Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review (PS5) – Pure Sci-Fi Excellence

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review (PS5) – Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, developed by Jump Over The Age and published by Fellow Traveller is the follow up to 2022’s sleeper hit, Citizen Sleeper. Three years ago I was searching for something similar to another famous dice-based RPG, Disco Elysium, and I just so happened across Citizen Sleeper. A game that I quickly fell in love with, and became a fast favorite of mine.

I’ve been tentatively waiting for the follow up, wondering if it can live up to my lofty expectations. A task I thought impossible as its release date drew closer, and yet here I am, about to tell you it surpassed them, and cemented itself amongst the sci-fi greats.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review (PS5) – Pure Sci-Fi Excellence

I’ve Seen Things You People Wouldn’t Believe

Much like the original Citizen Sleeper, the follow up hits you with a beautiful, transcendental soundtrack as soon as the game loads. The first few notes I found to be very reminiscent of the menu music from Mass Effect, and suitably sets the tone just as well. Almost instantly, I felt a sense of comfort, that I was right back in this sci-fi world that I’ve come to adore.

Initially, it seems very much like more of the first game, and in all the best ways; it is. However, a stark difference is made quite clear, very early on. That difference being that you are no longer exploring just one location. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is about exploration of its broader universe, and the many stations, wreckages, and bases within it. It is in the name after all.

This evolution of this game allows for gameplay changes as a result. For example: you will need fuel, a lot of fuel even, every time you get to a new location, you will need to refuel to move on. This gives reason to take on small jobs at the various locations to support your space exploration, and keep on the run. It’ll later become clear why you don’t want to stay in one location for too long.

Space exploration opens the world up in a variety of ways, and it’s up to the task across the board. Narratively speaking, it gives us so much more than the first could offer. In terms of world building, it never lets up, it makes you want more and more.

The belt we explore throughout the game is the closest thing we have ever got to experiencing what outer space might look like in the world of Blade Runner. I feel as if I’ve finally seen the things Roy Batty told Deckard he wouldn’t believe.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector’s world is so well articulated, so well fleshed out, and so well written, that Gareth Damien Martin has positioned himself as one of the great science fiction creators we have in gaming, and more than that, in fiction at all, right now.

A Roll Of The Dice

If you remember Citizen Sleeper, you will know the gameplay loop. It is a dice-based RPG that will have you rolling dice for both skill checks to pass certain narrative events and to complete objectives in general. The moment to moment gameplay will have you rolling dice to build up certain meters, to complete tasks, to progress through the main and side quests.

There are other things you have to manage, such as stress, which means you don’t want to go hungry. If you go hungry, and become stressed, then there’s a good chance your dice will break and/or become more susceptible to glitches, which is especially the case once they’ve been repaired, with materials that aren’t always easy to find. Glitched dice presents an 80% chance of failure, but with no other dice available; it just might be worth it.

Starward Vector’s gameplay really shines, and is at its most intense when you’re taking on contracts. Contracts can often be high paying, rescue missions, intel gathering, or salvaging wrecks. With the various stress meters that build up with failed dice rolls, you really start to feel that stress yourself. On more than a few occasions the difference between failure and success was one cycle or one failed roll of the dice away. I didn’t know rolling dice could be so thrilling outside of a casino.

As mentioned before, there is an element of resource management on top of that. While on these contracts you will need food supplies for you and your crew, and fuel to get there at all. Even these short vectors will require nominal amounts, so its wise to take smaller jobs to keep on top of your finances to fund these bigger contract jobs.

Choosing your crew to fulfill these contracts is vital. As the sleeper, you will specialize in certain skills, depending on your class, which in your case are upgradable. Other characters however, are set in stone, so you want to pick a balanced group. These skills allow for higher success in dice rolls if said skill correlates with objective requirements. Be mindful and tactical when it comes to how you use your dice. It will most certainly make all the difference.

Like Tears In The Rain

Citizen Sleeper 2’s art style is simple, mostly focusing on character stills, which themselves are wonderfully drawn, and the environments you explore from an overlooking perspective, allowing you to select sections and areas within them. It utilizes its dream-like soundtrack, ambient sound design such as bustling crowds, and most importantly its excellent writing to really bring this world to life.

It often feels like in part a visual novel. One that just keeps you hooked on wanting to know where it’s all going to go next. There is so much about this game I love, but the aspect I have come to appreciate the most, is the themes it explores.

Building your crew to explore the belt alongside the sleeper, meeting various characters, and learning about their experiences and plights within this incredibly well realized sci-fi world really takes it to another level.

A game that presents its map as so disconnected, every location feeling distant from the last, in the void of space, that really feels more about the connections formed between you and the inhabitants within that world, that could become your crew.

Simultaneously it explores the themes of agency, a sense of self, and mortality. It goes into other subjects such as corporatism run amok, the exploitation of workers, and unionizing in the far reaches of space, and many other themes on top of that.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector manages to brings these themes that feel so vast, right back down to something relatable, themes that are distinctly human. To have that so effectively brought across in such a wonderful piece of fiction otherwise, feels like a touch of genius. To create something so rich and resonant within its limitations on top of that is truly impressive.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is available on PS5 on January 31, 2025.

Review code generously provided by the publisher.