The little revelations that drive CITIZEN SLEEPER 2
Let’s throw some guns
I finally finished Citizen Sleeper 2 after taking a physically painful break from Monster Hunter (pour one out for the mass grave of unfinished games this month that will likely stay that way). CS2 is outstanding, but being able to use a giant sword to topple a dragon with whips for hands is something so visceral that going back to a book-game felt like pausing John Wick to read The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Yes, Tolstoy rules, but I want to see John Wick throw a gun at a guy’s face and if you walk in front of the TV while that’s happening I will want to throw a gun at your face, too. But once I was able to settle my broken, content-riddled brain and get back into the rhythms of Book-Game Land, I remembered what Garreth Damien Martin’s superpower is: peppering in so many small revelations that you feel like you’re reading a book’s climax every twenty minutes. The literary version of throwing a gun at a guy’s face, if you will.
These aren’t revelations at the level of Ivan Ilyich learning to be a good person by facing death, but they are still foundational.
“But mistakes can so often become the most powerful and meaningful of emblems. They can guide a being more strongly than success ever could.”
Something that just briefly scratches your brain about one of the tragic lessons we have to learn again and again in life. It’s not mind-blowing, but it is deep and resonant, and the game is littered with these guys.
“Because you are a broken thing, and you have nothing left but that brokenness, and the beauty that shines through it.”
Like a cup of hot cocoa. It’s not a huge spectacle, but it’s just what you need at the end of a hard day.
And you need literary hot cocoa when playing Citizen Sleeper 2. It’s a game about you not doing well, constantly having the deck stacked against you both narratively and from a gameplay perspective. Your body is falling apart while an abusive monster chases you down to take away your autonomy. You can easily fail missions permanently because you didn’t roll well thanks to, again, your body falling apart because that piece of shit is trying to take away your autonomy. But the story balances this stress out with some hot cocoa just when you need it.
And hot cocoa at just the right time is enough to bring tears to my eyes. I need it like I need John Wick to throw a gun at someone’s face. It soothes the soul.
Be Nice
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - A spiritual successor to Castlevania, you fight demons during the industrial revolution in a 2D search-action platformer.
Why it didn’t work for me: The story doesn’t really matter in Castlevania games, but the real winning piece of that series is that the narrative bits were mercifully short, giving you just enough for motivation. The team behind Bloodstained didn’t seem to understand why that worked, so now you have to go through horrific amounts of drivel. When I just checked its Wikipedia to remember what the nonsense premise even is, I saw that the Plot section is seven fucking paragraphs. Are you kidding me? On top of that, the art direction involving 3D creatures is just awful.
Why it might work for you: If you really love trashcore anime, or if you’re used to skipping all story scenes anyway, then the solid gameplay is something that you should be able to focus on. Just make sure you do skip the story. All of it.
Oh, Good
Nothing new to me here because I just restarted Bloodborne last night for the first time in nine years and I literally cannot think of any other games right now. Goodbye.