This game nearly cracks it. But bugs and design frustrations tarnish a potentially awesome game.
The problem is, a lot of what the game does right, is overshadowed by it's numerous bugs and design failings.
Firstly the good. The graphics, while basic, do get the job done (especially on the PC) and the sound/music adds to an already rich new environment. Not many GTA type games have taken us to Hong Kong.
There is a complex story, plenty of vehicles to drive/steal/buy and a new ability to engage in complex yet satisfying martial arts battles with enemies. With an upgrade system in place, there is room for customisation and in the same vein, there is much more choice for clothing styles that GTA IV.
Unfortunately that is where the positives end for me, and I will now spent time listing the many, many failings in this game.
Lets take the customisation in the game. You can kit out your character with different tops, bottoms, shoes, hats and glasses to your liking. The problem is, none of this matters because certain (mostly ugly) costumes gives you a stats bonus. Either doing more damage or getting more xp. But a lot of the clothing does not give you these bonuses. As a result you have no desire to wear the clothes on offer. You look like a thug and get 5% damage output increase, or wear something remotely cool and sacrifice the gain. A minor point, but one that needs to be mentioned, as does the inability to change your characters appearance in any other way. But then, this is not Saints Row, thank goodness.
Controls. Game controls are OK for the most part, but the camera is terrible sometimes. Really shows when driving. When you reverse, the camera (like other games) rotates to the front so you can see where you are reversing. Problem is, going forward again, the camera takes a long time to spin around (unless you do it manually). Meaning you have to make do with a side view of your car and no doubt end up colliding with something/someone.
Some of the controls are a nightmare as well. Like in GTA IV, if you hold down Y when near a taxi, you can leap in the back for a ride. The issue with Sleeping Dogs is, sometimes even if you hold Y down, it will register as a single press. Causing you to haul the taxi driver out of his seat, thus wasting your taxi slot. A trivial matter, but an annoying one.
Control issues and interface issues can cause serious frustration. The one which kills me is when you complete a mission, a section of the top left of the screen tells you what you gained from completing said mission. Either money, items, xp and more. Problem is, the message will not go away until you hit A. As a result, most (not all) of the controls no longer function until you do. An example of this is when you attack some thugs. If you defeat, say, 6 out of the 8 thugs present, you will get the success window and the thugs will flee. But, if they are near your vehicle, they will steal it. You cannot grab them, attack them, or pull them out of the car until the window has appeared, showed you your rewards and then you have hit A. I know I'm being picky, but issues like this really annoyed me.
Weapon based combat is also poor. With an auto lock feature working when it feels like it. Sometimes a flick of the analogue stick switches locked on targets, but that is firstly never EVER explained in the games numerous tutorials and secondly, rarely works. You end up flicking the stick, so to speak, in vain while you shoot at nothing.
To make matters worse, the games stance on weapons is a baffling and stupid one. I understand the idea is that Hong Kong is tough on guns. But when your character does get a pistol, you have to work really hard to keep it. Reloading a previous save (when you had the gun) causes it to vanish. Completing missions causes it to vanish. Only things which should cause it to vanish is death and being arrested. Hell, even cut-scenes can cause your gun to vanish.
Maybe it's a good thing, since as mentioned, the gun controls are poor. Also putting 10+ bullets into an enemy to take them down is laughable. It's quicker to kill someone with your fists than a gun.
Perhaps the worse part of the game however is the driving. You see, driving in these types of games falls into 2 categories. GTA style physics and Saints Row style. Unfortunately, this is Saints Row. Vehicles feel like they are on ice, turning circles are huge (even on motorbikes) and most vehicles go faster in reverse than forward. Driving feels wrong, not to mention the fact that the game keeps asking you to race race race. With racing missions galore. Oh, and if a van I am chasing can go faster than my suped up motorcycle, the game is failing.
Another REALLY annoying issue, is a lot of the times you will be given a motorbike and told to chase after someone quickly. Problem is, when you character jumps on any bike in the game, the same thing happens. Jumps on, puts on helmet (safety first), starts up the bike, revs it 3 times and then slowly pulls away. If you're wondering, it's 5. FIVE seconds wasted. Within seconds of finally pulling away, you will get a message saying that you are losing the target. Nice. In fairness I've never failed a mission yet because of this, but it's really annoying. Why add such a pointless, realistic feature, when the rest of the driving is so arcade it's ridiculous.
What made GTA IV great was the tongue in cheek humour. From silly advertisements, hilarious random things pedestrians say and of course, the cut-scenes. Here, the humour is played straight. In fact, I saw no humour. Everything, from the missions to the radio stations, are just boring, serious, drivel. The radio adverts sound so much like real adverts, you swear they are talking about real products.
And talking about the radio, its poor. Some good tunes here and there, but hardly enough. About 30 mins in total. And believe me, you will hear the same music/adverts/dj's a lot over your play time. Not to mention the weird glitches. Like when you switch to another station and it starts the station from the start. Or if you leave your vehicle mid song, when you get back in, the song will be playing from the start again.
So much wasted potential in this game and that is the worse part. If you want to make a serious game without humour, make the driving realistic. Make the weapon handling realistic. Make the world realistic. As it stands it feels like they should have spent more time on it and added some polish. Rather than leave us with a mediocre game like this.