Uncover Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector on Nintendo Switch OLED – A Game Worth Playing?

Rating: 9
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · February 13, 2025

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review, The highly anticipated sequel to one of 2022’s most acclaimed RPGs! You are a sleeper, an emulation of a human mind housed in an artificial body. You are on the run from the corporation that made you and the gang that seeks to control you. Commandeer a ship, build a network of crew and allies, and take on challenging contracts as you seek to build a future for yourself. Choose a class, configure your skills, and assemble your crew in unique tabletop-inspired gameplay. Your future depends on the roll of a dice, as you make difficult choices in a complex world. Reinventing the award-winning systems of Citizen Sleeper, this RPG will satisfy both fans of the original game and new players alike.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
815MB download size.
3 save slots.
Three game difficulties – safe, risky, and dangerous. You can change it from the menu when you want.
Dangerous difficulty is hardcore and death is permanent.
Tutorials – on/off.
Three character classes– Machinist, Operator, and Extractor. Each has unique skills and stats for engineering, interface, endure, intuit, and engage.
Dice-rolling RPG visual novel gameplay.
Fast loading times.
An excellent fit for the Nintendo Switch is a handheld with headphones on.
Text settings – text size (Large/default), and text scroll speed (slow/default/fast).
Tells you when it was last autosaved.
Game difficulties let you turn off some of the more aggressive mechanics like stress and dying or you can jack it all up.
Beautiful looking locations.
The game is split into cycles, during a cycle, you can explore, use shops, do missions, and talk with characters.
Multiple-choice encounters are the name of the game.
Action dice are rolled every cycle and these dictate what actions you can do.
Condition is the name of your overall health with the energy your Shields in a way. Eat to keep your Shields up but starving will cause your condition (health) to deplete.
Actions will have a success percentage attached to each choice.
The soundtrack whilst minimal is well-implemented and sounds great.
Action rewards can be clock advancement, energy, or items.
Assign action dice to actions.
All actions will be a type, risk level, and any skill modifiers shown.
Clocks are important and plentiful as they are attached to certain situations or activities. When full it can be a good or bad thing.
Drives are used to guide you through conversations and yellow-marked ones are tied to your main goal.
Many endings are to be discovered.
A lot of replay value.
Play how you want.
Your condition at the start of a cycle dictates how many action dice you have.
The camera can be moved and rotated.
Colorful and memorable characters.
Very atmospheric.
Clear map markers and pop-up text.
Main and optional side quests.
Full quest and tracking management.
Cyro is the cryptocurrency of the game and is used for buying and bribing.
An empty container is your home and where you go to end the current cycle.
Data actions allow you to extract data from the Eye’s network.
Anything that needs a timer to show the progress of the activity is shown clearly on the map markers.
You can just lose hours of your life as one quick go turns into a marathon.
Very simple controls.
Buy and sell items/cargo/materials.
Such a sprawling and deep world.
Complete a Drive (mission line) and get an upgrade point to put into your character tree.
There is always something to do.
You have a guide menu that has all the tutorials and acts like a game manual.
Every action has a positive, negative, or neutral outcome and luckily most of the time you see this and the percent stages of them happening before you choose.
It’s happened again, the moment I jacked into the game I sat there and played it in one sitting and still wanted more by the end.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Review Cons:

Long initial load time.
The menus are with the d-pad and not the stick.
No touchscreen support.
You can’t see game options until you get into the game.
Using the analog stick is less than ideal.
So much to take in.
Doesn’t offer achievements or anything.
I have accidentally skipped through a sequence and clicked a choice before reading it which is annoying and you cannot go back so cautious buttoned presses is key.
Doesn’t have a dedicated save button or menu option.
The game does have some slowdown when rotating locations which is more noticeable on the big screen.
A slow burner of a game.
You cannot move the camera by just scrolling the map markers.
No auto scroll option for the texts so you have to keep pressing a button.
Same three character classes as the last game.