Citizen Sleeper

I didn't look into the game before buying but heard the sequel was good. It's a role-playing game so when it was on discount I bought it. It's intriguiging in the first 1-2 hours. But afterwards I kept thinking: is this is? And they charged almost 20€ for this? Are you kidding me?! With the amount of games out there, lots often on discount, this game is not worth full price. Absolutely not. It's a "nice" game, but no more. The role-playing is effectively non-existant on either the narrative or the gameplay front. It's more of a mechanics-heavy adventure game. At the start there's a ticking-timebomb mechanic (a timer) that creates some tension, but my timer ran out and I thought that that was game over for my entire run. Harsh but fair. I had f***ed up. But as the timer reaches zero, a scene plays in which these Damocles sword situation resolves itself without any input from me. No skill checks, no resource check or anything. You have to pay 1 skill point (I had gathered like 20 at that point) and you are good as new. And with that all tension evaporated. The narrative also isn't fantastic. The writing is thankfully lean, but there is still lots to read, which I don't specifically mind if I'm into it, but the charcters and small stories (there's no real overarching narrative) where shallow. At one point a quest suggest that the MC is really upset with an NPC about an outcome the player couldn't possibly have for seen, with the "victims" of that event the MC had never before seen. Yet the game insisted the MC be angry. As a player, I had zero impact on this event or the consequences. And at the ending that I got, that NPC made a pass at the MC out of nowhere, seemingly due to that tragic event I didn't care about. I left with that and another NPC I didn't care about and the game ended with "you will wake among friends". No, game, no, I won't. I don't care about these people. Credits roll. Main menu. No slides showing your impact or anything. An "experience".

It is a great experience to play through. Many lovely winding stories with excelent endings! Baldur's gate endings are luckluster in comparision, even Witcher story lines finishes hardly compare with some exeptions. What is however sad outcome of this game being a project of a single man, is that in the late game one writer/creator (?) stops being capable of keeping the compelxity of the world properly interconected. That the stories although excelent become too obviously linear inspite clear demand for overreach between them. As you finish questlines player amasses number of influential friends - however when an existential problem to the whole gamewordl appears, player somehow can not go and talk with them, ask for help - especialy when their help is so clearly needed and they themselves are implicated in the comming destruction. One mind of course can not in reasonable time create this interactive web of agents - but that is why it is sad that such an awesome gameworld was stripped of caring cooperative work of multiple writers. It could have been so much more livelier and with a proper replaybility. That being said, for any fan of Disco Elysium or Planescape Tormen it would be an epic fail not give this game a go.

I only played through the story once, did all the quests. However, I am not sure if my choices were really changing the course of the story or just minor details. There's no save system, game saves automatically, so I cannot go back and try different choices easily. The exception are the endings, you are allowed to see different endings. Therefore, i am not fully subscribed to the idea that this is an RPG, but i liked it as it is. You will be doing a lot of reading. Luckily, the story was good enough to keep me reading until the very end. I am sure I will buy and play the sequel at some point. As an illustrated text adventure this one really shines.

This game is anything but ordinary. I'll admit I had some doubts about buying it, since it seemed rather odd. But it did not disappoint at all. Here's what I liked about it and what I think could have been better: Pros: - Unique setting: You're role-playing a robot stranded on a defunct space-station. - Emphasis on survival: In this game, even robots need to eat, earn money and escape from fiends chasing them. - The game-play is intuitive and the game mechanics are therefore easy to learn. They also fit the emphasis on survival well. - The artwork is an interesting blend of rather technocratic depictions of the space-station and contrasting portraits of the characters you meet and interact with. - Characters are well developed and keep you engaged with rather mundane quests, that nonetheless are full of meaning. - No bugs worth mentioning: The game ran flawless on my laptop. Cons: - Depending on your choices, you can end the game prematurely and miss a lot of content. There are a handful of situations in which this can happen. And while you might have a hunch about them and the premature endings aren't bad, it still feels like walking into a trap. - The different character traits you can choose seem underdeveloped: Most of them are nice to have, but do not impact the game much. - The sound is decent, but nothing to write home about. - Some of the writing is tacky and kitschy and the whole setting - lore, background of corporations and factions and so on - is a bit underdeveloped. This makes some twists and turns of the story hard to grasp. In the end, I loved the game despite it's imperfections, but had to start over a couple of times because I felt like a missed too much content. In the end, I finished the game more times than I care to admit and am looking forward to playing the second part!

The story, themes and world in Citizen Sleeper is captivating and inviting. The music is moody and has the proper elements of a 'cyberpunky' soundtrack. The character art is stellar. However, I think where this game falls flat is the polish. By this I mean, there's no voice acting (which is more about personal taste than objective quality). And the writing itself does a great job to convey character development, tension and worldbuilding. But I think with a bit of voice acting, I could've been pulled in just that little bit more. I did appreciate the TTRPG-like mechanics that let you navigate the setting and complete tasks and such, As you progress you unlike new ways to use your dice you accrue per day. However, sometimes the literal roll of the dice limited what I did in a cycle. At moments in added tension cos I needed to perform certain tasks and it was satisfying to pull it off. But I also think I may have been lucky, or that the game secretly makes sure you get good dice right before an important countdown concludes. I also found that the 'ending' felt poor executed. The relationships I developed with characters didn't have an epilogue or vignette (and I had finished the main story, didn't do the DLC). I recommend this game. The sense of growth and finding hope in an inhumane future is present in this captivating world and story. But it lacks a lot of polish.