Sleeping Dogs is an open world crime drama video game, developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and published by Square Enix (Namco Bandai Games for Australia), released on August 14, 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Sleeping Dogs takes place in Hong Kong and focuses on an undercover operation to infiltrate the Triads.
The game was originally in development as Black Lotus, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was reannounced as Sleeping Dogs in 2012 as Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. 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 Triad organization called Sun On Yee (a reference to real-life triad gang Sun Yee On). On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts skills in combat. Players are also capable of driving a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats and motorcycles.
The combat system heavily revolves around hand-to-hand fighting with strong influences from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City's "Freeflow" combat system. The cover system allows the player to deftly move between cover, to fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific enemy. Individual body parts can also be targeted. The driving segments were inspired by the Need for Speed series, with several developers having worked on previous Need for Speed titles. While driving, Wei can get out and jump onto other moving vehicles.
Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain content and parts of the city, they are not required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the ability to participate in activities such as carjacking, joining a fight club, doing karaoke, visiting gambling dens and betting on cockfights. There are also several potential girlfriends for Wei Shen to date. Successful completion of side missions offers the player rewards.
Sleeping Dogs features role-playing elements with three different experience point values: Triad XP, Face XP, and Police XP. Triad XP and Police XP measure Wei's devotion to the triad and police, respectively, while Face XP is a measure of his general reputation. Clothing, accessories and vehicles are available for purchase by Wei, and have an effect on non-player characters' reactions. Sleeping Dogs tracks acquired skills in areas such as hand-to-hand combat, which improve through use in the game.
Although there is no multiplayer component, the game features online stats and leaderboards so players can compare scores.
Interface
The interface of the game features a circular mini-map on the bottom-left corner of the screen that displays a small map of the city and key locations (safe houses and contact points) or targets, similar to that found in the Grand Theft Auto series. Wei's health is shown by a semicircular meter on the left side of the mini-map, while another one on the right represents his face, which is the game's equivalent of an experience (XP) bar. When Wei is armed, an icon of his weapon and ammo count (if any) are represented on the top-right corner of the screen.
Cast
Sleeping Dogs features a large cast. The player character is Wei Shen (Will Yun Lee), an officer sent deep undercover in a feared Triad gang. Other important characters are Police Inspector Pendrew (Tom Wilkinson), Wei's police handler Raymond Mak (Byron Mann), Wei's childhood friend and low-level Triad member Jackie Mah (Edison Chen), and Triad boss "Red Pole" Winston Chu (Parry Shen).
Further characters include Amanda Cartwright (Emma Stone), Conroy Wu (Robin Shou), Vivienne Lu (Lucy Liu), Harry "Big Smile" Lee (Tzi Ma), Inspector Jane Teng (Kelly Hu), Peggy Li (Lindsay Price), Sonny (Chin Han), and Sandra (Steph Song). Yunjin Kim, Terence Yin, and James Hong provide voices for undisclosed roles.
Setting
Sleeping Dogs focuses on a police officer attempting to bring down criminal factions. The game takes place in a fictional Hong Kong with players assuming control of Detective Wei Shen, an officer of the San Francisco Police Department, who had been seconded to the Hong Kong Police Force. Wei has been assigned by the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau to go undercover and infiltrate the Triad society called Sun On Yee and take them down. There are two subplots contained within the main storyline. The first is Wei's personal struggle between completing his mission as a police officer, and having to commit crimes to prove his worth to the triad. The other subplot consists of completing the missions set out by triad lieutenant (Winston), such as killing triad members who are loyal to competing lieutenants. The island is divided into four fictional districts which are named after some real-life neighborhoods. Although Kowloon and other towns, villages, and islands of the Hong Kong region will not be featured in the game, portions of the in-game North Point district will be based on certain neighborhoods of Kowloon. A fictional Lamma Island will also be featured in the game, according to the in-game map screen shown in recent demos.
Plot
The game starts in a Shipping Harbor in Hong Kong as Wei Shen (Will Yun Lee), along with Naz, met with a drug buyer, while the Hong Kong police are keeping surveillance on them, until the buyer killed a security guards and the police intervened, with Wei arrested. While in prison, Wei meets his old friend, Jackie Mah (Edison Chen), who is now a member of the Triad called the "Sun On Yee" and offered Wei to hook up with the gang after he leaves. Wei met with Police Inspector Pendrew (Tom Wilkinson) in the interrogation room, aware of Wei as an undercover operative and assigned Raymond Mak (Byron Mann) as his handler, as Wei confirmed he's in the Triad.
I'm so surprised... I've never heard of this game before, just seen some minor advertisement on steam which didn't make me interested enough to look. This game actually seems quite baller, the IGN review only really whined a bit about the graphics, which is obviously the least important aspect.
BeMannerDuPenner Germany. August 14 2012 19:06. Posts 5146
Only thing missing from IGN Review, is not mentioning the HQ texture pack available on day 1 (possible reason that reviewed before the release date, hence no texture pack or they reviewed the console versions) and Square Enix bringing more dlc content.
NukeTheBunnys United States. August 17 2012 11:02. Posts 984
After playing for two days I can say: not bad, not great, but not bad.
It really is GTA: Hong Kong - The hand to hand combat is not as good as the recent batman games, the driving is not as good as need for speed, the shooting is meh at most (though I have not gotten into the gun play as much), the free running is not bad (never played mirrors edge so i cant compare) but the city and atmosphere it self is pretty cool
It was a choice between this and darksiders 2, and after two days of this I'm not gonna complain and say I got the wrong one, but its not good enough to make me stop thinking about darksiders 2
Also: I almost forgot, the PC port isn't great. Its a lot better if you use a controller then mouse and keyboard
Last edit: 2012-08-17 11:12:04
When you play the game of drones you win or you die.
This depends on what you're into. If you're into a gritty atmosphere/story backed up by meaty gameplay, you'll love this game (I know I do).
But those are pretty much the only thing the game has going for it (I don't want to make it sound like that's not much.. because it is). The game doesn't really master any aspect of it's game design, but what is unique about the game is that it combines really good implementations of gameplay mechanics, story, atmosphere, metagame and soundtrack to produce a really good game. This is rarely seen in a game (e.g. many games have good mechanics, but shit story, or the other way around, etc.).
Imo it's easily worth the money, and I'd personally choose it over Darksiders 2 at the moment (this is just personal preference).
Will be really interesting what the developer will do with a potential sequel.
If you value your soul, never look into the eye of a horse. Your soul will forever be lost in the void of the horse.
rebuffering Canada. August 17 2012 11:31. Posts 1388
Well after playing Darksiders 2 for several hours, and just feeling blatantly ripped off by terrible level design, mouse + keyboard controls, camera issues, and invisible walls, skip Darksiders if you can. Not to mention ,apparently Death cannot jump more than 2 feet in front of himself, making you waste tonnes of time in dungeons trying to figure where the hell you are supposed to go, Sleeping Dogs is looking better and better at the moment, and surely will go pick this one up, just hoping they did a better job porting this than D2.
When I die, I want people to say about me "That guy sure owed me a lot of money"
Aerisky United States. August 17 2012 11:53. Posts 9212
Wow this game looks absolutely fantastic and looks like it plays really well too. Hope it gets huge because so far it seems to blow Darksiders 2 right out of the water, not even a fair contest.
On August 15 2012 01:01 rezoacken wrote: This, Darksiders 2, or both... ? tough call for the credit card ><
Would buy no one for Release-Price. Darksiders 2 is good but has a terrible pc-port (horrible graphics/bad UI/bad controls/bad camera). Sleeping Dogs has a solid pc-port but the game itself is pretty mediocre like you see in the TB Video. Its ok but does nothing really great.
I play New Vegas/Skyrim/Bioshock/Dead Space that I picked up really cheap until HotS Beta :D
rezoacken Canada. August 17 2012 12:16. Posts 1445
On August 15 2012 01:01 rezoacken wrote: This, Darksiders 2, or both... ? tough call for the credit card ><
Would buy no one for Release-Price. Darksiders 2 is good but has a terrible pc-port (horrible graphics/bad UI/bad controls/bad camera). Sleeping Dogs has a solid pc-port but the game itself is pretty mediocre like you see in the TB Video. Its ok but does nothing really great.
I play New Vegas/Skyrim/Bioshock/Dead Space that I picked up really cheap until HotS Beta :D
Wasn't hots beta supposed to be released in the summer ? Is it some other WoW (MoP) shenanigans ?
Carl Drogo fan club member
NEXUS6 United States. August 17 2012 12:28. Posts 406
On August 17 2012 11:31 rebuffering wrote: Well after playing Darksiders 2 for several hours, and just feeling blatantly ripped off by terrible level design, mouse + keyboard controls, camera issues, and invisible walls, skip Darksiders if you can. Not to mention ,apparently Death cannot jump more than 2 feet in front of himself, making you waste tonnes of time in dungeons trying to figure where the hell you are supposed to go, Sleeping Dogs is looking better and better at the moment, and surely will go pick this one up, just hoping they did a better job porting this than D2.
The reviews I read were saying the the pc port is really good and people on pc get higher res textures.
Last edit: 2012-08-17 12:32:09
Aerisky United States. August 17 2012 13:48. Posts 9212
Wow I just watched TB's video playthrough thing and this game looks amazing woooow. Would play the crap out of this game if I had a computer that could run it -__- maybe soon though. It's just...wow so cool
Definitely getting this once it hits the sales if I manage to wait that long, love open world games and the game being set in asia for a change is awesome.
GW2 in less than two weeks and stuck 50 hour weeks at work so I can skip it for now, otherwise would be an insta buy for me.
Aerisky United States. August 17 2012 15:03. Posts 9212
Oh might as well leave some info for people to see since I watched so much of that TB review.
Basically it's a pretty awesome open world game. As mentioned, it doesn't necessarily have a single wtfamazingbbq feature, but all the little things come together to make a great game. The voice acting is fantastic, English and Canto. There are lots of things you can mess around with as befitting an open world game. Quite a bit of hand-based combat, at least at first, and it's pretty slick. The world looks amazing with all the lights and neon especially when it rains (just beautiful). Lots of shops and whatnot and little stores can be entered, and it does a really good job of immersing you. A few small bugs here and there but overall it's great.
sigh
rebuffering Canada. August 17 2012 15:24. Posts 1388
On August 17 2012 11:31 rebuffering wrote: Well after playing Darksiders 2 for several hours, and just feeling blatantly ripped off by terrible level design, mouse + keyboard controls, camera issues, and invisible walls, skip Darksiders if you can. Not to mention ,apparently Death cannot jump more than 2 feet in front of himself, making you waste tonnes of time in dungeons trying to figure where the hell you are supposed to go, Sleeping Dogs is looking better and better at the moment, and surely will go pick this one up, just hoping they did a better job porting this than D2.
The reviews I read were saying the the pc port is really good and people on pc get higher res textures.
How am i supposed to know if textures are better, when there is literally no graphics options in Darksiders 2, seriously, theres none, there is a resloution slider. Thats it. wtf is that? the game is incredibly frustrating, regardless if your using a controller or not, and its too bad, since the Core game itself is fine, but so many bad design decisions, i cant recommend it to anyone, Sleeping Dogs will have to take its place!! it has to!!
When I die, I want people to say about me "That guy sure owed me a lot of money"
Tobberoth Sweden. August 17 2012 16:24. Posts 4521
On August 17 2012 11:02 NukeTheBunnys wrote: After playing for two days I can say: not bad, not great, but not bad.
It really is GTA: Hong Kong - The hand to hand combat is not as good as the recent batman games, the driving is not as good as need for speed, the shooting is meh at most (though I have not gotten into the gun play as much), the free running is not bad (never played mirrors edge so i cant compare) but the city and atmosphere it self is pretty cool
It was a choice between this and darksiders 2, and after two days of this I'm not gonna complain and say I got the wrong one, but its not good enough to make me stop thinking about darksiders 2
Also: I almost forgot, the PC port isn't great. Its a lot better if you use a controller then mouse and keyboard
I'm surprised. Everyone thought GTA4 was great but it had terrible melee fighting, terrible driving, meh shooting and no free running.
Seems to me like people have ridiculous expectations just because it's not named GTA, while every single aspect of the game sounds like a way improved GTA game.
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Unibrow88 Germany. August 17 2012 12:01. Posts 39
