Citizen Sleeper - the best game I've played in the first third of 2023

 

To be honest, I don't remember how I came into knowing of the existence of Citizen Sleeper. My most accurate guess is a long shot one: I'm following the Mothership ttrpg development and one day they were promoting a 3rd party adventure/module by Gareth Damian Martin, the creator of a videogame called In Other Waters. Alien oceans? I was definitely interested, so I went to the Steam page of the game and wishlisted it (that is because I only have two old and feeble laptops with Linux and the game requirements are just a bit above their specs; also, unfortunately has no Linux support*). Probably, and I say this with the utmost uncertainty, then is when I knew of Citizen Sleeper, because the two games are made by the same person and Steam probably suggested it to me or had a package containing both. I say probably. But again, "somehow" I knew of this game and wishlisted it (again, same old laptop problems, I was looking forward to buy a decent machine this year but the heating bills for this winter were nuts). Then I completely forgot the connection between these two videogames for about a year.

Jumpcut to three weeks ago. I just had finished a row of horror videogames on my PS4 (Outlast, which was good, then Call of Cthulhu - the one made by Cyanide - which was overall mediocre but had some rare good moments and a good atmosphere) and I didn't know what to play next. I was considering to play again Moons of Madness (very nice game), then I remembered that Citizen Sleeper had just been released for the console and bought the game right away. And let me tell you, that was what I needed, at the right moment. But what actually is Citizen Sleeper? It's a futuristic videogame rpg, with text-based dialogues, elegant and minimal graphics, beautiful character designs and a soothing soundtrack. Choices matters and actions have consequences. You are a Sleeper, an emulated human personality inside a mechanical body, and you're escaping those who made and enslaved you. In your run, you reach Erlin's Eye, an ancient circular space station abandoned by the corporation who built it, now reclaimed and inhabited by its workers and their descendants. Here you can try to build a new life for yourself. If your pursuers don't catch you.

The game has basic rules: you get a pool of 5 random d6s every day (or cycle), with which you can accomplish tasks, gain resources and fill event-clocks. Your health and energy go down every cycle and you have to find reliable or affordable ways to replenish them, or you d6s pool decreases and, ultimately, you die. You can gain experience by completing quests and you can upgrade yourself, gaining bonuses and abilities. There is no combat, as every eventual confrontation is resolved in text form. Simply put, fighting is not part of the game, and this is something I quite enjoyed.

I chose the Extractor as my first character, but I'm planning to do a run with all of the others too, because I want to see how much the game changes using different approaches. I have yet to finish the second and third DLC and I guess that if I do things right, I could be going somewhere or stay. I'm trying to be vague. Point is, I had other opportunities to go away, but I ultimately discarded them. Not because I wanted to see all in one playthrough (which is impossible I think), but because I had other quests open and I felt bad about abandoning those who I was helping. That is precious and also very rare. I'm not feeling the same way about helping that random merchant in Morrowind, but Citizen Sleeper makes you care about the other characters. Even those who are despicable, in a way. So, I guess this means that I got attached to the Eye? I've found ways to sustain myself and I am presumed dead by my hunters. I can have a life, a new one, everywhere I want. But I think that I'm going to stay.

Jumpcut to the 1st of May, 2023. Citizen Sleeper is almost one year old and I finally re-made the connection with In Other Waters. I felt a little dumb, but ended up having the inspiration for this post, so everything's ok, I guess?

*yeah I could emulate the game with the programs built in Steam, but that should ask a bit more from my computer and I don't know if it's able to make it. It's already underperforming, guys, let it breathe.