Sleeping Dogs' riveting story, excellent gameplay and involving vision of Hong Kong make it the surprise of the year.
Sleeping Dogs big strength is in its presentation, particularly its story. Players take on the role of Wei Shen, a police offer for the San Francisco Police Department. After being assigned to a case in his home city of Hong Kong, Shen goes undercover within the Triad syndicate to infiltrate leaders of an organization known as the Son On Yee, who are in conflict with the Hong Kong Police Department, who want to take them down. This is a very interesting story, and is brilliantly written. Wei Shen is a likeable lead who struggles to find a balance between his loyalties and becomes embroiled into a conflict deeper than anything he expected. The cast is great, and all are excellently voiced and develop well over the course of the game's 12-15 hour story. United Front Games' vision of Hong Kong is a great, detailed world. This city looks good, includes lots of subtle touches relating to Chinese lore and is overall a city worth exploring. There can be some visual glitches and the cut-scenes can feature some stiff character models, but Sleeping Dogs looks good. The city's buildings and architecture look good, although the draw distance can be subpar. There is also some screen-tearing and textures look less than spectacular, but explosions look good and animations are great.
The sound design is equally impressive, mainly because of the excellent voice acting. All characters are brilliantly voiced and bring great charm and personality to their respective characters. The sound effects are just as solid. Weapon effects and vehicle sound design are both good, and the punches, kicks and arm breaks sound awesome. The mix of English and Chinese voice acting works fantastically well, and the soundtrack is awesomely cinematic and, during a car chase of combat sequence, makes for a great throwback to Hong Kong action films.
Sleeping Dogs' gameplay is the biggest surprise here. The combat is excellent, and the most satisfying aspect. Inspired by developed Rocksteady's expert implementation in their Batman: Arkham series, Sleeping Dogs' fighting mechanics are fluid and engaging. The game uses a similar three button scheme, with square to control Wei Shen's punches, while holding the button will kick. The triangle button counters enemy attacks. When the enemy glows red, Shen will undergo automatic counter actions such as sweep attacks and subsequent follow-up punches, or flip them over their back and kick them. The circle button controls grappling, wherein Shen can grab an enemy and kick them or throw them on the ground. However, even more fun, are the environmental kills. When Wei grabs an enemy, parts of the environment will glow red. When it does, Shen can use these areas to perform special attacks that often kill his opponent. I won't spoil many of them as they are awesome, but some include ventilation systems (work that one out yourself), a window shutter, telephone box and electricity circuit. Like I said, there are many more than described here and they are completely awesome. Combat may be fun, but using these special takedowns is just as thrilling. During the game, after an introduction to Sifu, Shen's former trainer in martial arts, he will have a permanent side mission relating to his missing Jade statues. Finding these will enable Shen to learn a single combat skill for each individual statue. These include leg breaks, disarms, tackle moves and many more. It's certainly an incentive to find them, as you will be more powerful in combat as a result.
There are different enemies in the game. Wei will fight against regular thugs during the game, but later missions offer variety in the way of armed enemies who carry blades or guns and can do serious damage, and bigger enemies called Grapplers that grab Wei when close and can do lots of damage. However, QTE sequences can play out where Shen can kick enemies while grappled by an enemy, and then hit the grappler to escape their clutch.
The upgrades add depth to the combat. During the game, Wei will have two separate skill meters – Cop and Triad. By completing missions and undergoing side missions, Wei will level up depending on which mission he has taken. There are two different skill trees exclusive to each meter. Some Cop upgrades include disarming gun-wielding enemies in quick succession, reduced recoil on shooting and the ability to use a Slim Jim (similar to a crowbar) to break into vehicles without setting off the alarm, which is useful. Whereas some Triad upgrades range from extra melee damage to recovering from attacks quicker and reduced damage from enemies. There is also another meter called the Face meter. When this yellow meter is filled, Wei regains health and becomes more powerful in combat. There are different unlocks for this meter too, by completing different missions during the game. Levelling up this meter gives Shen different bonuses such as extra health regeneration, discounts on items bought and more.
The driving mechanics are great. All vehicles in the game are fun to drive around in, and the variety of vehicles is generally good. The car handling feels fun and arcadey, as opposed to the overly weighty and realistic handling of other open world games. It's fluid, responsive and very enjoyable in missions. Car chases are even better. Some missions involve Wei chasing enemies through the city and eventually stopping them, but this journey is exciting. The design of the city is good so there are highways and intersections to take, which makes vehicle traversal worthwhile. Car chases are also good because of the Action Hijack. When Wei enters close proximity of a vehicle in front of him, an arrow will appear on the screen. Once this arrow changes from white to green, Wei will jump from his vehicle to the back of the enemies' vehicle. He can then shimmy across the back (depending on if it is a truck) and then throw the enemy out of the vehicle. It's a fun touch that is satisfying when pulled off successfully. Of course, in some missions and if mayhem is caused, police will pursue you. This is also fun, as you can outmanoeuvre the police and get away, which is satisfying. However, if armed, you can take out them and enemy vehicles. During pursuits, Wei will hang from his car window and engage the enemy. During this, the game will slow down, enabling Wei to pick off enemies or, better still, shoot out the tires, causing them to flip or explode. I can't describe how fun it is to shoot out tires in a consistent string of shots. This is the same for motorbikes, which will explode and flip around the road. You can also ram vehicles, resulting in slow-motion explosions and crashes, which are fun and useful against police cars.
Gunplay is surprisingly adept in Sleeping Dogs. Though I was confident in the combat before release, I expected the gunplay to be average compared to the other gameplay mechanics, but the shooting is actually solid. The cover system is effective and Wei can use several weapons. Though he can use cleavers and knives in combat, he utilises many guns during shooting sequences. Aiming and shooting isn't exactly anything special nor is the cover and AI, but it's a solid addition to the gameplay. Some mission-specific shootouts are great but also because they are driven by the story. The AI isn't amazing, but compared to Sleeping Dogs' sandbox peers, its good enough. The guns are pretty fun to use too, ranging from pistols to machine guns and shotguns, as well as an awesome grenade launcher. Wei can also vault over cover, where slow-motion will enable allowing him to pick off headshots with ease.
All of these gameplay elements are tied together by a clever score system, which is rewarding and addictive. After each mission, an overall mission score will be given depending on how skillful you were with each level completed. For example, driving around killing pedestrians and crashing into objects will compromise your score and your overall Cop meter for that mission, but killing enemies and brutal combat moves will increase the Triad score. Three score types are awarded for each mission or combat – Bronze, Silver and Gold. There are challenges such as killing as many enemies as you can in succession, or driving as far as you can without crashing into anything. You will get a respective medal for each challenge you do. Of course, the most addictive part is replaying missions to increase your score. You will want to replay them, as they are fun anyway, but also because you will want to try different combat moves, or try to drive to your objectives without harming anyone. It's a clever system by UFG, and gives the gameplay much diversity and competition, especially when tied in with a social system. Here, your friends' scores and challenges will be displayed when you are attempting that specific challenge, and their score is there to beat. Leaderboards provide details of these scores, so rivalries will be formed on this part of the game, though it's a pretty good and harmless way of interacting with one another.
There are different side missions to undertake that increase your different meter levels as well as your Face meter. There are yellow-outlined side missions called Favours that have friends of acquaintances of Wei Shen asking him for help and, once completed, will award you with XP. This is especially important if you want to unlock those combat upgrades. There are also races to participate in which have different class types – having a particular car class is required for that particular race, as well as Drug Busts, which task Wei will infiltrating different areas of the city and ridding them of gang activity. Once the enemies are defeated, Wei can then operate and hack the security camera, travel to his apartment and subsequently identify the drug dealer based on the footage, wherein police officers will arrest them. Drug Busts are fun side missions that provide more of the combat and hacking activities. You can can also plant bugs in some missions, as well as trace calls from sources, all of which as mission-specific.
There are other resources in the city too, as the map will help you locate different endeavours across the city. There are massage parlours to use, which re-fill your Face meter. There are clothing stores to visit to purchase outfits to use in different missions (again reliant on Face meter progression) and vehicle stores to buy new cars and faster motorbikes. Of course these cost money, and money is rewarded through story missions. At the end of each mission, along with the mission score, Wei will be rewarded with items such as money, outfits or weapons, as well as police reports on the characters in the game, which are an interesting read. Money can also be obtained by finding the many lockboxes located around Hong Kong, which give Shen large money bonuses. There is a mobile phone option, where you can read these reports, phone known connections and access other options. There are also smaller distractions such as an enjoyable karaoke, cockfights to bet on and health shrines to find, which increase the overall health of Shen for combat and gunplay. Another side mission type in the game called Cases. These involve Shen trailing bad guys and tracing their calls, as well as finding out more about them, before catching them in the act and subsequently arresting them. They are reasonably long and fun to complete.
Unfortunately, there are some issues with Sleeping Dogs. There are some weird glitches, like cars getting stuck in walls and character walking in circles. There are also some moments where enemies will stand out of cover for you to clearly pick them off, though this is relatively uncommon. The game's other problems are technical, with occasional framerate hits and some control annoyances, such as vaulting over objects and climbing, which could be more responsive.
Some people may be put off by Sleeping Dogs' title, but they shouldn't be. The story is fantastic and the gameplay mechanics work so well, they are in some respects better than other open world games. The combat is the best in its class, the driving mechanics are hugely enjoyable and the gunplay is a genuine surprise. The visuals could be more polished, but the excellent characters and voice acting more than make up for that. Overall, you shouldn't miss Sleeping Dogs. It's a compelling experience that can be beaten in 12-15 hours. Though this may be short for some, there is incentive to replay because of the mission scores, challenges and overall side missions. Sleeping Dogs is great and the absolute biggest surprise of the year.
SUMMARY
Presentation 9.0 - An engrossing story of corruption with great, developed characters and an appealing setting.
Graphics 7.5 - The animations are cool and Hong Kong looks good, but nothing will blow you away visually.
Audio 9.0 - A surprisingly great mixture of Chinese and English voice acting, and solid sound effects and music.
Gameplay 9.0 - Awesome combat, fun driving mechanics and adept (though unexceptional) gunplay in one of the most refreshing locales around.
Replayability 9.0 - An initially (and somewhat short) 12-15 hours is bolstered by content that is fun to complete.
Overall - 9/10