Citizen Sleeper

[radiofloyd]

Creating a thread for this as it seems like it might be quite a bit meatier than some other games I’ve played recently. Citizen Sleeper is the latest game from the developers of In Other Waters, which I played recently and was quite good. I guess like In Other Waters, it involves a lot of reading and clicking on various menus. Not quite a visual novel, but an adjacent genre I guess.

 

 

You’re a “sleeper”, a robot of some sorts that escaped or survived some mysterious past and somehow gained sentience, which is apparently a big no-no, so shady characters are coming to put an end to you. You’ve wound up on some kind of space station called Havenage. Here you meet characters and complete tasks to achieve various goals.

 

I can’t describe it beyond that. It’s too complicated. But it’s quite unique and intriguing so far. Based on what I’ve played of this, and In Other Waters, the developers’ (Fellow Traveller) focus is clearly on telling unique stories in unique settings, with an emphasis on mystery and the unknown.

[one-armed dwarf]

Very interested in this one, actually made a start a few weeks ago but found the black and pink very hard to read on the oled tv. So will likely be a steam deck play through when I get back to it (or just regular monitor depending on text scaling)

[spatular]

oh yeah i played this last year, it was alright/pretty good at times/ also a bit too long/boring at times too. you sort of manage pie charts and choose what you spend time doing in game like do you explore, or work a job for money, and you'll progress the story or whatever. but yeah the story was pretty good at times, there's a few different endings, think i got most of them.

[radiofloyd]

About three hours in now, I’m pretty hooked on this. It’s easy to play for extended periods of time.

[radiofloyd]

Actually, this game is quite short. I’ve put a few 2 hour+ sessions into it and I’m up to 10 hours now. I think technically I’ve already finished it - I saw the credits roll, or at least met the criteria for one of the endings. I’m just mopping up some late game quests. The vanilla game was probably only 7 or 8 hours long but it seems like they’ve added some content to it. The extra content is quite meaty so that’s been taking up most of my time.

 

As for how good it is, I’d say it’s a solid 8/10. It’s a small step up from In Other Waters in terms of scope, but overall I would say they are similar. I hope the game sold well enough to allow them to keep making more ambitious games.

[radiofloyd]

Done with this for now. I’ve seen the credits roll multiple times (every ending I’ve been “offered” I’ve rejected so far). I’ve completed part one and two of the free DLC and I’ll play the third part when it comes out. There’s nothing left for me to do at the moment. 

 

The developer Fellow Traveler is only one guy (he used to write for Eurogamer, RPS and Edge apparently), so while I’d like to see his games get more ambitious and include things like voice acting, I’m guessing that’s not on the cards. Impressive stuff for a one man team though.