It's a testament to how much I like Citizen Sleeper that I'm giving it four stars despite having the absolute worst copy-editing I've ever seen in a professionally-released video game. It is strewn with typos, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and a thoroughgoing lack of understanding of the typographical conventions of written English. It is embarrassing, particularly in a game whose focal point is its writing.

All that said... it's still a good game. It walks in the footsteps of similar "modular narrative" games like 80 Days and Sunless Skies in using a light resource-management system to drive the player to allocate their time between many different bite-sized threads of plot, creating an individual route through the game's story. This is one of my absolute favorite microgenres but a difficult one to get right, and I'm thrilled with any game that can pull it off competently.

Citizen Sleeper isn't as successful at this as its forebears, though. By the end of the game you have enough resources to do almost everything the game has on offer, and there turn out to be minimal ways that plots can differ from playthrough to playthrough. Starting a new save feels more onerous than exciting, knowing that so much of it will be clicking through the same dialog rather than forging new paths.

I often finish modular narrative games with a sense that the system on which its built still has untapped potential. The calculus of quests taking inputs and producing outputs while clocks tick down cycle after cycle is simple but expressive—it could give rise to such an intricate web of interlocking threads. Is it too much to hope for that, with the groundwork now laid down, another game could be created on top of it... this time with an editing pass?

Looking back on this, I definitely wish I played it sooner. Regardless though I'm glad I was able to experience what this game has to offer. To be honest I've been trying to come up with something to write about this game and how much I loved quite literally everything about it from beginning to end but it's unbelievable how complex this game can go with it's story, themes, and characters. It's the most thought provoking story I've seen in a game and something I resonated with greatly. You can argue that it can be flawed in some aspects given it's age, but the story is so immensely rich to the point that I feel the flaws could just be glossed over. The cast I believe has a very colorful personality with many underlying themes and an immersive world that intrigued me instantly, and it only got better over the course of the story. Really don't what more I could say other than this is something I highly recommend you should play.

F.E.A.R. earns its 4.5/5 on the combat alone. The physics engine and particle effects combined with the intelligent AI makes this easily one of the best games i've ever played purely from a gameplay standpoint. I played this game, ps3 version streamed on PS Now. The absolute least optimal way to play this with not the most intuitive controls and goddamn was it still awesome as fuck.

Unfortunately, not everything about this game is up to par. The biggest problems are two that go hand in hand and kind of exacerbate the problem. Now im pretty good at shooters for the most part, so my playtime being around 12-13 hours seems to be about the standard. For me, a game like this. Thats just too long. If it was just a couple hours shorter I think this game would of been a lot stronger overall. But the other issue is the location variety. There are a few moments where the game gets creative, but you're basically in the industrial building/abandoned building setting the entire game. That means 90% of the game is just grey and brown. Its a common issue with games from this era and it really hurts this one. The playtime doesnt seem like much of a big deal and I know most people prefer their games to be long, but when you see the same asset reused a million times or go down a corridor that is like 10% different from the one you just went down, it makes the game feel even longer than it is and in turn makes it feel like its dragging on. Thankfully the combat still remains fun throughout, so its not too much of a detriment but its the biggest flaw.

On to a few more minor complaints. Im not sure if this is an issue with the PS3 version but the audio is just terrible. The sound design itself is good but a lot of the guns sound muted, even with the volume settings turned up. This is even worse with the dialogue. Full settings and I could not make out more than one sentence total from the character thats speaking in your ear most of the game and, yknow, giving you your objective. And there isnt an option for subtitles either so you're shit out of luck. This in turn made navigating the very dull environment a little difficult at times but it also made it so I genuinely could not tell you anything about the story. Thankfully for this game it doesnt really matter but It was pretty dissapointing to not be able to hear what was happening without assaulting my ears by cranking up the tv volume to egregious levels. Also, the game really just isnt that scary. A good jumpscare or two got me and the atmosphere is really good, but the only time i was close to scared was during the most intense fights. Those were awesome and left me on the edge of my seat, but the actual moments where the game goes into "scary mode" didnt do a whole lot for me.

Now in what seems to be a common occurence in my reviews, despite all the shit i talked this game was still goddamn great. The combat absolutely 100% trumps all of the negatives and Im ashamed no game has come close to something as stellar as the shooting in this one.

Time Played - 12 hours 25 minutes
Nancymeter - 88/100
Game Completion #68 of 2022
June Completion #3

note: i played this game fully in co op with a friend in amateur, we were not good at the game & i played as sheva

i think this review would be easier to make if i had played other resident evil games because id have something to go off, but since i havent i guess ill just review it as a standalone game. i went in with higher expectations than i should have tbh. i thought resident evil is such a big series it should be solid. my friend and i had such a hard time figuring out why this game gets the praise it does.
first lets talk about gameplay. thank god i previously played tlou or i would be hopeless in this game. it throws so much shit at you that you just dont know how to prepare for and for no actual purpose. theres no option for auto aim which is fine if the combat was good at all. the menuing is awful and clunky. (i played on ps4) you either press the arrow keys and 3/10 times it equips the weapon you want (sometimes it gets stuck at equipping ammo which is useless and sometimes it does not even let you equip what you want) orrrr you can press triangle to open your whole ass inventory to switch weapons. its not smooth at all. speaking of not smooth, who decided the only options for running would be holding L3 (carpal tunnel waiting to happen) or holding down X (extremely inconvenient and something no one is used to anymore)? seriously who mapped these buttons and made it unchangeable? id like to have a word. also with how hard this game is even in amateur id expect them to at least give you the ability to walk/ run around while aiming the gun. the difficulty really wasnt the issue 3 chapters in. it was that the controls were so uncooperative. why cant i easily switch from the stun rod (the ONLY melee weapon, might i add) to my gun quickly? i know i can technically use the arrow keys but those dont work half the time. but yea, why does this game hate melee so much, like jeez.
i just wanna say before i get any further, this is the only re game ive finished or gotten anywhere in, so if im making a complaint thats a classic re thing and not specifically a 5 thing, my bad, i have no idea. its still a complaint tho.
next i wanna talk about the story, well, if there was an interesting one. spoiler alert: there wasnt. my friend and i tried so hard to understand but we just couldnt. they had some cool concepts, like jill and wesker were cool characters, but they didnt spend nearly enough time or effort expanding on them. also, a journey that is focused on two characters is the perfect opportunity for them to bond and have some kind of connection, but chris and sheva NEVER talked. i dont know a single thing about sheva. at the very end, chris is nicer to her but i didnt see any development happen. the end credits happen like 2 minutes after the boss battle, with barely any time to conclude anything. the story had a cool concept, but one of the shittiest executions ive seen in a hot minute.
my other complaint was that i didnt really understand the purpose or meaning behind some enemies, but the little i know about re in general is that thats a common theme. so ill leave that alone.
im giving 3 stars because i had a good time laughing and having fun with my friend. the coop wasnt amazing though. you cant leave in the middle of a chapter or you have to start it all over again, if you go afk at the menu screen for literally two minutes you get timed out and have to restart the chapter, and you cant reject when people join your game. the last chapter was hell. we couldnt leave until we finished it or wed have to do it all over again.
but yea, overall, i recommend it if you wanna get some laughs in and have a good time playing a game with a friend that isnt versus or anything. i dont regret playing it, but i do wish it was better

This game was:

Beautiful
Struck the heart
Keeps you moving because there is a timer on your friends.

There is a mode to take your time and enjoy the game.

- Loose spoilers from here-

But i do recommend playing through the game on the "normal" difficulty (gamer girl?) because, as you finally figure out the game (get your feel), your friends are limited on what is left.

Fantastic game. Definitely gonna play through again >:P

The visual style of this game hurts the gameplay it’s going for. It’s no surprise that the community made levels are much plainer and easier to read from the get-go, as the normal game puts too much investment in realism in what should have been based off comic book aesthetics. Not only does to clash visually, but it makes maneuvering the courses awkward at times. It gets especially harder to interpret the intended path in some later levels, though one could argue plotting out the course for the most speed is part of the fun of it.

There’s some discontentment with some mechanics (like poles), but otherwise there’s a decent speed running/bhopping concept here that feels satisfying to play. There’s tech to learn and competitive incentives between friends and strangers to keep you going.

The glitches, reusing the same 3 maps for everything, the combat, all objectively a step down from Origins... But idk I just love that the protagonist is a PERSON in this one, I actually care about Hawke in a way that I just don't for my Warden and Inquisitor. Hawke and their companions just feel more like a family, and I buy into their relationships more, which is..... ultimately what I care most about in video games!

Also, fuck Bioware and the way they always make mages turn to blood magic even when it goes against literally everything they've been saying, just because "ooo mages bad because blood magic" is the only flimsy argument they've got in this franchise :)

Finally, Fenris, if you're out there, I'm in love with you. See you in Dragon Age 4 ❤️

Look man there's a lot of issues with this game. Hardly any enemy variety, all the levels are basically generic city streets, and the difficulty is a bit absurd. But you gotta realize when I was five I got to be Venom.
I GOT TO BE VENOM
I
GOT
TO
BE
VENOM

the characters and story are still fantastic (especially factoring in how little the presentation of everything was changed from the original game) but god this is miserable sometimes.

this game is half or less (even accounting for fucking around with side content) the length of 0 but the fatigue that set in during and is still lingering afterwards is so much more severe this go around. you could say that a lot of flaws come from the game being a remake of a 2005 game but the most damning issues for me were new elements.

i just can't fathom the thought process behind decisions like the Kiwami heat moves/healing boss states, Majima Everywhere having like 5 minutes of engaging content and then just never stopping, or so on. the original game might be clunkier with gameplay but i wouldn't be surprised if i like it more because at least it's brief and to the point about everything comparably.

in hindsight i can see why i finished this and then fell off with progressing the series for so long that i restarted with 0 when i got back to it. going to move onto 2 to avoid having a repeat of this situation, i've had enough of this one.