Citizen Sleeper is what a cyberpunk story should be
This review has light spoilers.
In a series of bad decisions and bad luck, I will only last for two days. I'm running out of Cryo and cannot afford food to stave off my hunger. My condition's breaking, as my mechanical body is at the point of failure. Tomorrow, my hunter's coming for me. I dragged myself into a bar and decided to drink things off. That's where I met Tala, the bar owner. She's tough and burly but with a warm smile that radiates throughout the place. Despite never having met a Sleeper, she gave me a temporary job to earn a few Cryo. A few more days to earn my survival. A kind warmth tucked away in this abandoned station, floating and hanging in the coldness of space.
This is just one of the stories that made Citizen Sleeper, an interactive fiction game from Jump Over the Age (published by Fellow Traveller Games), one of the best-made Cyberpunk narratives this year. It is filled with universal themes such as compassion, betrayal, and hope while set against the backdrop of a dystopian, hyper-capitalist society. Cyberpunk fans will definitely find a home in Citizen Sleeper. But the strength of its writing alone makes it a must-play for any gamers interested in the genre.
In Citizen Sleeper, you play the role of a Sleeper, a once-human whose mind was digitized and put into a robot body controlled by the Essen-Arp corporation. You escaped slavery and arrived at a space station called Erlin's Eye, where the game's events take place. The game has a lite-RPG mechanic where you can choose your class that affects your skills. I chose the Machinist because being "diligent, careful, and structured" aptly describes my preferred playstyle. This choice matters in the early to mid-game, but you'll get enough upgrade points later to spec your other skills.
The game loop is interesting. Each cycle (a day in Erlin's Eye) gives you five random dice to spend as action points. Like most tabletop RPGs, you can roll a die to work at a nearby noodle shop for Cryo, trade at an exchange, or plant mushrooms. Each interaction is a game of chance and strategy; all of them have a preferred skill that can affect the likelihood of your roll's success. As a Machinist, I prefer taking contract fixing jobs and building the Sidereal hull, as they favor my Engineer skill, making me more likely to get a successful outcome. However, you also have a hunger and condition meter that depletes each day. As your condition drains, the number of dice actions you can do also decreases. So when you're breaking, you are limited to a single action each day. The game becomes a matter of balance between sustaining yourself and moving forward with narrative objectives.
The game becomes a matter of balance between sustaining yourself and moving forward with narrative objectives.
The visuals and interface are great. You spend most of your time looking at the 3D cityscape of Erlin's Eye, dotted with landmarks and interest points. As you interact with NPCs, beautiful hand-drawn character illustrations appear next to the dialogue box. My favorite character designs include Ankhita, Lem & Mina, and NeoVend. The soundtrack has an ambient, lo-fi style that doesn't distract you from reading. As a text-based adventure game, it does its job well.
The strength of the game lies in its narrative. Cyberpunk as a setting is not just about neon lights and grimdark dystopia. Instead, it provides a platform to ask universal questions about humanity (are you still you if your mind is separated from your body?) and society (what happens if we push our current capitalist tendencies to the extreme?). What makes Citizen Sleeper stands out is how it intertwines these into universal stories that we're already familiar with: an immigrant building a better life, a single father making ends meet for his child, an employee who just realized he's another cog in the machine. Of course, these stories can exist without the cyberpunk setting, but against this backdrop, everything shines through.
The writing is excellent, but the game could have distributed it better. In addition, there are characters whom I wish had longer story beats, and some story conclusions seem too abrupt. Lastly, it would have been cool to see story threads intertwine, and NPCs interact. Aside from a few events and ending requirements (there are multiple endings), the story threads are parallel. Despite these, Citizen Sleeper still excels at pinning down the heart of a cyberpunk story: edgy, noir, and cool but with sensibilities on universal themes.
To continue my Sleeper's story, I was able to work enough to regain my energy and rebuild my failing body from scrap. I have also dealt with my hunter. In addition, I now have a self-sustaining economy from growing and exporting mushrooms! Finally, I returned to Tala and repaid her generosity by helping her refurbish the bar. I wouldn't be able to get back on my feet thanks to her simple kindness on that fateful night. I had already finished one of the endings, where I bid farewell to some friends as I stayed behind. I'm working my way through the episodic content, which is still getting updated by the developers. I see myself doing a few more playthroughs to witness other endings.
With a beautiful narrative and exciting tabletop RPG elements, Citizen Sleeper is definitely a must-play to get your cyberpunk fix as 2022 ends. It is available on PC, Switch, and XBox.
Rating (Great): 🍚🍚🍚🍚 (Playtime: 11.9 hours, PC, Platinum 🏆)