Despite being a game about precarity and stress, I finished the game with like 1000 cryo, three skills at +2 and with like 7 stabilizers and 30 pieces of scrap.

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I think it says alot when a game makes you accidentally play for like 4 more hours than you were planning to without even realizing it.

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------Things I Like

- The near-dystopian (and I use this term cautiously) “cyberpunk” setting. Its well thought out, its pretty to look at, it explores some not-entirely rote themes. Its good.

- The time management design is mostly thoughtful (but not for all parts of the game, and while it makes the game good I could probably never love being stressed about time)

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------Things I Hate

- The pacing really drops off in the second half of the base game, and is the primary reason why I became brokenly wealthy with resources - which feels like a problem in a game about timers and restraints. For about 6 (or more possibly) hours of my playtime I had 5 dice permanently available for every cycle. God Mode is fun for about 20 minutes, challenges are fun for longer and this feels like a progression leak in the game.

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------Things I Love

- The Dice/Skill system makes RNG alot more entertaining than games in the same format. You have up to 5 dice so you can choose which dice you want to apply to which checks which allows you to control your risk more directly on more serious actions. Luck systems where strategy helps you gain some agency over your outcomes create a good balance I think.

- The vibe. Moody music playing while looking at lush character portraits while some fairly engaging moments play out makes Citizen Sleeper a very captivating and enthralling experience that I would recommend on presentation alone to some people.

- There are some really touching moments, and I think the game really understands why people care about people and writes to that very well. Ill try to keep this spoiler vague and brief but theres nothing quite like leaving L&m and M&n& as they board a craft without you.

- Hunter, Killer, Navigator, and Gardener are all patently sick as hell and thats notable all on its own.

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------Things I Wanted To Love

- I think the writing is good, but an issue arises when a game is 13 hours long and consists primarily of reading: you lose alot of energy when all situations sort of draw on the same emotion. I think theres only so long I can feel sad and sympathy and grief and tensity before the Sad/Sympathy/Grief/Tensity Well runs dry and Im left with a tedious feeling. (I also personally dont need elaborate descriptions of settings that are just, like, a room with wires that Im never going to return to. I dont need to know everything, just the interesting or pertinent things)

- I wasnt sold on the Sleeper concept. It wants me to care alot about being a clone or company property or being a robot and yet none of these things really impacted John Sleepers ability to care about other people - and it sure as shit isnt something that I, John Human Gamer, could possibly relate to my life in any real way. It wanted me to care but it never felt real so I didnt care - and if it wanted me to care it should have never let me take the tracker off. Being hounded as property for the whole game might have sold me more on the notion.

Second, complete, and final ending.

I am deeply moved by the sheer narrative power.

I will pre-order the next one so hard.

Sights & Sounds
- Excellent character designs. Everyone you encounter is really visually interesting and unique
- Nice, mostly chill electronic music throughout

Story & Vibes
- The story is so good. I found myself following every sidequest I could find just to keep learning more about the world
- I completed the Flux DLC and enjoyed it as well
- There are many endings to the game, and most of them are pretty great. One thing to keep in mind is that you should take every opportunity to see endings, even if they would appear to end your playthrough early. You can always continue from the decision point once you're bounced back to the menu
- The mood is a desperate one. Your body is continually degrading, so a sense of urgency hangs over the early game. By the end, though, you'll be so resource rich that it won't really matter

Playability & Replayability
- The game is largely played by dispensing your dice into actions every day. These may be jobs to earn money or supplies, activities to recover health and energy, or story-related tasks
- Your stat tree can help you with these rolls as well as providing you with other passive perks
- Other than that, it's mostly kicking back and enjoying the story and visuals
- I'll definitely be returning to get the endings I missed as well as playing through the upcoming DLCs

Overall Impressions & Performance
- Not a very graphically intense game, but it ran flawlessly and without bugs

Final Verdict
- 9/10. If you're a fan of a good sci-fi story and either enjoy or don't mind some light resource management, I'd recommend this game regardless of price

Citizen Sleeper é o melhor livro de "Escolha sua própria aventura" já feito.

O que eu MAIS gostei foi a empatia, amor e confiança que o jogo tem pelos próprios personagens e também o quão simples porém pesadas as mecânicas são. A prosa do jogo é muito bem escrita e ela consegue expressar tanto noções abstratas quanto sentimentos complexos de uma forma linda. Entender como Citizen Sleeper funciona não é difícil em si, mas o jogo pode te punir bastante se você não aprender as suas mecânicas rápido. Eu amei a fricção que esse sistema causava durante a transição entre quando eu não sabia se eu ia morrer em menos de três dias ou não e quando eu tinha quase total controle sobre a minha vida. :)

O que eu MENOS gostei foi que jogar Citizen Sleeper com um controle é HOOOOO RROOOOO ROOOOO SOOOOOOOOOO. Eu não quero julgar os devs por causa disso, o jogo foi obviamente feito pra se jogar com um mouse. Mas se você só tem um console (eu inicialmente tinha começado o jogo no meu Xbox) é basicamente impossível avançar em certas partes do jogo. Talvez eles já tenham ajustado isso no momento em que você está lendo está review. :(

This is a gorgeous, rewarding, and brilliantly-written sci-fi RPG with poignant characters and a depth of meaning; I wish there were many more experiences like this one. It's a bit like Disco Elysium (from the lengthy writing to the dice-based gameplay), but much more compact and immediately gripping in a way that Disco Elysium wasn't for me.

Under the grime and sweat of a harsh, capitalistic state, Citizen Sleeper is also ultimately an RPG that dares to be hopeful. It isn't a perfect game, but it is one of the only games I've ever walked away from with hot tears in my eyes, feeling awestruck and grateful to be alive.

I don't think this is for everyone, let me say that right before I get into anything else. It's a mostly visual novel-esque game with lots of choice and a pretty sci-fi world map, but it might not be for you.

If you've seen some of it and you like what you see though, odds are you'll like the game as a whole. A lot of it is down to how much you like the writing and for me personally I adore it. The art style and atmosphere really bring it all together in a way that I just salivate over.

That being said, there's a lot of issues with it, mainly down to the dice choice system either being really mean or really nice, and being incredibly easy to break in half if you even remotely start to get the ball rolling stat wise. It turns from having to completely change your plans for a cycle because you didn't get the numbers you need to "Eh it really doesn't matter that I got all 1s, because a 3 is average success and I have +2 in every stat."

If you enjoy visual novels but wish there was more to do roleplay wise, I'd highly recommend this game to you. It's genuinely fantastic. Especially if you do your first run roleplaying as the Sleeper you play as and developing a personality for them as you progress. It can be really fun seeing all the results that come from it.

Good story, good art, good visuals
I really liked the dice system in this game, no matter your luck or the number in the dice you can always use it for something useful, even a 1 can save you from starving in the right places, while the 5 a 6 always come in handy for some story missions or some actions that you really dont want to screw up
Also while I dont think this game is difficult, you can always feel the fear of not knowing if you will have the resources to survive another day, either money or time, so simple things like finding some scrap or gaining energy while doing certain actions make you feel relieve of knowing you can survive an extra day without having to buy rations or some expensive medicine, even as you upgrade your character and find the best strategy to survive, you can still feel this sensation as you wonder if you will have enought time to find a solution to your problem, or even if the solution you have been spending most of your time is really a good one or you should spend your limited time pursuing another one
If I had to pick one not great thing about the game, I would say that maybe it could really use more places where you could spend money, as sometimes it can be frustrating having to wait 6+ days for a store with an specific item to be available while the clock is ticking, and one time I was starving without any actions left, and despite having the money to afford some food, the only places I could buy from where unavalible for story reasons. Still I feel like those are isolated cases more than a regular problem and should not discourage anyone from playing this amazing game

The writing in this game is among the best in any video game ever. And I'm a sucker for anything involving dice rolls. But I don't know, for all the interesting ideas and decisions that had me hooked at the time, this game really hasn't stuck with me. For all the investment in the characters, I didn't really have an emotional attachment to them or much of a response to their conclusions. Maybe it was my mindframe when I played this: I can see this game having a profound impact on me if I experienced it at the right time. Sadly I didn't.

one of my new fav games
i created a deep and unique connection with each character
i was delighted with every sentence and every rich description of the landscapes and actions
i felt emotions that ranged from euphoria to anxiety in close moments
one of the most immersive, beautiful and deep games I've ever played
looking forward to the sequel

In a 2019 New York Times video interview, "The Sopranos" creator David Chase is asked what he thinks of when he thinks of the show he created and executive produced over the span of ten years and six seasons. He answers, "cold."

When I think of my time with Citizen Sleeper, I think, "click." Click click click. Clicking squares, clicking and dragging squares. Click click click. Moving up the map, scroll scroll scroll.

The spirited and often inspired prose and worldbuilding of the game is the player's reward for trudging through the incessant minutia of its UI design. Refilling your food bar, crossing the completely unnecessary gap in the middle of the map, hacking for data- these dull tasks that the player is asked to complete nearly every cycle drained my excitement for the compelling stories that game presents, and I think that's particularly unfortunate given how short the game is. Fantastic writing does not a good gameplay loop make.