There’s something in my Eye.
I foundCitizen Sleepergently moving.
It touched me on a deeper level, and even months later, I remember it.
I tried to tell my partner what it was you did in the game.
She looked at me blankly.
“It’s not my kind of thing,” she said, and walked away.
I get where she’s coming from: Citizen Sleeper doesn’t seem, outwardly, very eventful.
There’s some detailed character art but beyond that, everything plays out in text.
There are no voice overs or animations or cutscenes.
It’s all, to a large degree, in your head.
Yet, I’ve rarely found a more welcoming place.
The actual experience of playing Citizen Sleeper is one of the most friendly and relaxing I’ve ever had.
There’s no sense of punishment or being obstructed in your progression.
But often I felt like I was led rather than leading.
Now, though, I don’t mind that.
And I think it leads you to show you things you might otherwise not have noticed or seen.
That’s where all the big moves happen, and where all the revelations are stored.
Normally, that would bug me.
I would want to make my own mind up because I am the one playing the game after all.
Gosh if being led always leads to this, you could have my hand any time.
It also brings a sense of danger in the form of the thing they ran away from.
Who will you help?
But it’s not overly massaged as a theme, or preached or anything like that.
And ultimately, you caring about you.
It warmed me and it restored me.
