4/5 ★ – Oodlemeister's review of Citizen Sleeper.

Tabletop RPGs in video game form aren’t new. There are plenty of them around, but few are quite like what developer Jump Over the Age has given us in Citizen Sleeper. You are a Sleeper, an android. You were once a man, but shed your humanity long ago for the promise of a new beginning on a faraway planet. But your new life was no fairy tale. The heartless mega corporation you sold yourself to made you an insignificant cog in a vast machine. So you dreamed of escaping. And escape you did, stowed away on a freighter for months or years until you arrived in a scrapyard on a space station at the arse-end of the galaxy. It is here you will attempt to begin a new life (of sorts). Erlin’s Eye is a lawless place full of people trying to eek out a living or merely trying to survive. Various factions vie for their own slice of territory to hold. As you start your new life, you will need to earn money. Money buys you various things, but most importantly food, which gives you Energy. Lose too much Energy and you start to lose Condition. Condition is your overall health. The better your Condition, the more dice you get at the start of each cycle (day). This brings us to the heart of Citizen Sleeper’s gameplay. Dice are essential to every action you take. You begin each cycle with a set amount of dice of various values. The higher the values, the better the chance of success on the actions you take. A dice value of six is a guaranteed success on an action, while lower values offer lower percentages of success. A failed dice roll has a variety of consequences, the most common being loss of Energy and loss of Condition. So you must be wise on which dice to use on an action. You navigate Erlin’s Eye from a top-down view from space. Various points of interest dot the space station. Upon selecting a location, you will usually be given two choices of action. You choose an action, slot one of your dice values in and see what chance brings you. Completing certain actions will build larger metres that lead to a bigger outcome in the story. This opens more actions and locations that move the story along. On top of all this, you have Drives. These are major story paths or quests that you can focus on. As you complete these, you will be given skill points to level up your Sleeper. Perks include being able to see possible outcomes of actions, greater rewards from actions, discounts on goods etc. It’s a delicate balance you are required to strike: earning enough money, keeping your Energy up, buying required materials, purchasing expensive drugs to restore your steadily-declining Condition, hacking nodes to gain intel on rival factions. If you cannot find a way to manage all of these things, your Sleeper will decline to a state that is basically worthless. It’s an addictive gameplay hook. In addition to the superb gameplay mechanics, perhaps what stands out most is the fantastic writing. This is a world that is brought to life in your mind in ways that far surpass the visual storytelling. The characters are more than they appear on the surface. Some are pessimists, down-trodden. Others share your dream of a better life, even when they don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The mix of story, writing and gameplay makes for an engrossing game that is devious in its complexity. The result is an indie gem that will hit you in ways you won’t expect. It should not be missed.