Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

In Citizen Sleeper 2, the player assumes control of a "Sleeper", a digitized human mind housed within a robotic body. Unlike the first game, which is set in a single location, Starward Vector is set in an asteroid belt known as the Starward Belt, and the player can explore multiple hub locations. The Sleeper can commandeer a spaceship, complete missions and contracts, and recruit crew members. As players progress, they will have to make various decisions that will change the game's overall narrative.

As with its predecessor, the player rolls a number of dice each in-game day, or "cycle". These dice are then placed into different tasks and interactions with other characters, where higher numbers generally indicate better outcomes. Crew members also have their own die, and have an ability named "Push" that can provide an additional boost, though doing so will cause the crew to accumulate Stress; high stress will damage a player's dice. If a dice is damaged three times, they can no longer be used until they are repaired.

Continuing from the events of the first game, the sequel is set in the asteroid belt of the Helion System known as the Starward Vector, where a corporate war is brewing between multiple different interstellar corporations for control of the star system. The player takes control of a Sleeper, who is awoken with no past memories after attempting to reboot their system to escape the control of a gang who forced them to work in exchange for medicine they need to survive. The Sleeper must rely on their luck in order to escape and build a future where they can live freely.

Solo developer Gareth Damian Martin returned as the game's director; Guillaume Singelin and Amos Roddy also returned as the game's character art designer and composer respectively. According to Damian Martin, they wanted to use the sequel to introduce more mechanics commonly found in tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG), citing Blades in the Dark, Mothership, and Heart: The City Beneath as their sources of inspiration. It was also mechanically more complicated than the first game, as Damian Martin was frustrated that some players labelled the first game as a visual novel rather than a role-playing game. While Damian Martin did not immediately create a sequel to Citizen Sleeper following its release, the original game's success prompted them to create downloadable content packs for it.

Following a year of experimentation, they felt that a new game in the series with a distinct framework was necessary. Therefore, Starward Vector was "designed to be different" from its predecessor since its inception. Damian Martin dedicated Citizen Sleeper's successor to Jed Gillamac, a voice actor who was known to voice Citizen Sleeper 2's character Serafin in the trailers advertising the game. He died after voicing the second trailer.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector received "critical acclaim" for the PlayStation 5 version while the Windows and Xbox Series X/S version received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

Writing for Eurogamer, Robert Purchese wrote that Starward Vector "improved the RPG formula in every way". He praised the newly introduced mechanics for making the experience tense and frequently putting them in precarious situations. Jay Peters from The Verge wrote that the game can be anxiety-inducing due to the presence of a consistent threat, and added that "tension is what makes the game compelling", as players often had to pick the best choice from several bad options. Rollin Bishop from GamesRadar wrote that the game was "largely rooted in modern tabletop narrative design", though he felt that many of the outcomes were already predetermined by the game, meaning that players lacked the opportunity to improvise.