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Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is the game you would get if you combined the a John Woo flick with elements from Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, and even some Rock Band thrown in for good measure. While Sleeping Dogs never attempts to outdo its apparent inspiration, it does a great job at utilizing each game's strong points to deliver a fairly solid open-world experience.
Players step into the battle hardened shoes of Wei Shen, a man who lived in the United States for a time but is returning back home to where it all began. He's immediately thrown into the game's central story. As an undercover cop, Wei answers to just a few high ranking officers of the law as he attempts to take down the Triads on Hong Kong island from the inside. Fueled by a growing list of personal vendettas, Wei attempts to walk a fine line between his role as an officer of the law and a convincing member of the Triads.
The internal moral struggles of Wei pop up from time to time as he attempts to keep the body count low at the same time as he's trying to keep up appearances as a cold-blooded street thug. The battle of these two worlds is even reflected in gameplay elements. For instance, if you opt to shoot somebody instead of knocking them out, you will be rewarded with a nice experience boost from the Triads, but the police will not look too kindly on your actions. This plays a fairly significant role in the experience you earn throughout the game.
The game rewards your play style with three different experience types: Face, Triad, and Cop. Triad experience is earned through combat scenarios by countering attacks, utilizing weapons, and strategically utilizing your environment to finish off your foes. Experience earned from this style of gameplay can be used to unlock skills on a Triad skill tree. This particular tree has a strong focus on improving Wei's combat effectiveness such as providing a nice boost to his melee attack power or resistances to certain attack types.
Cop experience is earned through doing missions for the law enforcement side of the game. Using your phone, it's possible to hack into surveillance cameras around the city. Successful hacking allows Wei to monitor the town from his apartment and seek out drug deals going down. Spot the supplier with the camera and Wei can remotely call in an arrest order on the perp. Sitting as a separate skill tree, experience earned with the cops can be used to improve your ability with weapons and vehicles. In addition to these mini-game type activities, experience with the cops can be earned quite easily by simply being a safe driver. Should you go around destroying the city and its inhabitants, don't expect to get much experience from the cop faction.
Finally, Face experience might be the most obscure of all three experience types. Face experience is sort of a "catch all" experience bar that allows experience to be earned through doing side quests or other feats of ability. Some examples of these feats include doing well in a street race, helping out any number of passers-by who flag down Wei on the street. With there being a relatively large number of side quests, there are ample opportunities to make some sweet bank on the Face experience.
Face experience also plays a very key role in making purchases in game. Certain levels must be obtained in your Face rank before you are allowed to purchase certain items from shops. These include, but are not limited to: cars, clothing, and various bits of wearable trinkets. All three of these experience systems work well together and provide subtle hints of modern day RPG systems into what is otherwise a very action oriented title. Additional RPG nuggets can also be found when training your melee abilities at a martial arts school and with the fact that you can increase your overall health by finding a number of not-so-hidden health shrines throughout the city.
Speaking of the city, the total land area of the Hong Kong island is actually quite large in size. It doesn't come close in scale to something like Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas, but it does seem to be as big, or bigger than the area in Saints Row the Third. While Sleeping Dogs may not have the vehicle variety of other open-world titles, it's the inclusion of an Assassin's Creed style free run system that takes center stage here. While running, contextual clues will pop up and allow Wei to either slide across surfaces, scale the sides of walls to hop over, or make lengthy jumps. It's not a particularly difficult system, especially when you consider it's limited to the same button each time but it feels as though running is a far more interactive experience here when compared to other games in the genre.
If running isn't your thing, then perhaps you'd prefer to take any of the many car types available, maybe a motorcycle, or perhaps even some form of boat? Really, the only type of transport not really present here are airplanes and helicopters. While your role as a cop prevents you from hijacking any vehicle you want and saving it for later use, you can purchase vehicles from a variety of shops around the island. These vehicles will then appear in conveniently placed parking garages any time you need a ride and a taxi isn't around. This isn't to say that hijacking vehicles isn't in the game, far from it in fact.
We've all been in situations in these games where you press a button to break into a car and steal it for fun and pleasure. We've also been in situations where that same button will toss out an innocent civilian that just happened to stop at the right place at the wrong time. How many games actually allow you to leap out of your moving vehicle, throw yourself onto the roof of another vehicle, and hijack it while still moving? Well, Just Cause 2 has this but now so does Sleeping Dogs! Yes, by hanging out the driver's side door you can hop onto another car once you get close enough. This move isn't particularly useful outside of missions, but it is admittedly fun. Not to mention the fact that there's some sadistic joy in opening up your door just as you pass by civilians on the sidewalk. Another unique ability not typically seen in other games is the car ramming ability. Aim in a direction, tap a button and your vehicle will magically slam forcibly where you're aiming. This move is incredibly useful for taking out pursuers as most cars will go down in just a few solid hits from this move. Unrealistic? Of course, but it seems silly to complain about a lack of realism in a videogame as eccentric as this one is.
When you aren't terrorizing civilians, perhaps you are engaging in any of the game's many missions. Main story elements offer the biggest gains and are told through a series of in-game cut scenes. The formula for open-world style games seems to stay true in Sleeping Dogs. Arrive at a pre-determined destination, watch a bit of exposition, and travel to the next point to continue the mission. Early missions tend to focus on introducing the player to the game's fairly deep melee combat system.
Mixing together quick strikes, strong blows, grapple moves, running attacks, and even melee weapon abilities the combat in Sleeping Dogs is quite similar to that of Arkham Asylum. As it's rarely ever a one vs. one situation, the combat constantly keeps Wei on his toes. Brief flashes of red indicate an incoming attack that can be countered by Wei if timed correctly. If the combat merely focused on weak, strong, and grapple attacks it would already be leaps and bounds better than most other open world combat systems.
Sleeping Dogs takes things to the next level. For one thing, the environment plays a very pivotal role in how combat scenarios pan out. Once you successfully grapple an enemy, set pieces in the environment may be highlighted in red. These signify that you can drag your enemy over to that object and perform an environmental takedown on them for a quick knock out. Even if there are no highlighted objects, the environment can be your greatest friend in combat. Toss enemies over railings, across bar tops, or simply ram your foes head first into the wall. The choice is yours. It's even possible to combine Wei's athletic ability with his combat prowess. Run towards a nearby wall and Wei will run up it a short distance before performing a devastating spinning kick into an enemy's jaw. Variety is the spice of life and in the case of Sleeping Dogs, it's also the spice of death.
Given the fact that projectile weapons are fairly rare throughout Hong Kong and in the story itself, it's a good thing the melee system is as refined as it is. Weapons are hardly permanent as Wei tends to make use of what each encounter presents to him. Go toe to toe against a knife carrying foe and Wei can attempt to disarm him with a quick ground tackle. The knife is now yours to use or ignore as you take on the remaining stragglers. Some foes can pose a bigger risk even if they don't have a piece of sharpened steel within their grasp. Some enemies will block your weaker attacks and attempts to grapple. They'll reverse your moves and only through some quick reflex action will you be able to escape without additional damage befalling Wei. Wei must employ a bit more strategy in these situations, using his own counter-attack maneuvers when the opportunity presents itself and striking with heavy attacks when they are momentarily stunned.
New combos and moves are unlocked as you progress through the game and discover any of the 12 not-so-hidden statues. Retrieve a statue and head back to the martial arts school to unlock, learn, and practice a new move or combo of your choice. Again, with a game that has a primary focus on melee combat, you would be wise to track as many of these statues down as possible. Guns do pop up, but not until you're much further along in the game. Some may view the shooting aspect of the game as nothing more than another generic cover based system. While you could play in this style, there isn't much fun in doing so. Sleeping Dogs is about keeping Wei moving and making the best out of an otherwise dire situation. Slide over tables, take aim, and suddenly your world is slowed down in a bullet time situation that lets you take aim while you're still in the air. The moment you land, the combat returns to normal speed. It's a very interesting mechanic that is never really overused and outside of a few particular situations you may never have to actually use it at all. Wei is more than capable of disarming an enemy with a quick melee maneuver whenever you feel compelled to get a little ballsy. Don't want to do any of that? Perhaps the environment will again offer its own assistance by way of exploding canisters that will allow you to quickly dispose of a group of enemies.
I did run into a few instances where Wei simply refused to move or respond to any of the commands issued to him. These periods were rare but in the heat of the battle it was a little annoying when trying to execute a move only to have Wei stand there as though he were stun locked. There also seemed to be an issue where the trigger point to enter vehicles wasn't consistent between car types, especially with motorcycles. Should your motorcycle end up on its side, Wei must position himself on the side where he's facing the seat, otherwise he doesn't seem to know how to pick the bike up to ride it. Similar situations to this also happen when trying to interact with various environmental objects, where precise positioning is needed. It's annoying and continues to be a bit annoying even after playing for hours. Another complaint is that some animations seem a little jerky and don't always blend together as well as you would like them to.
Sleeping Dogs boasts an incredible amount of gameplay variety. While many missions may seem like "go to point A to beat up thug B and retrieve item C" the sheer volume of varied side quests more than make up for any tedium you may experience elsewhere. Need a break from progressing the plot? Simply head on over to the nearest underground cock fighting event and place some money on the bird you feel has the best chance of winning. Illegal activities not really your thing? Maybe you can head to the club, take in the music and engage in some karaoke that plays out like a very simplified Rock Band minigame. There are also a few dates that Wei can engage in with a variety of women, each date also offering their own varied gameplay situations. Pimp Wei out with a variety of clothing options that range from expensive suits, to cheap shirts, torn jeans, and other assorted attire. Many clothing options come with set bonuses that will give you a slight increase to a handful of abilities or faction experience when worn.
If you simply want to ride around and drink in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong, you're more than welcome to do so. Visually, the game is beautiful. Neon lights are prominent throughout the city, catching your eye as you walk through back alley flea markets or speed past nightclubs. Faces are well animated during story cut scenes, though they fall well short of the mark when interacting in non-essential story segments. For as good as the game world looks on a bright, sunny day, it looks even better in the rain. Those neon lights you loved so much now glisten off the wet pavement.
The world itself is full of little details that put Sleeping Dogs a slight step ahead of the rest. Many of the shops you come across feature open storefronts that allow the player to just walk in off the street, make a purchase, and continue along their way. NPC characters in the city all seem to have their own lives and jobs, including street sweepers that will go from sweeping an area to checking the trash from time to time. Back alleys may be full of boxes, trash, and other debris while the main roads feature parking meters that provide a small bit of cash when hit, barriers, lamps, barrels, cans, and the works. Again, as was the case with Grand Theft Auto IV, it's the little touches like these that really go a long way to making a virtual city feel real and lived in through the eyes of the player. The PC version includes a full array of visual options that allow you to tweak the game to your individual system. An optional high definition texture pack improves on the already vibrant visuals.
Not to be outdone, the sounds of the game are very well done. Sleeping Dogs features some fairly well-known names including Lucy Liu, Emma Stone, tom Wilkinson, Robin Shou, and Will Yun Lee as the voice of Wei. Not every character is as well acted as the main cast, but given the minor nature of their roles it's hard to really find much fault here. Radios pump out a blend of music across a variety of genres. Many songs you probably have never heard before as they seem to stem from the area the game takes place, Hong Kong. Other songs, however, will be instantly recognizable from our Western culture including "Locust" by Machine Head, "Take on Me" by Ah Ha, and even "Ride of the Valkyries" by Wagner. The soundtrack is a bit limited and if you find you don't particularly care for the non-Western songs, it is possible to turn off the radio.
The sounds of the city seem to have taken a cue from the city's visuals. Little touches such as shop vendors calling out to you, trying to sell you their wares as you walk past, make it feel as though you are really part of the city. A blend of spoken English and Cantonese also pulls you into the environment, especially when you tick off a civilian, they shout something at you and you have absolutely no idea what they just said. It would probably be safe to assume it wasn't all that nice.
Rounding out the rather robust offering is the Social Hub. Nearly everything you do in the game can be quantified in some meaningful fashion. Stats are tracked and can be used to see how you stack up against your friends. Oh, Justin managed to jump his car further? Not if I can help it! It adds a bit of a transparent competitive multiplayer component to a game that is single-player only. Peruse the stats through the Social Club or see small pop up notifications in the corner of your screen as you near your friends' best scores.
Though accessible from the pause menu, the Social Hub is also integrated into Wei's cellphone. The phone itself is your link to missions, contacts, and background information. Law enforcement will sometimes provide dossiers on people you just met and will even include psychological evaluations on Wei himself as the game progresses. Contacts allow you to set up new carjacking side missions, call one of your girlfriends, or set up the next main story segment. If you're having nightmare flashbacks to how annoying the phone was in GTA4 then you will be relieved to hear this cellphone is nowhere near as annoying. Characters will not constantly call you to hang out and go bowling.
Sleeping Dogs is jam packed with content. Temporary stat bonuses come courtesy of food and drink vendors throughout the city. If neither of those hit the spot, perhaps getting a massage will put the spring back in your step with a temporary health regeneration bonus. Once you're completely refreshed, head on out to retrieve a marked car and bring it back to a chop shop for a hefty monetary reward. If your pockets are full of cash, maybe you should stop by a car dealership to pick up a new set of wheels. After the rubber warms up, why not take those new wheels to any number of street races scattered throughout the city? Once you're done asserting your dominance, maybe it's time to hunt down some of the hidden money packages scattered all over the city. Be careful though as many of them are guarded by small groups of gang members that will not go quietly into that gentle night. Even if they do rough you up, simply seek out the numerous health shrines to boost up your health bar. Do you see where I'm going with this? There simply isn't a shortage of content here. Even the simple task of finding the hidden packages offers up variety as some packages are locked with combination locks that must be cracked through a small mini-game. It will honestly take you a very long time to see everything that Sleeping Dogs has to offer.
While Sleeping Dogs contains a ton of content and variety, the fact that the game has been bounced from developer to developer is somewhat evident. It just doesn't feel as highly polished as one would hope and never truly excels in any particular area. Granted, while the melee combat is fantastic, it just feels as though other aspects of the game could have either been more fully realized or omitted entirely without much loss to the overall experience. It's sometimes hard to tell if the game wants to be taken seriously or if it's going for a more light-hearted approach. It fluctuates between the two so much that it's hard to get a good feeling for which one the development team was actually striving for.
For the price, Sleeping Dogs is a great buy, especially in this lull between Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto releases. For all that's offered here, you may still be playing Sleeping Dogs even well after Saints Row 4 and Grand Theft Auto V have been released. In fact, the game tends to outdo its open-world cousins in many aspects and may very well end up being the sleeper hit of the year. Square Enix also promises to have a full six months of post-release DLC support for the game. The DLC will range from simple clothing additions to full featured missions not present in the core game. Those who own Just Cause 2 may also find a special clothing option already waiting for them in their wardrobe. With all of that said, I would be a horrible person if I didn't recommend Sleeping Dogs to you. Go check it out now on PC, Xbox 360, or the PlayStation 3.
Relevant Links
Sleeping Dogs on Steam
Sleeping Dogs - High Resolution Texture Pack (Optional)
Sleeping Dogs on Green Man Gaming
Sleeping Dogs Official Page
Sleeping Dogs was provided to TGN for review purposes. The game was reviewed on the PC. The game is also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sleeping Dogs is rated M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs).
Sleeping Dogs is the game you would get if you combined the a John Woo flick with elements from Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, and even some Rock Band thrown in for good measure. While Sleeping Dogs never attempts to outdo its apparent inspiration, it does a great job at utilizing each game's strong points to deliver a fairly solid open-world experience.
Players step into the battle hardened shoes of Wei Shen, a man who lived in the United States for a time but is returning back home to where it all began. He's immediately thrown into the game's central story. As an undercover cop, Wei answers to just a few high ranking officers of the law as he attempts to take down the Triads on Hong Kong island from the inside. Fueled by a growing list of personal vendettas, Wei attempts to walk a fine line between his role as an officer of the law and a convincing member of the Triads.
The internal moral struggles of Wei pop up from time to time as he attempts to keep the body count low at the same time as he's trying to keep up appearances as a cold-blooded street thug. The battle of these two worlds is even reflected in gameplay elements. For instance, if you opt to shoot somebody instead of knocking them out, you will be rewarded with a nice experience boost from the Triads, but the police will not look too kindly on your actions. This plays a fairly significant role in the experience you earn throughout the game.
The game rewards your play style with three different experience types: Face, Triad, and Cop. Triad experience is earned through combat scenarios by countering attacks, utilizing weapons, and strategically utilizing your environment to finish off your foes. Experience earned from this style of gameplay can be used to unlock skills on a Triad skill tree. This particular tree has a strong focus on improving Wei's combat effectiveness such as providing a nice boost to his melee attack power or resistances to certain attack types.
Cop experience is earned through doing missions for the law enforcement side of the game. Using your phone, it's possible to hack into surveillance cameras around the city. Successful hacking allows Wei to monitor the town from his apartment and seek out drug deals going down. Spot the supplier with the camera and Wei can remotely call in an arrest order on the perp. Sitting as a separate skill tree, experience earned with the cops can be used to improve your ability with weapons and vehicles. In addition to these mini-game type activities, experience with the cops can be earned quite easily by simply being a safe driver. Should you go around destroying the city and its inhabitants, don't expect to get much experience from the cop faction.
Finally, Face experience might be the most obscure of all three experience types. Face experience is sort of a "catch all" experience bar that allows experience to be earned through doing side quests or other feats of ability. Some examples of these feats include doing well in a street race, helping out any number of passers-by who flag down Wei on the street. With there being a relatively large number of side quests, there are ample opportunities to make some sweet bank on the Face experience.
Face experience also plays a very key role in making purchases in game. Certain levels must be obtained in your Face rank before you are allowed to purchase certain items from shops. These include, but are not limited to: cars, clothing, and various bits of wearable trinkets. All three of these experience systems work well together and provide subtle hints of modern day RPG systems into what is otherwise a very action oriented title. Additional RPG nuggets can also be found when training your melee abilities at a martial arts school and with the fact that you can increase your overall health by finding a number of not-so-hidden health shrines throughout the city.
Speaking of the city, the total land area of the Hong Kong island is actually quite large in size. It doesn't come close in scale to something like Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas, but it does seem to be as big, or bigger than the area in Saints Row the Third. While Sleeping Dogs may not have the vehicle variety of other open-world titles, it's the inclusion of an Assassin's Creed style free run system that takes center stage here. While running, contextual clues will pop up and allow Wei to either slide across surfaces, scale the sides of walls to hop over, or make lengthy jumps. It's not a particularly difficult system, especially when you consider it's limited to the same button each time but it feels as though running is a far more interactive experience here when compared to other games in the genre.
If running isn't your thing, then perhaps you'd prefer to take any of the many car types available, maybe a motorcycle, or perhaps even some form of boat? Really, the only type of transport not really present here are airplanes and helicopters. While your role as a cop prevents you from hijacking any vehicle you want and saving it for later use, you can purchase vehicles from a variety of shops around the island. These vehicles will then appear in conveniently placed parking garages any time you need a ride and a taxi isn't around. This isn't to say that hijacking vehicles isn't in the game, far from it in fact.
We've all been in situations in these games where you press a button to break into a car and steal it for fun and pleasure. We've also been in situations where that same button will toss out an innocent civilian that just happened to stop at the right place at the wrong time. How many games actually allow you to leap out of your moving vehicle, throw yourself onto the roof of another vehicle, and hijack it while still moving? Well, Just Cause 2 has this but now so does Sleeping Dogs! Yes, by hanging out the driver's side door you can hop onto another car once you get close enough. This move isn't particularly useful outside of missions, but it is admittedly fun. Not to mention the fact that there's some sadistic joy in opening up your door just as you pass by civilians on the sidewalk. Another unique ability not typically seen in other games is the car ramming ability. Aim in a direction, tap a button and your vehicle will magically slam forcibly where you're aiming. This move is incredibly useful for taking out pursuers as most cars will go down in just a few solid hits from this move. Unrealistic? Of course, but it seems silly to complain about a lack of realism in a videogame as eccentric as this one is.
When you aren't terrorizing civilians, perhaps you are engaging in any of the game's many missions. Main story elements offer the biggest gains and are told through a series of in-game cut scenes. The formula for open-world style games seems to stay true in Sleeping Dogs. Arrive at a pre-determined destination, watch a bit of exposition, and travel to the next point to continue the mission. Early missions tend to focus on introducing the player to the game's fairly deep melee combat system.
Mixing together quick strikes, strong blows, grapple moves, running attacks, and even melee weapon abilities the combat in Sleeping Dogs is quite similar to that of Arkham Asylum. As it's rarely ever a one vs. one situation, the combat constantly keeps Wei on his toes. Brief flashes of red indicate an incoming attack that can be countered by Wei if timed correctly. If the combat merely focused on weak, strong, and grapple attacks it would already be leaps and bounds better than most other open world combat systems.
Sleeping Dogs takes things to the next level. For one thing, the environment plays a very pivotal role in how combat scenarios pan out. Once you successfully grapple an enemy, set pieces in the environment may be highlighted in red. These signify that you can drag your enemy over to that object and perform an environmental takedown on them for a quick knock out. Even if there are no highlighted objects, the environment can be your greatest friend in combat. Toss enemies over railings, across bar tops, or simply ram your foes head first into the wall. The choice is yours. It's even possible to combine Wei's athletic ability with his combat prowess. Run towards a nearby wall and Wei will run up it a short distance before performing a devastating spinning kick into an enemy's jaw. Variety is the spice of life and in the case of Sleeping Dogs, it's also the spice of death.
Given the fact that projectile weapons are fairly rare throughout Hong Kong and in the story itself, it's a good thing the melee system is as refined as it is. Weapons are hardly permanent as Wei tends to make use of what each encounter presents to him. Go toe to toe against a knife carrying foe and Wei can attempt to disarm him with a quick ground tackle. The knife is now yours to use or ignore as you take on the remaining stragglers. Some foes can pose a bigger risk even if they don't have a piece of sharpened steel within their grasp. Some enemies will block your weaker attacks and attempts to grapple. They'll reverse your moves and only through some quick reflex action will you be able to escape without additional damage befalling Wei. Wei must employ a bit more strategy in these situations, using his own counter-attack maneuvers when the opportunity presents itself and striking with heavy attacks when they are momentarily stunned.
New combos and moves are unlocked as you progress through the game and discover any of the 12 not-so-hidden statues. Retrieve a statue and head back to the martial arts school to unlock, learn, and practice a new move or combo of your choice. Again, with a game that has a primary focus on melee combat, you would be wise to track as many of these statues down as possible. Guns do pop up, but not until you're much further along in the game. Some may view the shooting aspect of the game as nothing more than another generic cover based system. While you could play in this style, there isn't much fun in doing so. Sleeping Dogs is about keeping Wei moving and making the best out of an otherwise dire situation. Slide over tables, take aim, and suddenly your world is slowed down in a bullet time situation that lets you take aim while you're still in the air. The moment you land, the combat returns to normal speed. It's a very interesting mechanic that is never really overused and outside of a few particular situations you may never have to actually use it at all. Wei is more than capable of disarming an enemy with a quick melee maneuver whenever you feel compelled to get a little ballsy. Don't want to do any of that? Perhaps the environment will again offer its own assistance by way of exploding canisters that will allow you to quickly dispose of a group of enemies.
I did run into a few instances where Wei simply refused to move or respond to any of the commands issued to him. These periods were rare but in the heat of the battle it was a little annoying when trying to execute a move only to have Wei stand there as though he were stun locked. There also seemed to be an issue where the trigger point to enter vehicles wasn't consistent between car types, especially with motorcycles. Should your motorcycle end up on its side, Wei must position himself on the side where he's facing the seat, otherwise he doesn't seem to know how to pick the bike up to ride it. Similar situations to this also happen when trying to interact with various environmental objects, where precise positioning is needed. It's annoying and continues to be a bit annoying even after playing for hours. Another complaint is that some animations seem a little jerky and don't always blend together as well as you would like them to.
Sleeping Dogs boasts an incredible amount of gameplay variety. While many missions may seem like "go to point A to beat up thug B and retrieve item C" the sheer volume of varied side quests more than make up for any tedium you may experience elsewhere. Need a break from progressing the plot? Simply head on over to the nearest underground cock fighting event and place some money on the bird you feel has the best chance of winning. Illegal activities not really your thing? Maybe you can head to the club, take in the music and engage in some karaoke that plays out like a very simplified Rock Band minigame. There are also a few dates that Wei can engage in with a variety of women, each date also offering their own varied gameplay situations. Pimp Wei out with a variety of clothing options that range from expensive suits, to cheap shirts, torn jeans, and other assorted attire. Many clothing options come with set bonuses that will give you a slight increase to a handful of abilities or faction experience when worn.
If you simply want to ride around and drink in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong, you're more than welcome to do so. Visually, the game is beautiful. Neon lights are prominent throughout the city, catching your eye as you walk through back alley flea markets or speed past nightclubs. Faces are well animated during story cut scenes, though they fall well short of the mark when interacting in non-essential story segments. For as good as the game world looks on a bright, sunny day, it looks even better in the rain. Those neon lights you loved so much now glisten off the wet pavement.
The world itself is full of little details that put Sleeping Dogs a slight step ahead of the rest. Many of the shops you come across feature open storefronts that allow the player to just walk in off the street, make a purchase, and continue along their way. NPC characters in the city all seem to have their own lives and jobs, including street sweepers that will go from sweeping an area to checking the trash from time to time. Back alleys may be full of boxes, trash, and other debris while the main roads feature parking meters that provide a small bit of cash when hit, barriers, lamps, barrels, cans, and the works. Again, as was the case with Grand Theft Auto IV, it's the little touches like these that really go a long way to making a virtual city feel real and lived in through the eyes of the player. The PC version includes a full array of visual options that allow you to tweak the game to your individual system. An optional high definition texture pack improves on the already vibrant visuals.
Not to be outdone, the sounds of the game are very well done. Sleeping Dogs features some fairly well-known names including Lucy Liu, Emma Stone, tom Wilkinson, Robin Shou, and Will Yun Lee as the voice of Wei. Not every character is as well acted as the main cast, but given the minor nature of their roles it's hard to really find much fault here. Radios pump out a blend of music across a variety of genres. Many songs you probably have never heard before as they seem to stem from the area the game takes place, Hong Kong. Other songs, however, will be instantly recognizable from our Western culture including "Locust" by Machine Head, "Take on Me" by Ah Ha, and even "Ride of the Valkyries" by Wagner. The soundtrack is a bit limited and if you find you don't particularly care for the non-Western songs, it is possible to turn off the radio.
The sounds of the city seem to have taken a cue from the city's visuals. Little touches such as shop vendors calling out to you, trying to sell you their wares as you walk past, make it feel as though you are really part of the city. A blend of spoken English and Cantonese also pulls you into the environment, especially when you tick off a civilian, they shout something at you and you have absolutely no idea what they just said. It would probably be safe to assume it wasn't all that nice.
Rounding out the rather robust offering is the Social Hub. Nearly everything you do in the game can be quantified in some meaningful fashion. Stats are tracked and can be used to see how you stack up against your friends. Oh, Justin managed to jump his car further? Not if I can help it! It adds a bit of a transparent competitive multiplayer component to a game that is single-player only. Peruse the stats through the Social Club or see small pop up notifications in the corner of your screen as you near your friends' best scores.
Though accessible from the pause menu, the Social Hub is also integrated into Wei's cellphone. The phone itself is your link to missions, contacts, and background information. Law enforcement will sometimes provide dossiers on people you just met and will even include psychological evaluations on Wei himself as the game progresses. Contacts allow you to set up new carjacking side missions, call one of your girlfriends, or set up the next main story segment. If you're having nightmare flashbacks to how annoying the phone was in GTA4 then you will be relieved to hear this cellphone is nowhere near as annoying. Characters will not constantly call you to hang out and go bowling.
Sleeping Dogs is jam packed with content. Temporary stat bonuses come courtesy of food and drink vendors throughout the city. If neither of those hit the spot, perhaps getting a massage will put the spring back in your step with a temporary health regeneration bonus. Once you're completely refreshed, head on out to retrieve a marked car and bring it back to a chop shop for a hefty monetary reward. If your pockets are full of cash, maybe you should stop by a car dealership to pick up a new set of wheels. After the rubber warms up, why not take those new wheels to any number of street races scattered throughout the city? Once you're done asserting your dominance, maybe it's time to hunt down some of the hidden money packages scattered all over the city. Be careful though as many of them are guarded by small groups of gang members that will not go quietly into that gentle night. Even if they do rough you up, simply seek out the numerous health shrines to boost up your health bar. Do you see where I'm going with this? There simply isn't a shortage of content here. Even the simple task of finding the hidden packages offers up variety as some packages are locked with combination locks that must be cracked through a small mini-game. It will honestly take you a very long time to see everything that Sleeping Dogs has to offer.
While Sleeping Dogs contains a ton of content and variety, the fact that the game has been bounced from developer to developer is somewhat evident. It just doesn't feel as highly polished as one would hope and never truly excels in any particular area. Granted, while the melee combat is fantastic, it just feels as though other aspects of the game could have either been more fully realized or omitted entirely without much loss to the overall experience. It's sometimes hard to tell if the game wants to be taken seriously or if it's going for a more light-hearted approach. It fluctuates between the two so much that it's hard to get a good feeling for which one the development team was actually striving for.
For the price, Sleeping Dogs is a great buy, especially in this lull between Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto releases. For all that's offered here, you may still be playing Sleeping Dogs even well after Saints Row 4 and Grand Theft Auto V have been released. In fact, the game tends to outdo its open-world cousins in many aspects and may very well end up being the sleeper hit of the year. Square Enix also promises to have a full six months of post-release DLC support for the game. The DLC will range from simple clothing additions to full featured missions not present in the core game. Those who own Just Cause 2 may also find a special clothing option already waiting for them in their wardrobe. With all of that said, I would be a horrible person if I didn't recommend Sleeping Dogs to you. Go check it out now on PC, Xbox 360, or the PlayStation 3.
Overall: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Audio: 8/10
Visuals: 8.5/10
Controls: 7/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Audio: 8/10
Visuals: 8.5/10
Controls: 7/10
Relevant Links
Sleeping Dogs on Steam
Sleeping Dogs - High Resolution Texture Pack (Optional)
Sleeping Dogs on Green Man Gaming
Sleeping Dogs Official Page
Sleeping Dogs was provided to TGN for review purposes. The game was reviewed on the PC. The game is also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sleeping Dogs is rated M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs).
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