Inside is some data, vital data, that youre risking your wellbeing for.
Your synthetic muscles are atrophying.
Your left hand has glitched and is basically unusable.
you’ve got the option to only rely on yourself.
it’s possible for you to only trust yourself.
Do you push yourself to breaking point, or do you retreat, regroup, and try another approach?
Contracts are one of the biggest ways that Starward Vector iterates on its predecessor.
Sounds simple, right?
Your time is dictated by how many supplies you take, to a maximum of five cycles.
After that, you will accrue stress for every cycle you remain.
If youre skint and cant afford to stock up?
Negative dice rolls also increase your stress.
And it achieves that.
But I sometimes wonder if its a little too harsh.
This is okay on a major space station like Flotsam.
you could work to rectify it even with some time pressures.
On a contract, however?
You must see it through to the bitter end, despite knowing its all for naught.
But theres good reason for this.
The Rig is your home.
“Dont make the effort, and you miss out on Citizen Sleeper 2s best characters.”
Yours, too, are the crew.
And these are the characters who will make an impression on you.
Dont make the effort, and you miss out on Citizen Sleeper 2s best characters.
If they could interact with each other independently of your actions.
The same goes for the Sleeper themself.
The first Citizen Sleeper game had multiple endings, and even different outcomes within each ending.
However, this loveable, ragtag crew creates difficult decisions of their own.
Do you take your favourite crewmates on contracts, or the ones best suited?
This gets easier as time goes on, which is the case for most of the game.
My Sleeper would practically break down from stress after every vital contract.
Once youve reached the halfway point, however, Laine is preoccupied.
Youve got a healthy stash of supplies and chits out the wazoo.
Any stresses or glitches are resolvable through rest or repair.
There are even parts of the system where Lainecantcatch you, even if hes still on your tail.
Its an unusual way of building a game, and occasionally threatens to undermine the narrative and mechanical tension.
Starward Vector only truly falls down when compared to its predecessor.
Citizen Sleeper excelled by telling deep stories in a confined setting.
Starward Vector is at its best when it tackles modern problems and expertly blends them with science-fiction concepts.
Workers unionising, the gig economy, overbearing family members.
The writing is as striking as it is illustrative, which is so important in a text-based game.
The RPG mechanics have been fleshed out, iterated, doubled down upon.
Its Citizen Sleeper, but more.
Im just not sure if I wanted less.
Your Rating
Your comment has not been saved
Reviewed on PC.
