Developer: Jump Over The Age
Publisher: Fellow Traveller
Genre: RPG / Narrative Adventure
Reviewed For: Nintendo Switch
Also Available On: PC, Xbox, PlayStation
A few years ago, Citizen Sleeper blessed us with a bleak but beautiful world with gameplay inspired by tabletop games. Of course, we at Sequential Planet love both RPGs and board games, so it was easy to forgive the game being light on traditional gameplay. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector builds on that strong foundation with smart upgrades, new mechanics, deeper systems, and more excellent storytelling.
Like the first game, Citizen Sleeper 2 excels at telling small, personal stories against a massive sci-fi backdrop. The writing is full of strong, emotional beats and is full of hard choices. Every moment feels meaningful, whether it is helping a union or a single person. The emphasis on community and solidarity deepens the emotional stakes. Players no longer survive alone. They build a crew and make decisions that don’t just affect the player character anymore.
The dice system from the first game returns with refinements. Each day (or cycle), players receive up to five dice based on their current condition. These dice can be spent on various tasks. Each comes with positive, neutral, or negative outcomes depending on the roll and the character’s skills.
If players fail too many tasks or push too hard without food or rest, their dice start to degrade. Dice can break, reducing player options and forcing the use of resources to repair. The addition of Contracts is one of the sequel’s best features. Players pick crew members with complementary skills, prepare supplies, and navigate multi-step objectives. These are tense and reward creating a crew with complementing members.
Visually, Citizen Sleeper 2 doesn’t aim for spectacle, but its clean UI and lovely character portraits do the job well. The writing adds much to the environments and on-screen art, combining literature and art incredibly well. The soundtrack’s synthwave tunes are excellent and tie everything together.
The Switch version runs smoothly overall, but navigating menus with a controller can occasionally be clunky. It’s easy to imagine that this game is easier to play on PC, and there is no touchscreen support, even in handheld mode. Still, nothing here breaks the experience, and the portability makes the Switch a great fit.
For returning players, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is an excellent evolution. For newcomers, it’s a perfectly accessible entry point. Either way, it’s one of the best narrative games on Switch this year so far.
A review copy was generously provided by the publisher for this review.
