Developed by United Front Games
Published by Square Enix
Released for Xbox 360 (8/14/2012) | Xbox One (10/9/2014)
Also on PC/PS3/PS4
Sleeping Dogs was originally going to be the third entry into the True Crime series that released on the previous generation of consoles. The project was cancelled by Activision and then Square Enix came in to salvage the game, where it eventually turned into Sleeping Dogs. This is an open-world crime game set in Hong Kong and is obviously very similar to the Grand Theft Auto games. The main things setting this game apart are the setting and your character being a cop. If you don't like graphic violence or language in your games then this is definitely not the game for you as the swearing is constant and the combat is pretty brutal.
You play as undercover cop Wei Shen, who is making an attempt to infiltrate the Chinese Triad gang the Sun On Yee. The voice acting is solid in this game and the story remained interesting throughout, filled with lots of betrayal and murder, the types of themes that should definitely be present in a game involving Triads. The game also stays relatively down-to-earth, never blowing things too out of proportion and manages to stay at least somewhat believable.
Sleeping Dogs one-ups the Grand Theft Auto series in at least a few aspects, especially when you take into consideration this came well before GTA5 hit the market. The hand-to-hand combat system is lifted right out of the Batman Arkham games, though the counters aren't quite as reliable as they were in those titles. You are able to grab your foe and from there you can punch him or drag him over to the nearest wall or object and smash them into it. This is extremely satisfying and many props have been laid out in the game environment for your use. You can smash goons into telephone booths, slam their heads in car doors, push their face into an operating fan and many others. Needless to say, the melee combat is definitely one of Sleeping Dogs finest points. Also unique to the game is the action hijack, where you can jump from one moving car onto another in order to steal a new ride while on the go. This works very well for the most part and helps keep the pace moving nicely.
The gun-play is your standard third-person stuff, where you can take cover and from there either blind-fire or vault over your cover. The game is definitely more focused on the melee battles, but you will get the opportunity to use firearms at several points in the game. The controls on foot are very easy to use and work well, allowing you to quickly jump over most objects in your path and traverse most areas with ease. The driving is quite basic but is responsive, which is more than I can say for some of the open-world games of the past and it's quite easy to fire your weapon while driving. You have a drift button to help you slide around corners. Overall the controls for the various styles of play all work well, but the game really excels in the melee department.
Outside of the main campaign, there are tons of side-missions scattered about. There are street races, cop jobs, security cameras to hack, drug busts and several other variations on these events. There are also several different types of mini-games, including karaoke, hacking, lock-picking and call-tracing. Most of these are pretty creative and are definitely welcome additions to vary up the game-play a bit. One thing I found a bit annoying is that during some of the drug busts that use firearms, enemies tend to spawn out of nowhere right behind you and you can't react fast enough before you're filled with lead and there goes another trip to the hospital and a bunch of your money. As far as the races go, there were a couple times I felt as if I'd rather just be playing a game focused solely on racing (particularly the bike races), but some of them are pretty fun since you can ram and disable your opponents when racing in cars.
In the end, Sleeping Dogs doesn't really do a whole lot you haven't seen before, but it combines great aspects from several games and it does it rather effectively. I enjoyed the story and had fun completing the side-missions for the most part as well. I ran into quite a few bugs and glitches throughout my play-time, several freezes (admittedly after leaving the game paused for a lengthy time) and some weird instances where my character went flying sky high for no apparent reason, but it was nothing bad enough to make me put the game down or anything. This game can be found regularly on the cheap now, so if you haven't played it get out there and try it! This game was also later released on the Xbox One (as the Definitive Edition) with some slightly improved visuals and all of the DLC included.
Final Verdict: Sleeping Dogs features an awesome open-world portrayal of Hong Kong to explore, solid gunplay, excellent melee combat and a nice variety of side missions to tackle. If you're a fan of open-world crime action games and you somehow skipped this one, go back and give it a shot!
Purchase Links:
Buy Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (Xbox One Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Sleeping Dogs (Xbox 360 Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Sleeping Dogs (Xbox One Disc) - eBay
Buy Sleeping Dogs (Xbox 360 Disc) - eBay
Related Links:
Open-World Games - Xbox Overview
Square Enix - Xbox Overview
Square Enix - Official Site
Sleeping Dogs - Metacritic
Sleeping Dogs - GameFAQs
Sleeping Dogs Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Sleeping Dogs - True Achievements
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