Science fiction has a protracted historical past of telling poignant human tales by way of the lens of non-human topics. 2022’s Citizen Sleeper earned its place alongside tales like Blade Runner virtually immediately due to its introspective interrogation of personhood and group in a world the place all of it feels fragile, and this sequel’s sturdy, system-hopping story constantly hits the identical highs. And although it may be very gradual paced, repetitive, and filled with partitions of textual content, a byproduct of its tabletop-inspired design, overhauled survival techniques, new multilayered crew missions, and an upgraded sense of rigidity in each cube roll makes Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector extra participating extra typically.
Citizen Sleeper’s RPG qualities resemble pen and paper techniques like Blades in the Dark and Ironsworn greater than widespread RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons or video video games like Final Fantasy. This is most evident in how little you work together along with your stats from a planning and preparation perspective. How good and unhealthy you might be at issues impacts all the things you do, and correct allocation of the restricted quantity of cube you may have for the duties forward is the crux of your resolution making, however there’s little or no you are able to do to change the end result of those rolls or buffer your self towards potential penalties outdoors of that. This is a limitation that will also be liberating. Without the prospect to get within the weeds in the best way extra dense RPGs allow you to, you spend approach much less time attempting to defend your self from Citizen Sleeper’s whims and extra time studying to float, cheering your triumphs and swallowing your defeats. Starward Vector stays dedicated to the concept that nice drama arises when you possibly can’t simply min-max your approach by way of adversity in a approach that also feels simply as novel because it did the primary time. I welcomed this drama with open arms, because it solved my problem with the earlier sport’s passivity and made certain I needed to actually take into account each choice each time.
Your Sleeper, an android protagonist who’s a machine in physique however an emulation of a protracted deceased human in thoughts, nonetheless is available in three courses. I selected the Extractor, well-equipped for enduring bodily labor and excelling at diving headlong into dangerous environments, however woefully unfit for extra delicate and technical work. The strengths and weaknesses of every class are expressed barely in a different way right here than within the authentic, all in pursuit of creating the cube rolling parts of Citizen Sleeper 2 extra tenuous. Your dump stat – the bottom of the 5 accessible in your character sheet – can’t be improved in any respect, and spending your cube on any motion that makes use of that stat as its foundation, just like the Extractor’s Inuit talent, will get a -2 penalty. Most actions have a minimum of two totally different stats that may very well be used to try a job, however it may be devastating within the unusual occasion that the one approach to succeed a examine is rolling at such a extreme drawback.
Citizen Sleeper 2 makes good use of its all new crew techniques, placing your hangers-on to work throughout extra elaborate sequences. You can take as much as two crew members with you on particular jobs like scrapping previous derelict ships out in area, or surveying an asteroid for drinkable water, every with their very own specializations and a pair of cube that you would be able to assign to duties. Missions that require extra palms are sometimes longer and take a number of cycles of a number of steps to be accomplished; bashing open the hull of a ship so {that a} extra hardware-inclined ally can discover the mainframe and prep it to your hacker to steal some information, for instance. Efficiency is essential, as a result of each cycle prices provides, and when you run out of these, catastrophe escalates shortly.
Mixing and matching crew to shore up your weaknesses is helpful, and your Sleeper’s new Push talents, just like the Extractor’s Rally that buffs their die but in addition stresses everybody out, will be tactical godsends. Outside of provide limits, many of those particular jobs can set off a disaster, which put a brand new layer of time constraint in your work earlier than some beforehand unexpected calamity ruins your progress. These had been simply essentially the most enjoyable components of Citizen Sleeper 2. It’s the place I needed to suppose essentially the most on my toes, prep essentially the most earlier than delivery out, and regretted it essentially the most after I failed.
The new Stress meter replaces the previous situation system, and although it impacts your cube from cycle to cycle in related methods, it may be a bit extra brutal. Instead of a standing bar that progressively ticks down, chopping off entry to cube because the meter shrinks that you would be able to roll once more as soon as your situation returns to regular, Stress factors accumulate everytime you fail a examine or another unlucky occurring takes place. As your Stress rises, so does the quantity of numbers you can be penalized for rolling each cycle. For occasion, in case your Stress meter is previous the midway mark and any of your cube present between a 1 and three, all of them take harm.
Dice can take three harm every earlier than they break, at which level they can’t be used once more till they’re repaired, which requires not so uncommon however not at all times accessible sources to do. More than as soon as have I been caught mid-mission, down a few cube and pushing the bounds of my remaining ones. These are irritating moments, however they actually do add a way of hazard that was sorely lacking from the primary sport. It’s additionally not as a lot of an issue late-game, when getting round is much less of a problem.
Almost each mission (referred to as Drives right here) entails making connections and constructing relationships with individuals. Community constructing within the static area station of Erlin’s Eye was a core worth of the unique’s plot, and Starward Vector re-emphasizes this message in its system-spanning journey each in story and gameplay. It’s a message that feels much more vital today, as properly: solidarity amongst like-minded individuals and a collective wit and can to combat for change can assist overcome the constraints of sophistication and sources when up towards seemingly inconceivable odds.
The writing itself is satisfying, on the entire. It’s not overly flowery or descriptive, permitting loads of area between the thoughts and the phrases to your creativeness to fill. It will be biting and direct when describing tense exploration sequences. It additionally actually excels at creating dense webs of philosophical and existential battle when dissecting ideas of personhood revolving across the android protagonist, in addition to private company as a couple of outdoors agitator makes an attempt to assert possession over you in several, typically chilling methods. That mentioned, it doesn’t have the identical kick relating to bodily battle, as its scenes of hectic gun fights and daring escapes don’t fairly hit compared.
The colourful characters you meet alongside the journey are largely plausible people, even when they aren’t all that layered or deep. Though pleasing, particularly when some acquainted names present up in unfamiliar locations, you received’t discover many of those vacationers and tinkerers to have shocking turns of persona or function outdoors of your first impressions. Even a few of my favourite potential crewmates observe archetypes you’ve seen nearly in every single place, just like the jetbike-riding area courier Kadet, who fills the function of spunky go-getter. Many NPCs that may’t be lured into your social gathering, from dutiful caretakers of small settlements to hardened bounty hunters, are one-note caricatures that keep lengthy sufficient to be novel when wanted and vanish proper earlier than they change into burdensome, a very good high quality borrowed from pulp noir and sci-fi novels that retains the intrigue machine churning.