Whenever an open world crime game with cars is released it is inevitably compared to GTA. Almost always, the challenger comes off second best and the only question is whether it provides a worthy distraction to the title holder - a competition for second place.
Sleeping Dogs is not GTA. It does not try to be GTA and should not be compared to GTA IV.
The game places you in the role of undercover cop, Wei Shen. He returns to Hong Kong after some time in the USA where he tried to forget his difficult time back at home. He is not quite able to leave the past behind and agrees to infiltrate the Triads in what is a very personal mission. Wei manages to convince his old friend, Jackie, to introduce him to a senior member of the Sun on Yee, a Triad gang. From here, you take on various missions in an attempt to gain the trust of the Sun on Yee.
Right from the start of the game it's clear that Sleeping Dogs is a high quality and polished product. This is in no small part thanks to the names which appear in the opening credits. Actors like Lucy Liu, Emma Stone, Tom Wilkinson, Will Yun Lee, Edison Chen and Kelly Hu provide the voices for some of the characters. It's all well and good to add such star quality to the game but it's no use if the execution is poor. Here too, Sleeping Dogs succeeds. The voice acting is excellent! The Asian characters speak English with slight Cantonese interjections which adds a cinematic and believable feel to the game.
The camera angles, composition and setting of each cinematic scene is carefully considered and could of been lifted from any high budget movie. A lot of games try to replicate movies but Sleeping Dogs truly succeeds by combining the above mentioned cinematography with great graphics, voice acting and story. The story is nothing new. All the classic tropes about undercover cops who infiltrate crime organisations are here but what sets things apart is the sheer quality of the presentation. Think about a high budget Asian film like Infernal Affairs (very appropriate) and you'll get the picture.
The gameplay is pretty much your standard sandbox fare but with some meaningful innovation. Missions consist of driving, shooting and beating people up.
The driving portion is fun. The cars are varied and feel good to drive. You can buy your own cars and race them for additional experience and money. The racing is very arcadey and tends to become more of a destruction derby than an actual race at times.
The gunplay is quite satisfying as well. There is a familiar cover system which has been enhanced by the ability to vault over and enter a slow motion segment, kinda like in Stranglehold. Guns aren't common however so most of your dirty work will need to be done by hand.
Wei is adept at Kung Fu and just plain brawling. The combat system allows for weak and strong attacks to be chained together. Instead of blocking, Wei counters enemy attacks. He can also use melee weapons, environmental attacks and even turn the tables by disarming his enemies. Melee combat is one of the best bits of the game and I found myself relishing it. It's not too dissimilar to Yakuza but it's faster and more fluent. It's extremely violent though and at times I found myself wincing.
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| This is the violence I was talking about. |
You will do missions for the Triads, Cops and for ordinary people. This rewards you with different kinds of experience; Face Experience, Cop Experience and Triad Experience. This in turn grants you with combat bonuses. Being brutal gives bonuses to Triad Experience but you need to avoid involving innocents and destruction to gain Cop Experience. Face Experience is basically street cred. Higher Face Experience means you can wear flashier clothes and buy better cars. Different clothing grants various bonuses such as doing more damage or increasing the overall experience earned. Don't fret, this is not a dress up game and you won't have to pay too much attention to it.
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| In the rain, nobody can see your tears. |
The visuals are superb. I reviewed this game on PC with most of the settings on medium, without using the optional High Res Texture Pack. The cities bustle with life and are very detailed and the way the characters move and act is extremely realistic. The visual change from morning to night and from sunny to rainy is also detailed and beautiful. It's all just wonderful to behold.
Generally Sleeping Dogs does everything exceptionally but there are a few issues. The game is too short. Sandbox games are generally very long but you can complete the main storyline in about 20 hours. It's a very focused and exciting story and it never feels like the developers tried to lengthen the game by tacking on unrelated and boring missions.
I can understand this. Wei is not a gangster. He is a cop. His mission is to infiltrate the Triads and bring them down. As such, it wouldn't make sense if he spent any more time than necessary undercover. There are a few curtailed missions which I think could of been expanded. I don't know if these missions were cut due to time constraints or whether the producers felt that it would dilute the plot. Whatever the reason, I wanted more. It doesn't help that most of the sidequests are pretty much the same thing you do in the main plot but without the interesting storyline.
There's always a danger of having too much to do in a sandbox game to the point where the 'real' game seems hidden. This is not the case with Sleeping Dogs. It does a few things and it does them all very well. At no point did I get frustrated because I was forced to do something I didn't enjoy. I just wish that the sidequests were more interesting and that the game was a little longer. Sleeping Dogs has great gameplay mechanics which are too good for just a single game and I hope we see more from this franchise. This is an excellent game and well worth playing just don't compare it to GTA. It's more like Mafia; slick, cinematic, polished and enjoyable.
Rating: 89%
More screenies:
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| The day I 'took delivery' of my car. |
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| You 'mirin my car bro? |
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| Ride towards thugs, dismount moving bike, shoot bike, ???, profit! |
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