Citizen Sleeper, and the immersive power of interactive fiction

Have you ever read a book that took hold of you so thoroughly that even now, years after you first encountered it, the text is still seared onto your soul to the extent that it’s a part of your personality?

Have you ever heard a piece of music that sent every follicle on your body into a shiver, so that now even the opening notes make you snap to attention when it comes on the radio, or you hear it in a TV show, or even when someone mentions it in conversation?

Have you ever fallen head-first into an imaginary world via a film, or a TV series, that just somehow captured a unique atmosphere that seemed to speak directly to you?

Have you ever played a game that did absolutely all of the above?

Because I have.

It’s called Citizen Sleeper.

I love an interactive story.

As a kid, I enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure books, as well as Sword and Sorcery, and the Goosebumps versions. Something about needing a dice and a pencil to read a book appealed to me, like playing a board game but by yourself (only child; bookish - are you surprised I wasn’t awash with friends for game nights?).

I didn’t get into video games until my late 20s, but when I did, I established quickly that I like them best when they’re basically interactive stories. Because most gamers care more about game mechanics, lot of these stories are… sparse. Not exactly fleshed out. But if you know where to look, you can find some genuinely excellent stories.

Citizen Sleeper, and the sequel Starward Vector, are among them.

I feel like fans of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries and Becky Chambers’ books would love it - sci fi, adventure, but with character at the heart of it. I love it because your decisions matter, and sometimes even if you think you’re making the right choice, it might all go disastrously wrong.