Citizen Sleeper Review: Are We Human Or Are We Sleeper?
It’s been a long time since I looked up from a game and found myself awake in the wee hours of the morning, on a work night no less. Instead of doing the sensible thing – closing my laptop and going to bed – however, I clicked ‘end cycle’ and spent another day on the Eye. You know the feeling: the night is dark and the dim glow of your screen lights up your face as you peer into the world of Citizen Sleeper.
It takes a special kind of game to turn me into a night gremlin. I don’t remember the last game that did. Games that keep you up all night need to be the perfect storm, everyone’s criteria for which will differ – an all-nighter feels like it speaks to you, personally. But Citizen Sleeper is a special kind of game.
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Citizen Sleeper feels daunting to write about. The prose is imaginative and evocative, and everything I write feels inadequate in comparison. The best compliment I can pay Citizen Sleeper is that its ideas feel original. Speculative fiction in games is so often generic and tropey, but Citizen Sleeper feels like a classic sci-fi novel, reframing the issues of modern society in an original space age setting.
You’re a Sleeper, a being made of code and placed in a semi-permanent body. Planned obsolescence is your greatest enemy, but unlike modern day iPhones reducing their battery life after a couple of years so you buy the new one, this is your body rapidly deteriorating, the only thing keeping your consciousness going.
The early stages of the game involve using dice to perform tasks. The tabletop mechanic works well, and there are plenty of activities that you can safely attempt even with a low roll. Work in the scrapyards to earn credits, spend the
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