Review: Sleeping Dogs

There was a time when open world games like Grand Theft Auto III were a big deal. Nowadays, it seems like there’s an open world game being released every year. There was also a time when open world games were flat 2D worlds like Super Metroid or The Legend of Zelda. Today, it’s vast and deep 3D landscapes with big cities (or deserts if we’re talking about the great Red Dead Redemption). The problem with most games that share this genre is that they’re automatically labeled a “GTA-clone”, so in order to be successful, the developer needs to create something unique or at least innovative. Sleeping Dogs might not be incredibly unique (a cop and gangster game set in Hong Kong), but it does take the GTA formula further by innovating it, making it its own.

Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. – wikipedia

There were a bunch of things I really liked about Sleeping Dogs. One example that pops right into mind is that the game lets you cycle through your objectives without the need to pause or go to the map screen. To add to that, it’ll show you how to get to your objective and how far your destination is. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it helps with the pacing of the game. There’s no need to pause, go into a menu, and look through a big map. One thing that bugged me about GTA was that there was no reason to pay attention to traffic laws and pedestrians, but in Sleeping Dogs you lose points if you vandalize, steal or kill pedestrians while you’re on a mission. These points can help you level up and unlock more items and moves and they’re part of your overall mission score that gets uploaded and shared with your friends. That’s another thing the developers have added: the “Social Hub”. The Social Hub basically uploads your mission scores and other stats (longest wheelie for instance) and compares them to your friends who are also playing the game.

Gameplay wise, Sleeping Dogs implements some elements of parkour. You’ll be able to scale walls easily, slide across cars, and jump from high heights without worrying about your health. You’ll spend a lot of your time fighting hand-to-hand and it’s a lot of fun to beat your opponents up in this game. The game features a great combat system, probably the best in its genre. It’s similar to the recent Batman games as the game uses a “free flowing” battle system. You won’t be able to cause as much carnage in this game as you could in GTA though; you won’t find gun shops to buy weapons from and you’ll only be able to pick up weapons during missions. This personally doesn’t bug me because Sleeping Dogs is more about its narrative than it is about causing chaos on the streets. The game also doesn’t feature a friendship system (thankfully) but you will be able to date specific girls in the game. The date consists of a challenge and once you’re done with the date, you’ll unlock some sort of bonus like being able to see hidden lockboxes on your map. So, what can you buy with the money you make in game? You’ll only be spending your money on cars, clothing, and food. Food in this game isn’t just meant to restore your health – depending on what you eat, you’ll get certain benefits. Apartments and weapons are given to you so you wont be spending money on those. The game also features quite a few hidden items to find throughout the city, like shrines to increase your overall health and lockboxes to gain more money.

Friendship, loyalty, revenge, redemption, duty are all the themes involved in the narrative of the game. From the get-go your character struggles between his obligation as a cop and his loyalty to his old friends in the Triads. You’ll see your character develop over the span of the game as he works between the police and his buddies; you’ll see how certain actions affect him and how he deals with them. A friend of mine commented that the game seems to take itself too seriously but I don’t see that as a bad thing. We need games that do that – games that deal with proper themes without sacrificing their seriousness with goofiness (a fault in GTAIV). The game starts out slow but gradually picks up speed. In open world games, pacing is usually an issue when the environments are too big. However, the size of Hong Kong in Sleeping Dogs is perfect which makes you feel more immersed.

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Visually speaking, Sleeping Dogs looks nice, but not as impressive as some of the other games out there. Some areas in the environment seem to deal with low textures, but the human models look good. The game looks especially good when Hong Kong becomes rainy and the city lights reflect back at you on the wet streets. Your character, Wei Shenn, gets soaked running through the rain, bloody and bruised if you get hurt in a fight, muddy if you crash your motorcycle or jump out of a moving car. The game also features great music brought to you by the many radio stations found in Hong Kong.

Sleeping Dogs will naturally be compared to Grand Theft Auto, but it does enough to sculpt an image of its own. It adds some innovation to the genre, has some memorable characters and a pretty good story to boot. The combat system works really well and the driving mechanics are solid. This game will keep you busy for some time and is definitely one of the highlights of the year, especially if you like games that deal with crime or open world adventures.

Sleeping Dogs was provided by Digumz

Posted by Patrick