if you'd like to peek into the life of an adorable fictional whale, his story told through the lens of speculative biology and presented as a beautiful nature documentary, then hey, this visual novel is for you! it's wildly creative, beautifully drawn, and i loved the otherworldly feel, floating through the dreams of whales

the game is voiced, but note that the narrator isn't a voice actor. narration was done through a synthesis of public domain material - it's not a true person. something about the uncanny voice, i think, lends an eerie tension to it all. it's a reminder that south scrimshaw really depicts something alien to us. the nonhuman narration was a strange decision, but it builds a fascinating vibe and i'm glad i checked the game out.

in terms of accessibility, bright screens and vibrant colours are everywhere! even with a screen dimmer they were difficult for me. images briefly flash a few times, too. (and while you can jump back to specific chapters, it seems there isn't a way to skip through text?) it was worth squinting through the bright parts to play this one, though. i look forward to part two!

"...You think of your relationship to your own body, this frame that you were forced into that has never quite felt like your own. You realize that this feeling is not unique to you. No one gets to choose their body. Everyone has to contend with the entropy of their flesh.

And, in that realization, you suddenly feel less alone."

citizen sleeper 2: starward vector may not always have the smoothest experience in terms of mechanics, but nearly every decision made serves its narrative beautifully. this game is largely a direct commentary on data rights and digital sovereignty, on the dangerous, nonconsensual commodification of who we are. it explores who controls what and how this power is abused, how everyday people pay the price with our bodies and mental health, and how this particularly intensifies life for many of us who are chronically ill.

just as in citizen sleeper 2, people in reality are pushed to their limits again and again solely for the gain of systems who disregard our suffering and ultimately view us as disposable. but we build community, when we can. we strive for better.

i played on the easiest mode, the one recommended for those who want to focus on the story. even here, the game is intense in a way the first game simply isn't. you again play as an escaped android being hunted down by your captor, but you're hopping from place to place, taking on contract work to afford your journey, having to always think ahead to avoid his deadly grasp.

something unknown also happened to you when you first fled - you are now running with few memories and a sense of wrongness in your body. and, while there are no to-the-minute timers, stricter dice mechanics and set amounts of turns help build a sense of urgency. nonetheless, you (and a close friend who escaped with you) befriend others along the way and slowly gather your own crew.

i've seen a fair bit of dislike for things i really loved about this game, things that i felt were well thought out from a story perspective. so i want to get into that a little bit.

for example, many maps feel similar to one another. a distinct sense of place at first glance is rather lacking compared to what we're given in the first game. but, as most of these places were originally designed by corporations, i found the repetitive aesthetics felt like a reflection of their far reaching, utilitarian influence. the story's elegant writing, not the art (although it's also well done, alongside yet another stunning soundtrack), provides a peek into the unique lives and experiences of inhabitants through encounters and conversations, slowly painting a larger image of place and interconnectedness over time.

not to mention that you are playing someone transient. sense of place can be something built through familiarity, something your character is constantly denied in spite of their desires. and they're not the only one. many of these areas are inhabited by refugees and by those who have also recently lost what they once had, far from home and now building anew in the ruins of the past.

i also love the crew you gather! even though you live with your crew, interaction is mainly during their own storylines and the ways they're naturally woven into your story. it's fantastic. games frequently present transactional relationships: if you do this thing you know a character likes, or give them the right gift, you are one step closer to getting another point to unlock even more access to them. non-player characters also often tend to revolve around the player - they may be available at predictable times of day, if not always, for you to engage with to some degree.

citizen sleeper 2 grants its non-player characters tremendous agency in that they are not at your beckoning call. through gradually building trust with them they may ask to join your crew. eventually. and even then they only give you a bonus of two dice each (make sure to bring people out on contracts who will cover your weaknesses, though - you have each other's backs!).

playing to focus on the story doesn't make me the best person to speak to the dice mechanics. you can die in this game and on easy mode i never came close to it. nonetheless, i know the mechanics are convoluted and often partly why people describe this game as frustrating - a set amount of dice per day, multiple ways dice can break or be debuffed, skill checks, a stress bar that goes up if you fail a roll... these elements aren't perfect, but honestly? aside from wishing you could have multiple save files per game, i love the narrative concepts here so much that i don't mind the flaws.

see, in my experience, the frustration in this game felt so deeply familiar as someone chronically ill that it drew me in. rolled too low to do anything this cycle? well, often with chronic illness, some days you can't do anything but stay home and still time ticks on whether you like it or not. sometimes your body doesn't even seem like yours. eventually it isn't tragic, it's just the way things sometimes are... although it certainly is infuriating if you remember the way capitalism and those who puppet its machinery have ground you down for their own benefit. sure, you can risk pushing yourself past your limits, like with the push mechanic in this game, but it might not be worth the pain it causes. it's like that whether you're disabled or not. perhaps you'll just try again tomorrow.

and yes, before anything else, this game was migraine friendly for me! also a big thank you to @chimaera for gifting me this for my birthday <3 it is just so lovely to play a queer game with so many parallels to my own views of and experiences in this wild world we all share.

lastly, citizen sleeper 2 excels at weaving success and failure seamlessly into its story - did your contract crash and burn because of your low rolls? okay. you may not get what you planned for, but as long as you don't die the story continues on and so do you and your loved ones, making the best of it, if you're open to where failure takes you.

so everything may fall apart - your plans, your body. but not your stubbornness, not your commitment to keep going, not your love for a world that is nowhere near as forgiving as it should be. still. you're here. let's keep trying.

"But mistakes can so often become the most powerful and meaningful of emblems. They can guide a being more strongly than any success ever could.

That's because at the heart of every mistake is the possibility of change, of a shift in the status quo. You have lived a life of mistakes as much as a life of successes, and look where it has brought you.

So you accept the memory, let it wash over you like the sun."