A new entry in the wave of Disco Elysium-likes expands on gameplay ideas but pairs back on (ludo)narrative engagement.
Oh, what a mess Harry Du Bois has made.
I certainly don't need to explain to you just how much of a lightning-in-a-bottle effect Disco Elysium has had on the gaming industry. Still, it's crazy to see just how many new releases have not just taken influence from Disco Elysium, but have even just built their own Disco Elysium. Seriously, it's getting to the point where we're going to need to give them a name. Shall we keep with gaming tradition and coin a term like Discolike? Or should we take a page from the book of musical genre and start calling these Second Wave CRPGs? Or perhaps we can go all the way and start calling them IRPGs (Intelligent Role-playing Games)? Maybe the developers of Citizen Sleeper will appreciate that as much as Aphex Twin does.
You've Come a Long Way, Monopoly
But to give Citizen Sleeper credit, it does offer significant divergence from Disco Elysium despite maintaining that distinct Discolike structure. Gameplay wise, it's still concerned with integrating tabletop game mechanics into a modern video game. However, Citizen Sleeper looks less towards the conventional tabletop game (D&D) and more towards games you literally play upon your tabletop: board games.
That's right, instead of opting to deepen the mechanics found in its influences, Citizen Sleeper instead chooses to widen its berth of influences, a goal I think it accomplished rather well. The game is broken up into daily 'cycles' (think turns) where you are allocated a set of pre-rolled dice that you can use to complete actions. Each action can have a positive, neutral, or negative outcome based on the value of the dice used as well as your character's stats (chosen and upgraded by you). The inclusion of the dice is one of the more interesting design choices I've seen this year, and I think it's handled rather well. Although there is still an element of random luck (non optimal dice still have a chance of failure), it allows players to consider actions and better weigh their choices and resources before committing to a decision. Despite that, the game still retains that element of RNG that all us thrillseekers crave.
On top of the die economy, Citizen Sleeper also makes heavy use of resource management through metrics of energy, condition, cryo (currency), and items. Between all of these systems, players will have plenty to chew on and consider as they optimize dice usage and which actions they should undertake at what time. Before long, the game really opens up with dozens of different tasks, quests, and characters that you can progress at any time. On top of that, the 'cycle' system introduces an addictive mechanical loop a la Civilization's legendary "one more turn..." mantra. I often found my self wondering just how much more I could squeeze out the next cycle--even if that meant skipping lunch.
Narratives in the Harsh Vacuum of Space
All that being said, I do wish the game went further with these developments. Although some crucial actions are possible to fail (either by wasting time or with bad dice rolls), many actions really don't have much weight behind them. I really wish the game was more willing to make me commit to actions and really weight the pros and cons of every cycle--something I very rarely did. Perhaps pursuing certain characters/quests would more often cut off other questlines or change how characters perceive me narratively. Moreover, quests really needed more deadlines and dangers that make me heavily consider how I'm spending my time. Now don't get me wrong, there was some of that, but not nearly enough to make it feel as substantial as I was hoping.
On top of that, many quests feel so disconnected and isolated that it really kills the illusion of Citizen Sleeper's holistic world. Massive events can happen in game and many characters will just have nothing to say about it. For example, I accidentally missed a questline until the tail end of the game, but everything about it was still treating me like I had just started playing 20 minutes ago--which no doubt felt very awkward for a game so focused on narrative immersion. Nearly every quest exists in a vacuum--certainly a consequence of it's indie development status, but a shame nonetheless.
What's in Disco, Anyways?
Going even further into narrative immersion, Citizen Sleeper unfortunately devolves lessons learned in Disco Elysium as well. Despite being very similar on the face of it, the game basically removes all meaningful gameplay interactions from the narrative presentation. You're still able to make conversation choices, but you will never have any true repercussions in mechanics--which is a shame. Considering the resource heavy nature of the game, I would love to see choices boost your energy, kill your condition, win you money, or maybe gain you items...just anything to get me more engaged into my actual character choices. Instead, you're mainly rewarded with a slightly different block of text.
Oh yeah, how is that block of text anyways? Well...it's....alright. Of course, the biggest problem with the Discolike is that virtually no games would match the nuanced literary qualities of their inspiration. This is doubly important considering what percent of the game is spent reading walls of text. That being said, Citizen Sleeper is not an awful endeavor either--and is probably something you could enjoy if you easily get immersed into simple sci-fi settings. However, I will admit I was often bored by the game's prose, themes, world, and characters. Nothing was ever poorly written, but it wasn't particularly engaging either. But hey, I'm a pretty harsh critic. If you're not that critical, or are already biased towards sci-fi, then you'll probably have a good enough time here--just don't expect anything revelatory.
All that being said, Citizen Sleeper is an enjoyable short experience and another impressive title from writer/director Gareth Damian Martin. It's far from reaching the perfection it strives for, but it offers enough interesting ideas in its five to ten hour runtime to keep anyone who likes Discolikes (yeah I'm sticking with that until someone makes something better, sue me) engaged. The biggest lesson to be learned here is that Discolikes really need a clean unification of narrative decisions and gameplay mechanics to really shine--ideally with a narrative that punches above the crowd. Even still, as long as they have unique premises and diverge enough in gameplay ideas, then you're still going to scratch that itch.
Oh, what a mess Harry Du Bois has made.
I certainly don't need to explain to you just how much of a lightning-in-a-bottle effect Disco Elysium has had on the gaming industry. Still, it's crazy to see just how many new releases have not just taken influence from Disco Elysium, but have even just built their own Disco Elysium. Seriously, it's getting to the point where we're going to need to give them a name. Shall we keep with gaming tradition and coin a term like Discolike? Or should we take a page from the book of musical genre and start calling these Second Wave CRPGs? Or perhaps we can go all the way and start calling them IRPGs (Intelligent Role-playing Games)? Maybe the developers of Citizen Sleeper will appreciate that as much as Aphex Twin does.
You've Come a Long Way, Monopoly
But to give Citizen Sleeper credit, it does offer significant divergence from Disco Elysium despite maintaining that distinct Discolike structure. Gameplay wise, it's still concerned with integrating tabletop game mechanics into a modern video game. However, Citizen Sleeper looks less towards the conventional tabletop game (D&D) and more towards games you literally play upon your tabletop: board games.
That's right, instead of opting to deepen the mechanics found in its influences, Citizen Sleeper instead chooses to widen its berth of influences, a goal I think it accomplished rather well. The game is broken up into daily 'cycles' (think turns) where you are allocated a set of pre-rolled dice that you can use to complete actions. Each action can have a positive, neutral, or negative outcome based on the value of the dice used as well as your character's stats (chosen and upgraded by you). The inclusion of the dice is one of the more interesting design choices I've seen this year, and I think it's handled rather well. Although there is still an element of random luck (non optimal dice still have a chance of failure), it allows players to consider actions and better weigh their choices and resources before committing to a decision. Despite that, the game still retains that element of RNG that all us thrillseekers crave.
On top of the die economy, Citizen Sleeper also makes heavy use of resource management through metrics of energy, condition, cryo (currency), and items. Between all of these systems, players will have plenty to chew on and consider as they optimize dice usage and which actions they should undertake at what time. Before long, the game really opens up with dozens of different tasks, quests, and characters that you can progress at any time. On top of that, the 'cycle' system introduces an addictive mechanical loop a la Civilization's legendary "one more turn..." mantra. I often found my self wondering just how much more I could squeeze out the next cycle--even if that meant skipping lunch.
Narratives in the Harsh Vacuum of Space
All that being said, I do wish the game went further with these developments. Although some crucial actions are possible to fail (either by wasting time or with bad dice rolls), many actions really don't have much weight behind them. I really wish the game was more willing to make me commit to actions and really weight the pros and cons of every cycle--something I very rarely did. Perhaps pursuing certain characters/quests would more often cut off other questlines or change how characters perceive me narratively. Moreover, quests really needed more deadlines and dangers that make me heavily consider how I'm spending my time. Now don't get me wrong, there was some of that, but not nearly enough to make it feel as substantial as I was hoping.
On top of that, many quests feel so disconnected and isolated that it really kills the illusion of Citizen Sleeper's holistic world. Massive events can happen in game and many characters will just have nothing to say about it. For example, I accidentally missed a questline until the tail end of the game, but everything about it was still treating me like I had just started playing 20 minutes ago--which no doubt felt very awkward for a game so focused on narrative immersion. Nearly every quest exists in a vacuum--certainly a consequence of it's indie development status, but a shame nonetheless.
What's in Disco, Anyways?
Going even further into narrative immersion, Citizen Sleeper unfortunately devolves lessons learned in Disco Elysium as well. Despite being very similar on the face of it, the game basically removes all meaningful gameplay interactions from the narrative presentation. You're still able to make conversation choices, but you will never have any true repercussions in mechanics--which is a shame. Considering the resource heavy nature of the game, I would love to see choices boost your energy, kill your condition, win you money, or maybe gain you items...just anything to get me more engaged into my actual character choices. Instead, you're mainly rewarded with a slightly different block of text.
Oh yeah, how is that block of text anyways? Well...it's....alright. Of course, the biggest problem with the Discolike is that virtually no games would match the nuanced literary qualities of their inspiration. This is doubly important considering what percent of the game is spent reading walls of text. That being said, Citizen Sleeper is not an awful endeavor either--and is probably something you could enjoy if you easily get immersed into simple sci-fi settings. However, I will admit I was often bored by the game's prose, themes, world, and characters. Nothing was ever poorly written, but it wasn't particularly engaging either. But hey, I'm a pretty harsh critic. If you're not that critical, or are already biased towards sci-fi, then you'll probably have a good enough time here--just don't expect anything revelatory.
All that being said, Citizen Sleeper is an enjoyable short experience and another impressive title from writer/director Gareth Damian Martin. It's far from reaching the perfection it strives for, but it offers enough interesting ideas in its five to ten hour runtime to keep anyone who likes Discolikes (yeah I'm sticking with that until someone makes something better, sue me) engaged. The biggest lesson to be learned here is that Discolikes really need a clean unification of narrative decisions and gameplay mechanics to really shine--ideally with a narrative that punches above the crowd. Even still, as long as they have unique premises and diverge enough in gameplay ideas, then you're still going to scratch that itch.