I slept on Citizen Sleeperwhen it originally released in 2022, and it wasnt until a couple of years after its launch that I finally played it. But though I came to it a little late, I instantly fell in love with it. Combining a fascinating and deeply imaginative sci-fi universe, incredible writing and storytelling, and compelling choice-driven gameplay that revolved around a unique dice rolls system, indie studio Jump Over the Ages RPG instantly had its hooks in me. I may have initially slept on the first game, but I decided I wasnt going to make that same mistake with its sequel.Im glad I did, becauseCitizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vectoris fantastic. It takes everything that was good about its predecessor and smartly builds on it, delivering what feels like an even more engaging and fleshed out experience. From the stellar writing and world-building to the dangerously addictive time management, choice-driven, dice rolls gameplay loop,the sequel retains all of the first games biggest strengths. At the same time, with smart tweaks, improvements, and additions, it also expands on everything from the progression mechanics to player choice systems and more. The end result is a stellar sci-fi RPG that manages to capture lightning in a bottle yet again."Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vectoris fantastic. It takes everything that was good about its predecessor and smartly builds on it, delivering what feels like an even more engaging and fleshed out experience."Citizen Sleeper 2once again puts players in the shoes of a Sleeper robots who have had human minds and consciousness uploaded into them and one again, you have fled from the clutches of the corporation that owns and enslaves you. This time, however, youre joined by a crew, have a ship of your own, and have different threats bearing down on you. Chased by your corporate masters, as well as by a criminal faction looking to control you, and having to deal with a failing and glitching body,Citizen Sleeper 2tasks you with once again building a life for yourself and finding an escape. This time, however, the focus is just as much on gathering a crew, improving your ship, and taking on different jobs scattered throughout the Starward Belt.On one hand, not being tied to a single location like the original game was does feel like a bit of a loss. I loved exploring and slowly but surely growing familiar with the Eye and its ever-expanding environs inCitizen Sleeper, and Ill admit that I do feel the lack of a similar, single location that spans the entire game. Then again, what Citizen Sleeper 2gains in exchange comes with its own benefits. Your ship, for instance, is still very much a single location that you call home. Slowly improving and expanding its capabilities and getting better acquainted with your crewmates remains quite satisfying throughout the game.Having constant access to a ship means youre also moving around a lot inCitizen Sleeper 2. Scattered throughout the Starward Belt are a number of different contracts and quests that take you to different asteroids, stations, ruins, and more. The greater location variety lends the game a greater sense of scale, and also shakes up the familiar core loop in interesting ways. At its core,Citizen Sleeper 2still tasks you with managing your dice and energy as you make use of limited actions every in-game day to advance quests, earn money, explore, and just plain survive, but each contract breaks up that cycle with its own minicycles."Having constant access to a ship means youre also moving around a lot inCitizen Sleeper 2. Scattered throughout the Starward Belt are a number of different contracts and quests that take you to different asteroids, stations, ruins, and more. The greater location variety lends the game a greater sense of scale, and also shakes up the familiar core loop in interesting ways."Success in contracts is determined by a variety of factors, from what your crew composition is and how smartly (or not) you use your dice, to how well stocked your ship is with supplies and more. Being locked into a contract once youve accepted it does admittedly feel a little limiting, which sort of goes against everything thatCitizen Sleepersdesign is about, but on the whole, they succeed in injecting much greater quest variety into the game.Of course, alotof the credit there has to go to the writing. After the first game, it should be no surprise that that is the area whereCitizen Sleeper 2probably shines the brightest. Every character you meet in the diverse, wonderfully realized cast makes a strong mark, every scene and dialogue conversation is immaculately written, every dialogue choice or decision youre asked to make feels deliberate. The game weaves a captivating tale thats hard to tear yourself away from, and also uses its more expansive setting to flesh out and reveal more of the universes lore and backstory. Narratively, then,Citizen Sleeper 2is a triumph yet again.The moment-to-moment time and resource management mechanics that form the backbone of the experience also see some changes for the better. For instance, the first games Condition system has been replaced with a new Stress system. InCitizen Sleeper 2, though youre still managing your energy by making sure youre eating regularly, unlike the first game, youre no longer dependent on stabilizers, which means your body isnt in a constantly deteriorating condition. That said, taking Stress damage on failed actions now impacts the health of individual dice, which, once fully depleted, renders that dice unusable until you find a way to repair it.The Stress system definitely feels a little less strict than the Condition system in terms of how it punishes failure and how much it restricts your actions, which works wonderfully with the greater sense of freedom that the rest of the game affords as well. Those restrictions, meanwhile, now take other forms, like glitches that your body accumulates overtime, in turn glitching some of your dice to dramatically increase their failure rates. Its a smartly implemented system that manages to retain a sense of risk and reward while ensuring that players dont ever feel too throttled."For fans of the first game, for fans of RPGs, for fans of choice-driven gameplay, and for fans of the sci-fi genre, Jump Over the Ages sophomore outing is an easy game to recommend."Citizen Sleeper 2also introduces skill checks, allowing players to choose special actions during certain scenes that work the same as dice rolls and see the story being impacted by your choices and branching in interesting ways. On the progression side of things, meanwhile, the game introduces a new Push system, which grants special abilities to each class, granting each of them different tactical advantages (depending on how you use them, that is). Like its predecessor,Citizen Sleeper 2keeps its progression systems lean and focused, but every upgrade that you make feels meaningful and genuinely impactful.Whether its the day-to-day gameplay cycle, the progression mechanics and class differentiations, or even how quests function, the running theme inCitizen Sleeper 2is one of smart, iterative improvements that take its predecessors winning formula and hone it to near-perfection. That one more day hook that characterized the first game so well is still very much present and accounted for in the sequel, to the point where it may be an even stronger and more addictive force than it was the first time around. Combined with its stellar writing, engrossing worldbuilding, and expert storytelling,Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vectorsticks the landing in every way that counts. For fans of the first game, for fans of RPGs, for fans of choice-driven gameplay, and for fans of the sci-fi genre, Jump Over the Ages sophomore outing is an easy game to recommend. Absolutely do not sleep onCitizen Sleeper 2.This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.