clocks and progress bars showed me how far I’d dug into the ship, but also how close I was to breaking it all apart.

For each bad roll, and even some neutral ones, I risked tripping some sort of security system, or a haphazard cut creating a new gash in the wreckage, becoming an even greater danger down the road if not dealt with ASAP. I had to think carefully about how I wanted to assign each die, because both my own character and my chosen teammates (Serafin and a young hacker named Juni) had their own strengths and weaknesses. We were particularly adept at prying into technical systems, for instance, but had to rely on Serafin for any physical work.

Each character has their own stress meters too, eventually leading to them burning out on the job if I overworked them. But the player does have one trump card: the ability to “push.” Each turn, depending on what kind of Sleeper I was playing, I could “push” to try and put my thumb on the scales of luck. For my chosen archetype, that meant accruing one point of stress to re-roll my lowest numbered die. A gamble, for sure; but when the difference between a successful gig and a shattered hunk of space junk was just a few pips, I took that chance.

I’m curious to see how those jobs play out over time, and how Citizen Sleeper 2 keeps the tension as your own Sleeper gains better tools and abilities over time. But in those two gigs, each one felt like a victory on razor-thin margins in the best ways.

What really works, though, is how Citizen Sleeper 2 then brings it all back home. Each job had its own wind-down, where a climax would be reached, decisions would be made, and relationships affected. Some were as simple as recognizing another’s diligent work. Others were huge complications at the eleventh hour, forcing me to make a hard choice in the moment without any assurances that I could still come out ahead.

Where Citizen Sleeper 1 felt like trying to stay ahead of the constantly accruing costs and debts of life on the Eye, Citizen Sleeper 2 feels like trying to keep ahead of a tidal wave. You could ride the chaos or be swallowed up by it at any moment.

Yet where community gave me a solid basis on Erlin’s Eye, here it was the growing group dynamics and comradery that kept me going in Citizen Sleeper 2. The locations don’t feel quite so distinct, compared to the Eye, but it gives more room for people and their unique situations to shine through. I already dig characters like Juni, Nia, and Serafin, and can’t wait to learn more about their histories, situations, and how they might accompany my Sleeper on their starward journey towards freedom.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector keeps a lot of what made the first game exceptional, and adds a few more wrinkles in the process. It’s a different format, one that might even seem a bit overwhelming at first. But if the target stays centered on these excellent heists and characters, then I could see the potential for lightning to strike twice for Jump Over the Age.

Citizen Sleeper 2 is aiming for early 2025 on PC, PS5, and Switch.