Summary
As you experience the life in the metal frame of a different Sleeper inCitizen Sleeper 2 - Starward Vector, you’re likely to compare your journey to that of the Sleeper of the first Citizen Sleeper game. The earlier installation in the series proved to be unforgettable with its colorful characters and compelling story, but Citizen Sleeper - Starward Vector offers its own deep and engaging experience.
It goes without saying that the protagonists of each story go through vastly different journeys, but the way their stories are told and the manner of exploration of their worlds can be compared to see which one provides a better experience.
7World-Building
Winner - Citizen Sleeper
The first Citizen Sleeper has you exploring a single space station, which is a considerably dense area with sections that offer vastly different atmospheres despite being on the same hunk of metal. In Citizen Sleeper 2 - Starward Vector, you have numerous stations to explore, each with stories of their own to tell.
Citizen Sleeper’s focus on one station allowed it to flesh out the unique character of every area allowing you to feel a sense of attachment to the different places you visit. Each location felt teeming with life making it satisfying to invest time in uncovering their secrets.
6Exploration
Winner - Citizen Sleeper 2 - Starward Vector
Unlike the first Citizen Sleeper wherein you travel on foot to different locations, the second installment of the series gives youyour own shipthat allows you to reach the far ends of the system to different stations.
That said, it takes fuel to keep your ship functioning, which poses the challenge of acquiring the resource and managing it so that you don’t run out at the worst possible moment. The need to keep moving to evade your pursuer also makes traveling more satisfying because it pushes you to think carefully about how long you spend in a certain location.
5Story
While the world is smaller in the first installation, the story it tells is engaging enough to make it seem larger than the world of multiple stations in Citizen Sleeper 2.
The first game also allows you to end your journey in many different ways, one thing that the second game only really does in an imagined fashion.
While the first focuses on personal agency and identity, the second touches more on freedom and capitalism. That said, the first makes the experience more immersive as you decide who you are, while the second focuses more on heroic questing.
4Characters
The beauty of having one station to focus on in Citizen Sleeper allows it to flesh out its characters better. The second has you recruiting many of its characters as crew members that you take on contracts, but when inactive their presence disappears until the conclusion of their story comes up again.
In the first, you’re invited to spend more time with each character, sometimes having to wait for their progress which keeps them in your mind as you do other things. With a deeper bond, you end up caring more about how their lives turn out in the end.
3Pacing
With the constant pressure of the timers in Citizen Sleeper, along with the need to frequently inject stabilizer to survive, it can feel daunting to manage day-to-day life, but it’s this drive to meet deadlines while keeping healthy that keeps the world alive and the experience truly engaging.
The sequel allows a lot more time to breathe but it’s these moments where you cancalmly work and shop for suppliesthat can make it feel more like a resource management sim than a story where time truly passes for every character of the story.
2Gameplay
Citizen Sleeper 2 adds in plenty of new mechanics to spice things up in the series. There’s now Stress that affects the health of your dice which can now break or be glitched. There are also contracts to be completed which oftengive plenty of money.
One welcome mechanic is ship management which has you collecting fuel, supplies, and crew mates.
That said, the new mechanics take away focus from the story rather than adding to it. The pressure of the stabilizer feels more of a valid concern for your Sleeper than Stress. Also, the success of contracts feels more reliant on RNG rather than actual strategy.
1Verdict
While both are unforgettable experiences with beautifully written stories and characters, the first Citizen Sleeper did so very simply, allowing its players to really get into the feeling of what it’s like to be a Sleeper and how they interact with those around them.
That said, Citizen Sleeper 2 - Starward Vector expands on the world quite well, showing the experiences of all the other stations in the face of problematic groups with their own interests. In its conclusion it teases that there’s more to be told, which leaves us waiting in anticipation for the next Sleeper’s journey.
