I [i]LOVE[/i] this game.
[i]Citizen Sleeper[/i] is a wonderful game, beautifully written, charmingly designed both in visual and gameplay aspect, and is just...
But let me first explain what the game even is.
[i]Citizen Sleeper[/i] is an adventure game based entirely on reading text and throwing virtual dice which you get with each new "cycle". Literal dice, 1 through 6, which will give you particular chances of success, from 50/50 of Negative and Neutral to 100% Positive.
Those Dice you get are used for pretty much everything in-game, be it doing labor work for money, exploring the station or doing something more specific, like committing interfacing actions in The Network, which your Sleeper can access.
Sleepers are basically Ghosts in the Shell. They are robotic shells with emulated minds of real people which, for one reason or another, basically sold themselves to a corporation for some debt or another monetary reason. Sleepers are then used for different slave labor purposes... So, Sleepers, understandably, try to escape. Some do, but don't survive for long, be it because their escape is daring enough that they don't survive the trip, or because of everything after the escape itself they will have to get through, including your own sleeper - being hunted down by the corporation you are a [i]property[/i] of, having your body degrade constantly without Stabilizers, which are a proprietary medicine of the corporation that owns you; starving to death (because Sleepers still need to eat so that they have energy to do anything), or any others means of death that could be experienced. Means you which will have to survive. And, maybe, even succeed. And settle in The Eye. Or escape it.
When you get settled in enough and find ways to survive, the Eye is your oyster - explore it and conquer its troubles, help people in need for their and/or your own good. The game may not be too big on choice, but it is there, and pretty much all the endings depend on what you choose, one branch of the story having THREE possible endings.
The beauty of the game in its writing, which i just can not spoil, and neither will spoil any screenshots or videos unless they are proper walkthroughs. And you shouldn't spoil it for yourself, not because of any particular story bits, just because of the quality of it. And soundtrack also helps greatly with it, too.
It may be a short game (i only had to spend 5+ hours on it to get every achievement, meaning half the endings on one save file and each other ending on new files in a speedrun manner), but it doesn't matter with how packed with good text it is.
The writing really, REALLY makes it.
It feels like home playing it.
Struggling for survival. Exploring The Eye. Meeting the People. Helping Others' Dreams.
Finding your place on The Eye.
It truly became MY home, and i hope it will become yours too. And even if not, i hope then that you will escape it with people you care about. Or, maybe, become something more than a Ghost in the Shell.
The last recommendation i can put in is that... If you loved Disco Elysium, you will love Citizen Sleeper. They may be differently written, but the quality is all the same (in my eyes at least), and in terms of gameplay they are very similar down to the very familiar Text Box Feed. If not... You may still enjoy it more, just because of how smaller and compact it is, as i can suspect that DE put off many with its sheer Verbosity, lul.
[i]Citizen Sleeper[/i] is a wonderful game, beautifully written, charmingly designed both in visual and gameplay aspect, and is just...
But let me first explain what the game even is.
[i]Citizen Sleeper[/i] is an adventure game based entirely on reading text and throwing virtual dice which you get with each new "cycle". Literal dice, 1 through 6, which will give you particular chances of success, from 50/50 of Negative and Neutral to 100% Positive.
Those Dice you get are used for pretty much everything in-game, be it doing labor work for money, exploring the station or doing something more specific, like committing interfacing actions in The Network, which your Sleeper can access.
Sleepers are basically Ghosts in the Shell. They are robotic shells with emulated minds of real people which, for one reason or another, basically sold themselves to a corporation for some debt or another monetary reason. Sleepers are then used for different slave labor purposes... So, Sleepers, understandably, try to escape. Some do, but don't survive for long, be it because their escape is daring enough that they don't survive the trip, or because of everything after the escape itself they will have to get through, including your own sleeper - being hunted down by the corporation you are a [i]property[/i] of, having your body degrade constantly without Stabilizers, which are a proprietary medicine of the corporation that owns you; starving to death (because Sleepers still need to eat so that they have energy to do anything), or any others means of death that could be experienced. Means you which will have to survive. And, maybe, even succeed. And settle in The Eye. Or escape it.
When you get settled in enough and find ways to survive, the Eye is your oyster - explore it and conquer its troubles, help people in need for their and/or your own good. The game may not be too big on choice, but it is there, and pretty much all the endings depend on what you choose, one branch of the story having THREE possible endings.
The beauty of the game in its writing, which i just can not spoil, and neither will spoil any screenshots or videos unless they are proper walkthroughs. And you shouldn't spoil it for yourself, not because of any particular story bits, just because of the quality of it. And soundtrack also helps greatly with it, too.
It may be a short game (i only had to spend 5+ hours on it to get every achievement, meaning half the endings on one save file and each other ending on new files in a speedrun manner), but it doesn't matter with how packed with good text it is.
The writing really, REALLY makes it.
It feels like home playing it.
Struggling for survival. Exploring The Eye. Meeting the People. Helping Others' Dreams.
Finding your place on The Eye.
It truly became MY home, and i hope it will become yours too. And even if not, i hope then that you will escape it with people you care about. Or, maybe, become something more than a Ghost in the Shell.
The last recommendation i can put in is that... If you loved Disco Elysium, you will love Citizen Sleeper. They may be differently written, but the quality is all the same (in my eyes at least), and in terms of gameplay they are very similar down to the very familiar Text Box Feed. If not... You may still enjoy it more, just because of how smaller and compact it is, as i can suspect that DE put off many with its sheer Verbosity, lul.