I just beat the game last night and I have some thoughts.

[LordVyreth]

Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great game. The ending did make me cry, and that doesn't happen often, in games and otherwise. But the reviews praised it to the point of saying it was a combination of Disco Elysium and Cowboy Bebop, and I wouldn't go that far. It did have some issues.

Mechanically, the one thing I didn't entire get was the "damaged/broken dice" system. It never got me "killed," having beaten the game on normal/risky mode, but it definitely caused some frustration. I wish there was a way to repair damaged dice before they break completely. Gameplay-wise, it makes sense; something you need to consider when going into a contracts. But narratively, there's no reason you can't just perform routine maintenance on yourself, or have Bliss do it. Spending a point of scrap components as a "tune up" just is more logical than letting your crucial parts just break in the middle of a mission.

And in terms of character and story, I feel like the crew could have gotten more to do. Once they join, they really don't contribute much unless you're on a contract with them. And even then, they're just a collection of proficiencies they're good with. I played as an Operator, so even though I wasn't that fond of him, I basically took Yu Jin because of his complimentary skills. I don't think I interacted with Nia once after she joined.

Even when on a contract, the crew just don't compare to you. True, their dice can't break. But they have less dice than you do combined and have only two skills that they're proficient in or one that they're improved in. Your starting Sleeper has two proficient skills and one improved skill already. And by the end of the game, I had a +2 to nearly every skills (besides Endure, of course,) and a +1 to the rest.

If there was a Citizen Sleeper 3, I would hope they would do some changes to the crew. First, it would nice to see them living and interacting on the ships. I realize this is an indie developer with a small budget, so I don't expect Mass Effect or something, but just a cross section of the ship showing where everyone lives and their living space would be nice. There should also be some events with the crew outside of missions. Maybe you can spend time talking to the crew to improve your relationships with them; it could take dice rolls sometimes as well. Engage for general conversations, or using one of their skills to show a common interest. Maybe group crew events pop up from time to time, like arguments that you can try to resolve or the crew hanging out together for a game night or something.

At the Hubs, you could find the crew doing their own things at certain locations. These can be consistent, or they can move around from cycle to cycle. If you're in the same location as them and your relationship is advanced enough, they could offer to do one of their rolls for you, giving you the chance to take advantage of their improved proficiency level. And the crew could improve as well. Maybe there could be one advancement when you complete their character-specific mission and another if your relationship hits a certain level. Improvements could include gaining another dice or gaining or improving a proficiency. Even better, it would be nice if each crew-mate has a unique ability they can use once per contract. For example, Kadet could use her "Rush" ability to use the same dice to make two checks in a row. Nia could use "Intuit" to tell you what skills will be used in the next upcoming checks or estimate the next dice roll within a point of accuracy. Bliss can repair one point of your dice, and Yu Jin can force a roll to be positive at the cost of two stress points. These are just suggestions, and presumably a sequel would have new characters anyway, but you get the idea.

[m4ster]

Yeah, the Rig looks like its barely bigger than the actual literal irl NASA space shuttle but somehow it bunks 12 at the end lmao

[AngelDormante]

Agreed with many of your points! I just finished the game too and finally pooled my thoughts enough to leave a review on it. I quite enjoyed the game overall still but I think it was a step back in some ways, particularly the character writing and your crewmates essentially becoming faceless dice (and somehow almost never very good ones.......) once they stopped being relevant to the story.

For example, in a moment of RNG glory I failed both checks to save Yu-Jin so he got atomized and I got to recruit the other guy instead. The guy who immediately became so irrelevant to my Operator Sleeper that I literally can't even remember his name. He had those what, two scenes? Then proceeded to not exist. I actually tried so hard to find contracts to slot him in on but in the end couldn't bring myself to risk the proficiency redundancy. He doesn't even have the skillset to cover the dude he has to replace. And you could argue, well it increases replay value, next time pick a different class and bring him more. But then what? I get a couple lines of flavor dialogue for him and then back to being faceless dice? He needed more actual integration into the story or personal sidequests, and he's not the only one.

I hope CS3... well of course first of all I hope we get a CS3, but I hope to see a return to the more character-focused writing of the first game. What we had in CS2 was good, I just wanted more of it! It's a critique but also a compliment - I liked these characters a lot and just wanted to feel like I knew them better.

[LordVyreth]

Admittedly, I haven't played the first Citizen Sleeper yet. It flew under my radar, while the Cozy Space premise of the sequel and the exemplary reviews (especially Yahtzee's) encouraged me to give the sequel a shot. So I can't really compare the gameplay of the two. But I'm hoping that the positive reviews and word of mouth will make the sequel even more of a success than the first, not only justifying them making a third but also doing some things to expand the experience of flying a lonely ship out in space, guided by your surrogate family.