2024/09/24

Citizen Sleeper (Jump over the Age / Fellow Traveler, 2022)

    I grew up too late to be socialized into playing Dungeons and Dragons, so Final Fantasy for the NES was my first exposure to role-playing games. Only recently have I thought about exploring the other side of role-playing games for consoles. You know, the one that is more freeform and comes from tabletop RPGs. Citizen Sleeper’s marketing blurb makes the case that the dice-rolling aspect of the game is part of that lineage. So, I can’t comment much on how 'authentic' it is in that regard, but I do love the way the dice-roll mechanic is used as a seamless part of the gameplay here. The bigger constraint on free movement is the cycle, which is essentially the way days are marked on the spaceship where your humanoid character resides. There is only so much you can do with just one day.

    Instead of quests and checkpoints, the game issues you a drive as a motivating event. When you speak to someone, such as a mechanic who first helps you understand how your half-human, half-android body operates, you have a choice to continue working with or for that person or to find someone else to interact with. As you continue to explore The Eye, the ring-shaped space ship where you reside, you’ll eventually have to decide which of these many drives you want to engage with. By using your dice rolls, you can complete certain defined tasks to help progress parts of that storyline and deepen connections with people. Some reward you with currency while others may give you gadgets or items that you can use to help yourself or others. (Lab-grown mushrooms are a big part of The Eye’s economy.) Your movements and options are limited by the number of dice you have, so grinding isn’t really an option. You still need to nourish yourself and take care of your frame as well. Wait too long before doing either and you will be severely limited in terms of how many dice you are permitted to roll and how high the values on those dice can be. Push it even farther and you will temporarily lose certain skills or abilities until you can unlock them again.

    The idea here is that every day, you have to consciously choose which drive to pursue. There is no open-ended exploring. Choosing to engage with one drive may prevent you from doing another because the people you are helping are working at cross purposes or because they have only so much time when they need your help. Getting a “Drive Failed” notification can sting, but only temporarily. The many roles and tasks you take on are meant to mimic the modern gig economy and that is part of what makes the game’s pace exhausting, but in a good way. There is just enough success to be had each cycle that I kept coming back to try again at the same old tasks until I achieved a milestone. It was numbing, but also realistic in that it reflects the monotony of working for a living, especially when your choice of career isn’t entirely wide open. The ambient soundtrack helps to break up the succession of cycles, too. It is gorgeously composed and gives an appropriately contemplative air to the decisions you make as you while away your time on The Eye.

    One idea the game repeatedly pushes is that you can’t do it all. You can’t please everyone and you can’t keep yourself safe all of the time. It’s a good life lesson, quite honestly. If I prioritize certain behaviors or goals in my personal life, other goals or plans I have will die on the vine. If I focus all my energies on building a career, my relationships and friendships will suffer. I started to feel connected to the other residents or transients on The Eye as I continued to play, even the sentient vending machine that I liberated and who helped me deprogram the digital assassin that stalked me when I hacked the ship’s computer mainframe.

    Later on, I had to decide whether to use a ticket (that was not mine) to board a ship headed on a 10-year voyage to an uncertain fate or to give that ticket to its owners, an engineer and his child who had been passed over during other chances they had to leave The Eye. You will face choices like these that ultimately have no consequence on your gameplay. As far as I know, it is impossible to get a Game Over, but you can continue playing after The End, if you would like. The consequences are felt entirely by you, the player, should you have a conscience.

    In the end, I chose an ending that was akin to merging with the lifestream and I was genuinely shocked at how deeply the onscreen text touched me as it recounted my fate. I knew there were still other drives to explore and other tasks to fulfill, but I set my controller down and walked away mouthing “What the fuck?!” a few times before I could bring myself to shut down the game. There is a sequel coming next year and I cannot wait. 

No comments:

Post a Comment