The bleak future of Citizen Sleeper is one that instantly draws you in. From developers Jump Over the Edge and publisher Fellow Traveller, Citizen Sleeper is described as “roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism.” This is a highly accurate and relatable description. As a member of a society currently crumbling under the weight of late-stage capitalism, the plot certainly seems plausible.
You play as an escaped Sleeper, a worker living in a synthetic body with a digitized consciousness. You used to be a real person, but you sold your body to Essen-Arp, a corporation that now owns you. However, you have escaped somehow, and the game begins when you awaken in the cold metal shipping container that has brought you to space station Erlin’s Eye.
The game employs tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) mechanics. You begin by selecting your class. You can choose between Machinist, Extractor, and Operator, each having their own buffs and debuffs. At the beginning of each day or cycle, as they are called in the game, you will start with a number of dice. The number of dice you will have is directly related to your condition.
Wake Up, Citizen Sleeper
As a Sleeper on the run, you can no longer access the corporation-provided supplements that keep your artificial body running. Without these supplements, your condition will slowly decline over time, affecting the number of dice you have and thus affecting how many actions you can make.
You move around the station, encountering situations, tasks, and new friends or foes. Moving around the station costs no dice, but most other actions will. To track your progress, clocks display how far you have progressed in a specific drive (quest.) They are basically circular progress bars, but they are a helpful and easily referenced visual to gauge your progression.
The mechanics are easy enough to grasp, but I found the control scheme quite aggravating. I played on Nintendo Switch and frequently found that trying to navigate to different areas of the ship was, for want of a better word, sticky. Attempting to use the left stick on the Joy-Con to move from location to location would often result in skipping over areas, sticking on one, and not moving side to side. Is this due to my dexterity issues and Nintendo’s famous accessibility issues? Maybe. Either way, it was a blip in an otherwise enjoyable experience.
There Are A Lot of Cool Ideas in Citizen Sleeper, Even If It’s Frustrating At Times To Play On Nintendo Switch
On top of trying to navigate the ship, make alliances, and gather the resources you need to survive, you also have to worry about being tracked. Then there’s the pesky world of information you find yourself connected to that comes with risks and rewards. After a few cycles aboard the Eye, you discover you can interface with the thrumming threads and nodes of information being transmitted across the station.
Switching to the information super highway will allow you to interface with key nodes, information gates, and agents from various broadcasting entities. To do this, you must have a dice with a number matching the specific action you want to make. Not only is there data to gather for yourself and other interested parties, but something is there with you. The Hunter protocol appears as a dog with a many-tendrilled head, and it would very much like to end your existence.
The narrative is deep and filled with discoveries, and your relationships and actions will dictate which paths remain open to you. Everyone on the Eye has secrets, and they are all more than willing to spill them, at least in part, to get your help. Of course, not everyone has good intentions, but you don’t have much choice over your alliances as a synthetic worker on the run from your evil corporate overlords.
Wrapping Up
Citizen Sleeper is filled with people trapped in situations they cannot control. It’s a desperate life aboard the Eye, and you seem to have arrived just as everyone has reached their breaking point. It’s a claustrophobic narrative, presenting an entire station filled with caged animals. But it’s also an oppressive story of how capitalism will always find you no matter how far humanity travels and how desperate things are.
Citizen Sleeper is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS4, and PS5.
