I loved citizen sleeper, though I agree, if you’re smart, it’s pretty easy to fall into a loop of “as long as I X, I’ll never run out of resources” after you’ve found your way a little.
Citizen Sleeper 2 addresses this by having you travel between stations, meaning for much of the game you’re a bit less sure of what comes from where, but it’s ultimately pretty formulaic in that regard. There are also timed away missions where you only have what resources you bring and you need to have the right skills and allies or there’s a very real chance of (varying degrees of success and) failure which has plot implications. It’s much more linear, telling a story, rather than your story. Many decisions have more implications for allies than you, and the endings are much less varied, which I won’t get into for spoiler reasons.
That being said, I’m a fan of both. CS2 is strongly antifascist not just in the stories it tells, but also in that you’re often NOT the most important person in the room during a scene, even if you are enabling change around you. I’ve heard people complain that “you aren’t even around for the climax” of some arcs, though, in my opinion, it’s generally because you’re focused on your own shit. YOUR stakes are low in the video game sense, because they’re grounded and focused on you, even if higher stakes conflicts are going on nearby. I was a fan, though I understood the criticisms.
I loved citizen sleeper, though I agree, if you’re smart, it’s pretty easy to fall into a loop of “as long as I X, I’ll never run out of resources” after you’ve found your way a little. Citizen Sleeper 2 addresses this by having you travel between stations, meaning for much of the game you’re a bit less sure of what comes from where, but it’s ultimately pretty formulaic in that regard. There are also timed away missions where you only have what resources you bring and you need to have the right skills and allies or there’s a very real chance of (varying degrees of success and) failure which has plot implications. It’s much more linear, telling a story, rather than your story. Many decisions have more implications for allies than you, and the endings are much less varied, which I won’t get into for spoiler reasons. That being said, I’m a fan of both. CS2 is strongly antifascist not just in the stories it tells, but also in that you’re often NOT the most important person in the room during a scene, even if you are enabling change around you. I’ve heard people complain that “you aren’t even around for the climax” of some arcs, though, in my opinion, it’s generally because you’re focused on your own shit. YOUR stakes are low in the video game sense, because they’re grounded and focused on you, even if higher stakes conflicts are going on nearby. I was a fan, though I understood the criticisms.