Xbox Game Passis perhaps most known for its offering of massive, AAA games to justify its monthly price tag. Beyond those more traditional offerings, however, Game Pass has a host of smaller, independent games that also deserve a playthrough.Citizen Sleeper, a masterful TTRPG-inspired sci-fi narrative, is one of those games.
Citizen Sleeperpacks a punch of inventive game design, well-crafted writing, and an overall truly engaging experience, all wrapped within a binge-friendly runtime. While it is worth playing at any time,Game Pass’s next slew of January offeringsincludes the much-anticipatedCitizen Sleeper 2. While some gameplay departures are being made in this next installment, the quality ofCitizen Sleeperpromises a worthwhile experience,and it’s worth playing the original now before the next space-faring journey begins.
Citizen Sleeper Is An Entirely Unique Experience
An Immersive And Engaging Package
Citizen Sleeperis anything but a by-the-numbers RPG experience, standing out from anything else available on Xbox Game Pass. Players begin the game by choosing one of three playable sleepers, each with a different skill set to withstand the journey ahead. Sleepers represent a truly dystopic future, robots infused with a human consciousness, bought and sold by corporations as a means of labor. The player’s sleeper finds themselves in a lively space station, having escaped the grasp of the corporation they worked for.
The narrative remains the same for each beautifully represented Sleeper. The replayability comes from their skills, which dramatically influence the choices players make on their journey.
The story could end there, with an artificial body having freed itself from the grasp of a corporation waking in a new home.Quickly, though, the Sleeper is beset by challenges: the corporation actively trying to recover it, the politics of the space station, and the interactions and distrust of its citizens. This is without mentioning more basic needs, like a place to sleep, food to eat, and a new core for power.
The corporation, of course, fits each sleeper with a core, a component needed to function. The cores are designed in such a way to rapidly degenerate in the case of a lost sleeper. Functionally, thesleeper needs to not only navigate their new environment but also seek out a core, as each day, or cycle, their current one further degenerates.
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The player is free to explore the space station, seeking solutions to their mounting problems. The station is broken up into different locations, with most requiring the use of dice to activate, the success or failure of which depends on those dice. The number of available dice is determined by factors like hunger and core stability, while their effectiveness is dictated by the number rolled on the dice at the cycle’s start. It’s a tight balancing act,with the endlessly degrading core pushing the player to find solutions ever more desperately, often creating situations that appear nearly hopeless.
A Short Game That Demands Some Extra Time
Replayable & Nuanced
This balancing act, a test of management and an ever-shifting balance of comfort and desperation, can be completed in under ten hours. Rushing throughCitizen Sleepermay be unavoidable in some ways. With the strong atmosphere, clean UI, mellow soundtrack, masterful writing, and the tension of dwindling resources,it’s a difficult game to put down. Yet, for those same reasons, it demands more thorough attention. There’s nothing quite likeCitizen Sleeper, and with so many story threads and multiple characters to select, it’s a game that asks to be replayed.
The story ofCitizen Sleeperis mesmerizing — abeautiful branching narrativethat unfolds like a tapestry across the lone star station where every action, whether delivering food for money or entering the local clinic, is marked by characters existing within their own hopes and struggles and the sleeper’s own dwindling life. While those characters don’t have a visual marker of their failing systems,they too have constraints and tensions that serve as their own, more understated ticking core.
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Beyond the narrative, the gameplay presents challenging questions for the player underneath a simple and elegant system. Money is needed for a new core, demanding some level of frugality. Yet, being too frugal and perhaps skipping meals leaves the sleeper with fewer available dice. Timed events also tug on the action economy, potentially forcing the player to end the cycle hungryand negating a dice that could perhaps be used to further save up for that desperately needed replacement. All of this is made more complicated by the balancing act of differently-rolled dice.
Citizen Sleeper 2 Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Soon
An Even Deeper Experience
Truthfully, it’s unknown how much cohesion there’s going to be betweenCitizen Sleeper 1&2. Truthfully, too, it doesn’t need any.Citizen Sleeper, by the end of its runtime, feels complete.Citizen Sleeper 2is exciting not because there’s some hope that it will continue the story of the first, but becausean entirely new story and experience could be fantastic.
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The hook ofCitizen Sleeper 2remains the same as the first game, following a sleeper who has freed themselves from their corporate overlord. Instead of waking on a large space station, this sleeper finds themselves assembling their own crew and outfitting a ship to stay ahead of relentless pursuers. The management is set to receive a major expansion inCitizen Sleeper 2,extending past the sleeper’s individual needs. The first game was challenging on its own, even with its more limited scope of management, so players desiring even more mechanical complexity are likely to be in for a treat.
IfCitizen Sleeper 2is anything like its predecessor,it will be well-worth a playthrough when it releases on January 31st.It’s difficult to sing the praises of any one spectacular component ofCitizen Sleeper. Ultimately,as attested byScreen Rant’s review, each piece comes together to form an experience that feels truly encompassing, with engaging gameplay and an intriguing narrative contained within an atmosphere expertly crafted by its aesthetic and sound. IfCitizen Sleeperslipped through the cracks of game releases, with the advent of its sequel onXbox Game Pass, now is the perfect time to dive in.
