REVIEW | Citizen Sleeper lets the player build its own dystopian-cyberpunk future
There a lot of game with cyberpunk themes out there. I would dare to suggest Cyberpunk 2077 as a good example, but considering how it all went down for the game, it is better not to. Nevertheless, to create a fully pledge RPG experience around this thematic is something unique. Citizen Sleeper, a creation from the indie developers Jump Over the Edge, gives a shot on this strategy gives the player a good view on how you would survive in a dystopian-cyberpunk future.
A digital copy of Citizen Sleeper for Xbox was given to me for review by Press Engine and, after spending several hours managing the life of my cyber-character, I bring a detailed review of this interesting title that gives a new approach to the futuristic RPG genre.
Every little chip in the right place
Citizen Sleeper is a cyberpunk RPG that places the player in the role of a synthetic robot-person — called a Sleeper — who awakens on a space station filled with all king of grey activities and illegal organizations. There is not much to say abou your character backstory, only that he is a fugitive from the working colony that he lived and now he is being hunted down by goons from a megacorporation that will stop at nothing to have their most valued asset back: your cybernetic body.
The worst part of this story is that your body is dependent on a supplement exclusively produced by the company, therefore, in order to survive, you’ll have to work in shipyards, trade with scavengers, visit slum doctors, and make hard decisions as you look for a way off the station and to become indeed free.
Although this seems to be the main narrative line of the game, Citizen Sleeper story is more of a collection of narratives, mixing together several deep subplots that develop more of the culture and hierarchy of the station that our character lives. For exemple, in one questline you will be asked to help a mercenary to repair her broken ship, while in another you will find yourself assisting a vending machine to destroy a rogue AI program.
Considering the fair amount of questlines available in the game, it is good news to know that is not mandatory to follow each one of them in a single playthrough. Besides, there are several branching pathways where you can choose to either remain loyal to your allies or betray them. This main mechanic is what makes Citizen Sleeper so much replayable, as a normal run will take you about five hours, but you will surely want to check out the various ending that can be achieved, depending on what kind of alliance you forge and the order that you tackle the quests.
Short-circuits and system failure
In therms of gameplay, Citizen Sleeper puts a strong emphasis on the narrative aspect and lets the player in charge of managing slim resources. You can track questlines and various world events in cycles that pass every time you go to sleep. The problem is that in the end of each cycle your body will break down a little more and your character you begin to starve. To pass the feeling of a real tabletop RPG experience, you will have a number of random dice rolls in each cycle that you can then spend on any activity in the station.
Unfortunately, as your body breaks down, you’ll have fewer dice to roll, which will decrease the number of things you can do in a given cycle. And here comes the most tense part of the Citizen Sleeper experience: to choose every day about what to do next. Do not be surprise if you have to make tough calls, such as selling out your friend to ensure you don’t starve the next day.
Besides the engaging RPG mechanics of the game, it is worth to mention the incredible art style of Citizen Sleeper. It features stylized and well-drawn pictures of your friends and foes as they converse with you. Also, every decision-making process is always accompanied by well fit synthwave soundtrack that is at both times somber and interesting. Finally, the overall atmosphere created by the developers of Jump Over the Edge is perfect to immersive the player in a dark and diverse cyberpunk future.
The only main complaint about the game is that the gameplay experience is not very good with a controller. There are so many nodes to click and details to keep track on the screen that using the analog sticks to move between these elements feels a little awkward. In this manner, I can suposse that Citizen Sleeper presents a smoother gameplay when playing it on a PC with a mouse and keyboard.
A cyber-life to call your own
If you had the chance to play the incredible Disco Elysium, I would defenitly recommend that you should give a shot with Citizen Sleeper, as the game has strong inspirations from that title. With a emphasis on the character role, strong writing and awesome soundtrack, Citizen Sleeper turns into a cyber-addiction as soon as you start get into the game main mechanics.
Final opinion: Very Good
By Luis Antonio Costa.
