Upspin girl, she’s been living in her upspin world
Say hello to Feng.
He is not my favourite character inCitizen Sleeperbut he is the one who best represents it.
In one scene he explains his deep anti-capitalist reasoning to you.
Systems should not govern people’s behaviour, he says, the people are what matters.
Let’s go over the basics.
There are three starting classes.
Well, not planet.
Huge chunks of its ring habitat are missing.
Of course, the company has other plans.
Or maybe it could be called “turn-based storytelling”.
And you’ve got an energy meter to keep up, lest you starve.
In this universe, even robots need noodles.
New places to visit are unlocked by spending time (and dice) in hub zones.
People-watching in the Rotunda might unlock a new bar where you could buy cheap rations.
Here, you match dice to various nodes to unlock keys or encrypted data.
He’s a good boy.
A good, terrifying boy.
The character art is detailed and vibrant, often bathed in the hues of some off-screen atmospheric light.
The UI is a pretty sci-fi affair, all hard-edged fonts, minimalist colour-coding and circuit board angles.
Fans ofAlien Isolation’s crunchy UI and geometric symbols will appreciate the effort.
But you’re free to just spin your view around, so it never feels truly obscured.
The space station is overwhelmingly host to gentle folks, sympathetic faces.
The future here is not a utopian ideal but plenty still fight for one.
People are not cruel, but circumstances often are.
It’s a part-tragic and part-hopeful place.
In Citizen Sleeper, the space station exists away from the megacorps who run amok in the galaxy.
But inequality is a weed.
Instead, you get a kind of space ruin on the edge.
The Eye is a scrappy place, and not just because of the scrapyards.
Which could also be my polite way of saying there are bugs.
Quests are multi-tiered and sometimes go on longer than feels necessary.
Debug me already."
leave it alone, drop the subject, stop pestering).
As a result, I abandoned my friend to his fate in the ensuing unrest.
(Did I mention I proofread games now?
I’m broke).
Citizen Sleeper is not the worst offender for this, but it doesn’t escape the trap completely.
(Quick shout out to the music.
Its closest comparison in tone might be the minimal transhumanist tour of the solar system inSun Dogs.
Mechanically, I could have slept for my last five turns.
Or investigated a few characters I’d left waiting.
Which is the exact strength of a good tabletop RPG.
Because like Feng once said: systems aren’t important, people are.
