Sleeping Dogs Review

Enter the lair of deceit.

You are Wei Shen, a martial arts wielding, undercover cop, hidden within the underworld of Hong Kong. As Wei Shen the player must act the part of a triad thug of honor. With a past tangled in the streets of H.K. you must wield a capricious sense of loyalty to old friends and a fluid commitment to the letter of the law. Wei Shen displays the stress of his undercover work with furrowed brows and clenched teeth. Waking each day a drench in sweat, harrowed by the actions of another mission, in which he struggled to grapple with the terms of a position requiring lofty moral ethics and a strong sense of place and identity.Wei Shen, over the course of the game, will prove susceptible to the human desire for identity. Between a burgeoning sense of belonging, a loosening sense of moral fiber, and a personal sense of justice, Wei Shen will grip you into an identity deadlock of in-too-deep psychological drama (reminiscent of The Departed) and martial arts action. The pacing of the narrative in Sleeping Dogs is free-falling at terminal velocity. It starts with Shen working his way up from the entry rolls of the triad organization, in order that he may accrue enough trust and information on the true dragons of the organization.The story of sleeping dogs will have you willing to charge past/over/through side-activities, and clamoring for more by the time the credits roll.

Wei Shen on Arkham isl...,err, on Hong Kong Island equals many broken bones.

Gameplay in Sleeping Dogs will see you roundhouse kicking and bare-knuckle brawling with all manner of thugs. The gameplay is quite simple and accessible. With a dedicated button for counters and heavy and light attacks on assigned to a simple and easy to remember two button system, Sleeping Dogs recalls the recent adventures of the caped crusader and his Arkham adventures. The combat, though, while quite good, is not as responsive as the Arkham games. This can be a good and bad thing, it depends on whether or not you feel that the delay adds a sense of timing and heft to the actions of Wei Shen's kicks and strikes. There are a number of upgrades accessible to the player willing to look for statues and shrines. There are also traditional upgrades to move sets and passive abilities, which are unlocked by way of gathering triad and cop points. Triad and cop points equate to a visual manifestation of the two worlds that Wei Shen must either balance or fall prey to. With Triad points requisitioned by completing triad missions, getting environmental kills on enemies, or, in general, acting up and being "criminal". Cop points are awarded for completing cop missions/investigations, for safe driving, and are decidedly awarded for diminished collateral damage on mission, and on missions can be taken away for outward displays of reckless intent. The open-world is lively and well-polished, glitches were not apart of my experience--that is aside from one crash. The side activities in Sleeping Dogs include taking out a girlfriend or two, investigating unsolved cop cases, doing favors for the locals, gambling, street fighting, street racing and ,of course, shopping for clothes and cars. Driving in Sleeping Dogs was promised to be a solid feature, and I would say it is. The handling might seem similar to those familiar with the Burnout series. The driving presents itself as more of an arcade style racer, rejecting the weightier mechanics of  Grand Theft Auto 4, opting, instead, for a smoother and more responsive, shifting around turns and corners. Banking around turns and weaving through traffic make for an exhilarating racing and obligatory chase sequence. The sense of Hong Kong action movie styling is always present in gameplay. Shen builds a separate face meter, which, when full, slows time and allows Shen to react with charged reflex's, even forcing enemies to cower. Shen can also--during car combat--slow time and make stunt jumps to enemy and pedestrian vehicles, all the while shooting out tires and flipping over the recipients vehicles, causing them to spontaneously combust. The shooting mechanics are solid and standard fare, but don't last long enough to feel too dull, nor do they come off as woefully tacked on.

Overall

Lets cut to the chase, there aren't too many problems with Sleeping Dogs. The game plays well. The island region of Hong Kong, is beautifully crafted. The combat can feel a bit sluggish and at times unresponsive. The shooting and driving are, as developers United Front stated talked-up, solid and serve to compliment a jack-of-all trades experience. The stunt driving and parkour running serve to add to the action movie style of the game.So, overall one can say that Sleeping Dogs is a solid experience. Solid isn't bad, but it isn't great either. The mechanics for the focal-point fighting could use some tweaks. The variety of activities while plentiful, do end up falling into a rut of repetition and can lead to you lacking the motivation to complete them. Hong Kong looks good, but overall can feel flat. The main stories campaign can be predictable, but its pacing keeps its refresh rate with your patience and your curiosity fresh. I enjoyed my experience with Sleeping Dogs, and I do believe this new I.P. has established a solid foundation with new room to grow. I will also say that the ending to the game can leave one wondering...if that's all--but this does speak volumes to the investment you take in Shen and his adventure.


I give the very commendable and sound Sleeping Dogs a:

 8.5/10

 Thanks for reading. Any thoughts, questions, comments, etc. let me know. Stay tuned for more.