I really wasn’t expecting this sort of game from the description. I know Citizen Sleeper is considered a good game, and I knew it was cyberpunky and set in space, but I thought it was going to be like Syndicate or an isometric Deus Ex or something. I was way off.

What it actually is, is a sort of visual novel with dice rolls. Playing it, I was reminded of the gameplay of Sunless Sea, albeit without the combat. Or the boats. Or the creeping dread. Or the deathloop. It was more the feeling, you know? The talking to people and “spending” various accumulated materials to further progress with particular people or events. Oh, and there was a bit of creeping dread, actually, just in the cyberspace hacking bit.

That doesn’t really tell you much about the game though, does it. It opens with you, a Sleeper, arriving smuggled onto a beaten up old space station. A Sleeper is someone who has had their consciousness transferred into a synthetic body, a body which is owned by a massive corporation and as you’ve done a runner, they want it – you – back. Your daily cycle involves talking to people, hacking to gain information, earning money, and eating. You might be effectively a robot, but if you don’t eat you still die. Each day you get some dice (three to start, you can expand to more), which are pre-rolled to give you numbers you “spend” on challenges. The higher the number you use, the higher your changes of the challenge, which could be a conversation, or resource gathering, or a hacking attempt. Failing a challenge can mean you lose energy, other resources, or some other negative effect.

I hated it. Relying on luck in a time limited, in a Persona-ish way, game? Anxiety inducing gameplay. At first. Then it clicked, and I found you could augment your chances of “winning”, which more dice, re-rolls or permanent +1 or +2 to each score. I also found if you roll some low numbers, then that day go for more low-risk events, the stress dissipates. Also, you likely can’t do everything available in the time limits so don’t try.

It seems that there are a few different possible endings, depending on where your focus is spent, but I completed stories including “deal with the hitman who has come to claim me”, “help the guy and his not-daughter escape to a better life”, and “rebuild the gardens”, whereas the “help the rebels stuck in the blockade” fell by the wayside. It seemed that was quite an important thing to miss, but I read later that it’s a DLC story so wasn’t essential for the main game anyway. My ending was, I think, good, but pretty open-ended. I’d be interested to know how the sequel links to this if there’s several possible outcomes.

So, I’ve been a bit vague regarding specifics in Citizen Sleeper because it’s really necessary to play it for yourself and make your own choices, learning the world and your character’s situation in your own way. Do that, but don’t go into it expecting the sort of game I did! Oh, one last thing – some of the text on a Steam Deck is pretty tiny, so if you’ve something bigger to play it on, maybe do that.