Review of Citizen Sleeper, a role-playing game with a strong writer stamp

Gareth Damian Martin He is a video game writer in the purest sense of the term, because not only does he create his works in near-perfect solitude, thereby determining their size and limits, but what he does is always presented critically to the medium and to some. is the most consolidated. His first game, On Other Waters, was designed in stark contrast to the notion of aggression that dominates video games, even the seemingly more harmless ones.

In Citizen Sleeper review We’ll see how Martin matures this discourse, albeit in a completely different context.

game mechanics

Citizen is a Sleeping narrative role-playing game With survival elements, where you play as a sleeper, a replica with a robotic body belonging to a multinational who escaped from The Eye space station, a frontier place filled with outcasts of all kinds, founded by idealists after the collapse of a massive galactic conglomerate, is the only place a fugitive can try to be free. Remember that sleepers do not have the same rights as humans: they are created by copying part of the mind of a living individual into a mechanical body. Additionally, multinational companies equip them with a security system called programmed obsolescence, which kills them if they accidentally escape their control. After all, they are their investment and they do whatever they want with it.

Without memories and not being able to go anywhere else, the first purpose of sleep, which the player creates by choosing one of the three available classes, is therefore to understand how to survive. This resources There are essentially two things to consider: the status bar, which consists of twenty blocks that decrease after each cycle, that is, when the sleeper goes to sleep at the end of the day, and the energy bar connected to the power supply. consists of five blocks that fall at a rate of two at a time.

The two sticks are connected: the situation worsens faster when the energy runs out. The latter is linked to another mechanic of the dice: the higher the condition, the more dice you get to use to perform actions at the beginning of the cycle. Having a lot of dice means you can do a lot more, such as paying off a debt and working to win something, or discovering the details of a particularly interesting character. It’s also the primary way to advance the story. The value of the dice (one to six) determines the effectiveness of the same thing, namely the ease of allowing you to perform a certain action. Every action is also affected by the character’s specialties or abilities, which can make life easier or more complicated under certain circumstances.

there are in total five skills: Technique, Interface, Stamina, Intuition and Interaction, which can be increased by assigning skill points when available. Let’s say even better: these are determined by the style of play.

Agency

These very simple rulesreminiscent of some board games, it is used to explore what a versatile and multi-jointed title is, which leaves the player truly free to decide their path without any strain, but only suggests paths through Impulses. that is, a system of missions designed as a series of tracks to follow, rather than the classic sequence of actions to be performed in a specific order to receive a bonus.

The beauty of such simplicity lies in the way the entire system disappears, so much becomes automated that a simple and elegant UI and so much help by a single user. basic graphic style, but very effective, illustrations made from a basic 3D for the space station and very well done for various events and characters. Once we begin, a little slowly, then we find ourselves following our own path, turning the Eye to access actions that interest us.

We are also aware that we are in a strong environment. dynamicwhere the stories and characters develop in interesting ways if not exactly emotionally intense, creating a deep bond with the player who feels more included in this community.

The possibilities are really many, so many that the whole experience can be lived several times with the certainty of always being able to do something different and discover new details about the station and ourselves. Sure, there are constant issues to deal with, such as the bounty hunters that the multinational that owns us sends in to try to recover its investment, but even in similar situations, the idea is to always find ways to do it without going out of our way. .

As you progress through the game, the available actions become so many that it is almost impossible to perform them all and you have to start choosing. exactly in these electionsIt lies in the strength of a work that presupposes leaving something on the street, that presents itself as profoundly different from any other role-playing game, both in its assumptions and its execution.

gameplay

To highlight the uniqueness of Citizen Sleeper, let’s take personalities: the scenario seems pretty typical at first, so much so that on more than one occasion it is thought to be dealing only with stereotypes, ie genres that have already been seen and reviewed in other titles. But the reality is quite different: the first approach shows only the most superficial part of the characters, which, through the deepening of their personal histories, reveals an extremely multifaceted and human nature when one comes into contact with them through action. .

This gameplay something completely different from what it seems soon happens, and it does so in a subtle way, not thanks to some explainer video, but through the game mechanics: the survival part is overshadowed, i.e. becomes secondary because it is easily satisfying thanks to the large number of resources available. Thus, improving material conditions allows us to shift the focus of our research, which is no longer aimed at survival but at giving meaning to life itself. In the author’s intent, the whole is a representation of capitalism (the struggle to survive by accumulating resources) on the one hand and post-capitalism (the search for a free and peaceful existence outside the power of capital) on the other. ) .

In this sense metaphor it’s so obvious and handled so well through the systems that regulate the game that it’s gorgeous but also cumbersome. It’s probably inevitable that this will be the case, but at some moments the game almost seems to want to persuade the player to their thesis by pushing it as rhetorically as possible, which somewhat lessens the appeal of exploration, because it becomes clear where everything is wanted. go to fend off. Of course, in terms of writing, it has to be said that it’s a cut above the much more noble titles to concoct, perhaps boasting many screenwriters to its credits, but also naively suggesting its subject matter. a little, causing it to lose its effectiveness.