Review: Citizen Sleeper 2 Starward Vector
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Embark on a new space adventure, with a new Sleeper, but the same old problems.
THE GAME
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a cyberpunk narrative RPG developed by Jump Over The Age and published by Fellow Traveller. Controlling a new Sleeper, an android with an implanted consciousness, you're on the run after attempting to rewrite your code and break free from the control imposed on you. Everything went wrong, and now you're being hunted while your body appears to be malfunctioning. With the help of crew members and upgrades for your ship, find a way to escape and survive in this chaotic world.
MY IMPRESSIONS
If you played the first Citizen Sleeper title and wanted more, well, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector delivers much more. The basic game mechanics remain the same: you have dice that are used to determine your success or failure. And, like any RPG, your actions have consequences of all kinds. This time, since you have the ability to recruit members for your crew, your initial Sleeper choices truly make you specialize in a certain attribute, unlike in the first game, where it seemed like, as the game progressed, this choice became increasingly insignificant. And speaking of crew members, this new mechanic is quite interesting, with each member having their own specialty, allowing them to cover areas where your Sleeper isn't as skilled. They are essential in expeditions, which are missions in which you go to a specific location and carry out a mission as a team, using your dice and those of the ship's members. And the mechanics of having a ship and crew open up a whole new range of aspects to manage, such as crew stress and expedition supplies.
The game's art remains beautiful, with well-designed characters and plenty of personality. The story is intriguing and continues to draw you in with its possibilities, making you want to see how it ends. Unfortunately, and again, the game isn't in Brazilian Portuguese, which made me quite upset. With the success of the first game, I figured they'd invest in a translation for the sequel, as it's a text-heavy game, which is essential to the experience. Even if you can read another language, mentally translating what you're reading is more tiring than reading in your native tongue. Even though this is a major downside, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a game well worth playing.
ACHIEVEMENTS
If in your previous game you only needed a few new adventures to complete the achievements, here in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, prepare for a wider variety of possibilities. In addition to achievements related to contract missions and based on certain actions taken during the game, you'll also have missions to recruit members for your ship. With so many variables, I don't doubt it's possible to do everything at once, but for fun and to fully enjoy the story, it might be better to do it gradually. We also have an achievement for finishing the game on the hardest difficulty, which imposes some extra difficulties on the game. Slightly more challenging than its predecessor, achieving 100% of the achievements in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector will be difficult.
CONCLUSION
My impression of the second Citizen Sleeper game remains very similar to my first, and much remains the same. It remains a very good narrative game, like a tabletop RPG, but it becomes tiresome at times, either due to the heavy text load or, for Portuguese speakers, the lack of a Brazilian Portuguese translation. The addition of new mechanics left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, a sequel should have new attractions. On the other, I found there was a lot of new stuff to manage, and you end up feeling a bit lost amidst all the decisions you must make throughout the game. Even so, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector expands its universe and remains a great option for those who enjoy a good narrative RPG.
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