Microsoft's excellent subscription service has been among the best ways for players to experience a veritable feast of video games since it launched in 2017. Xbox Game Pass has given gamers a way to play fan-favorite AAA titles, as well as smaller indie games that might have gone unnoticed. By putting such a variety of games in one place, Xbox Game Pass not only makes it easier to experience the extensive titles on offer, but also gives smaller games a place to shine as well. Jump Over The Age and Fellow Traveller's slice-of-life space RPG Citizen Sleeper is such a title, and thanks to its day-one Game Pass release, players can experience it for themselves right now.
The cyberpunk genre may have existed before CD Projekt Red's slightly infamous but no less popular Cyberpunk 2077, but the recent game helped to launch it further into the video game community. Cyberpunk 2077 has even inspired other titles, with its neon aesthetics, economically-divided futuristic settings, and corporation-controlled society helping to set the scene for other games with a similar look and feel. Citizen Sleeper looks like it could exist in the same niche as Cyberpunk 2077, and fans of the latter should really check it out when they can.
Citizen Sleeper: A Suitably Cyberpunk Setting
Citizen Sleeper is a narrative RPG that lets players explore Erlin’s Eye, a dilapidated space station drifting on the edges of an intensely capitalistic society. The station is home to thousands of people just trying to survive their day-to-day existence as they face the challenges of interstellar living. Gamers take control of a Sleeper, a digitized human consciousness with a nondescript artificial body that is owned by a corporation that will do anything to reclaim them. Forging their own life among the inhabitants of Erlin's Eye, players must make friends, find ways to survive and contribute, and successfully navigate the various factions that call the space station home.
While on the surface Citizen Sleeper may have some glaring differences from Cyberpunk 2077's more Earth-based action, the game still takes place in a gritty sci-fi setting that is rundown and infested with unruly inhabitants. Most of those who live in Erlin's Eye are outcasts from the corporate system, giving players the chance to role-play in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. This has more than a few shades of Night City about it, and the interplay between contrasting factions feels like the society that players have to navigate in Cyberpunk 2077 in more ways than one.
Why Fans Should Check Out Citizen Sleeper on Game Pass
There are plenty of games in the cyberpunk genre that offer players chaotic, gun-toting action, but that's not what Citizen Sleeper is about. Citizen Sleeper is first and foremost about survival, but it turns the everyday routine of living into something special, with a layer of cerebral storytelling that puts characters at the center. The game's pace is slow and steady, with gentle explorations of relationships alongside the grind for survival that steers the plot. Players are introduced to the destructively capitalist world through the eyes of a bit of a blank slate with their Sleeper, but building their story as they manage their resources is a surprisingly satisfying gameplay loop.
Citizen Sleeper is full of hope, not least because the inhabitants of Erlin’s Eye are looking to escape from the omnipotent corporations in an attempt to build a better and fairer world. The pared-back approach to gameplay with the minimalist UI and unobtrusive game systems lets players focus on the characters, and its tabletop-inspired elements and dice rolls feel inspired by Cyberpunk 2077's origins as well.
Citizen Sleeper is a slick, well-designed experience, with an intriguing world and compelling characters. There are so many tasks to complete and plot lines to follow, but at the heart of it, the game never loses what makes it truly tick; what human warmth can bring to a cold, lifeless space setting.
Citizen Sleeper is available on PC, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.