One of the great things about playing a variety of games is each new experience has a chance of revealing something new about you and your preferences as a gamer. When I reviewed the original Just Cause, for example, I found the gunplay and missions to be enjoyable and diverse, but was ultimately unable to recommend the title because the world wasn’t fun to navigate in. In some ways, Sleeping Dogs was the opposite- the gunplay is mediocre and the vast majority of the missions fall into a repetitive slog of either duking it out with some guys or engaging in a one-too-many cover shoots. And yet, the world was so vibrant and the driving mechanics a blast to initiate that I ultimately enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) my time with Sleeping Dogs. What this says about me is that I prefer mediocre open worlds with good navigation over non-mediocre ones with bad navigation. That being said, the aforementioned problems do consign my recommendation under the banner of “wait for a sale”.

I’ve always been a story-driven guy, and here Sleeping Dogs doesn’t quite deliver on what it evidently set-out to do. You play as Wei Shen, a former Hong Kong native working as an undercover cop for an unnamed police organization. Shen is sent to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad gang as part of a long-term operation to bring it down. Despite being highly-qualified, Shen’s motivations are much darker, involving subtle revenge over the death of his younger sister years earlier. As Shen gets deeper into this criminal underworld and commits more egregious acts in the name of dismantling the Sun On Yee, the question becomes how far he’s willing to go before he ends up losing himself…..at least, that’s what the writers’ intentions were.

There are many issues with Sleeping Dogs’s narrative, but here are the biggest ones: first off, we don’t actually get to see anything regarding Shen’s backstory or upbringing, which the contemporary timeline heavily relies on. Shen is welcomed into the Sun On Yee thanks to his childhood friend Jackie, and the aforementioned death of his sister is brought up by his police compatriots as a reason to keep a closer watch on him. But outside of those small instances, the vast, vast majority of the backstory is relegated to optional reports you can read via Shen’s phone. They’re all well-written, but reading something and watching it are two very different things, especially in a visual medium like a video game. Because he doesn’t speak about his past much, having some cutscenes to consistently refresh/refer to would have gone a long way towards keeping that vengeance motif alive throughout the narrative. Alas, I wasn’t quite able to put myself in Shen’s shoes, which hurt the power of the story.

The second biggest issue is how the degradation of Shen’s psyche is depicted. It’s clear the writers were trying to evoke vigilante tales of good men being forced to shed their morality to achieve justice in an indecent world (Law Abiding Citizen, Death Wish, etc…), but again that fails because we don’t get enough of who Shen was beforehand- when we meet him, he’s already a no-nonsense ass-kicker who doesn’t mind doing criminal acts for the sake of moving up in the eyes of the Sun On Yee leaders. As such, there’s no real character arc b/c the Shen from the beginning is no different from the Shen of the end. You can maybe argue that he commits more brutal acts as the game progresses, but you’re already capable of some pretty brutal takedowns from the get-go, making this a possible case of ludonarrative dissonance. But even if the takedowns weren’t there at-first, I didn’t see anything significantly different to constitute a character arc- he’s still helping the police, he’s still yelling at his police compatriots for trying to hold him back from achieving his mission, and he’s still getting angry for acts of wrongdoing committed against his friends.

The game tries to counter this via two things: one, having Shen experience dialogue flashbacks whenever he wakes up between missions that replay conversations with NPCs pointing out how Shen is taking things too personally; and two, incorporating some unique dialogue in an optional sidequest involving Shen finding and returning Jade statues to his former Martial Arts Sensei- doing so results in them talking about Shen’s past for a few seconds and how he’s become different.

The problem with the former is that it’s quite honestly a bit lazy (we couldn’t even get full-video flashbacks using the EXISTING cutscenes?) and doesn’t affect the plot in the slightest. The problem with the latter is that it’s all optional, meaning you experience it inconsistently with the pace of the narrative, it’s very minimal, and also doesn’t affect the plot in the slightest.

Now, those failures aside, where Sleeping Dogs succeeds narratively is in its build-up of character relations. Shen is coming into this setting as a semi-outsider, and so he has to go through the typical initiation process of proving his loyalty and worth to the gang. Doing so earns their respect, resulting in them taking him in, first as a warrior, then as a friend, and finally as a family member. No matter the rings of leadership, this development is pretty consistent, and I never once felt that Shen was unrealistically rising to the top like some Mary Sue/Gary Stu. It’s a shame that a lot of those build-ups rest on repetitive mission structures, but more on that below.

The ending does feel a bit rushed and is ultimately unsatisfying. It’s strange because it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger/wraps up things decently well, but it felt like there was a lot more to tell- a longer story that could have continued forth. I guess that’s what sequels are for, which Sleeping Dogs doesn’t have a chance of getting (though if Shenmue III proved anything, it’s that long-gestating follow-ups are a possibility). Overall, the story will entertain you enough, but falls far short of its larger ambitions.

If there’s one thing I can praise it for, though, it is for giving solid pacing for the completion of side content. A lot of these open world adventures are often unable to do one or the other: you either have an engaging narrative that you can’t divert from because each mission endgame necessitates you immediately continuing forth with the next sequence, or the base storyline is so forgettable that you get lost in the side stuff without even feeling compelled to go back on the main track. Sleeping Dogs is solid enough that you want to keep experiencing Shen’s journey, but rarely do the missions have that urgency-feeling to them. Those that do tend to either involve emotional story beats or are reduced to mandatory cutscenes that play immediately after being triggered in-game. I wish more AAA or even indie open world games that capitalize on lots of side content followed a Sleeping Dogs-esque model.

Graphically, I actually can’t even appropriately talk about the game because my gaming PC was unable to run it at the highest settings! Perhaps that’s a huge praise in and of itself- that a 2012 title was able to outdo a computer from the late 2010s.
Hong Kong truly looks beautiful. There was a strong attempt by the developers to achieve an authenticity to the real-life city (at the time) that you can read about on Wikipedia, and I have no doubt that they succeeded. I know they were probably trying to harken back to old-school Hong Kong movies, but I honestly couldn’t help but feel that there were some cyberpunk influences as well. Neon signs light-up nearly every area, and there’s a dynamic rain system that darkens the cityscape with a cascading torrent like in classic cyberpunk works. There was also an attempt at depicting the different socioeconomic strata in Hong Kong, with poorer districts filled with rundown hotels and regularly-dressed working class people contrasting visually with the wealthier areas filled with nicer cars, better-looking buildings, and expensively-clothed NPCs. While more could have been done on the latter front to make things stand out even more (and had some of that play a part in the storyline, thereby giving it subtle sociopolitical commentary), I can’t deny that the end product is stunning and beautiful to this day. Seeing neon reflections on the drenched asphalt will always be a sight to behold.

But there are graphical problems that prevail. Skin is arguably the biggest issue due to its inconsistency- NPCs, from the ones wandering the streets to the ones in cutscenes (everything is rendered through the in-game engine) can vary significantly. Sometimes you’ll get characters who look fleshy and full-fledged, while other times you’ll see models that would not look out of place from the PS2/early-Xbox 360 era. I’m not sure if this was an engine issue or a consequence of me having to slightly downgrade the graphics, but I feel it was too prevalent to be the latter and it can be distracting, especially when you have a great model interacting with a mediocre one in the same scene! Texturing in general is irregular, with streets and signs often looking great but interiors and paraphernalia inside said interiors often faltering when you look at it for more than 5 seconds.

The final things I didn’t like were 1) how Sleeping Dogs dialogue is often too much compared to the distance you need to drive between points advancing a story and 2) the inconsistent continuity between gameplay and cutscene. Like I said before, Sleeping Dogs doesn’t use prerendered cutscenes, meaning clothing your character has or cars they are driving stay the same when a cutscene occurs...for the most part. There were times where I switched weapons or my car sustained damage, only for the consequent cutscene to act like none of those things occurred, and it was temporarily immersion breaking.

There is also a lot of clipping, particularly whenever objects or people come into contact with curbs, edges, and foliage, but you get used to it pretty quickly. I read that there is a lot of criticism towards the draw distance, however I personally never had an issue with it- given that it’s set in a metropolis with a multitude of buildings and a low-hanging camera, Sleeping Dogs doesn’t benefit from having sights you can gaze at in the horizon. And the haziness you do see can be more believably chalked up to pollution than Dishonored or AC Syndicate due to the lower graphical quality of everything.

If I can end on a fully positive note, it’s the vehicles. There are a lot of automobiles and bikes you can drive and/or purchase, and each has a distinct, handmade craft to it in a way that rivals even GTA. The damage these cars sustain whenever you do some kinetic activity is beautifully conveyed, with scuffs, scratches, shattered glass, to collapsing parts having a tangible causal effect to them over a preprogrammed occurrence, if that makes sense.

Sound is the next category, and it is a giant disappointment. I’ll begin with the SFX because I have a lot to say- it’s so generic. NPC screams/grunts, breakable object sounds, and ESPECIALLY vehicular engines (which constitute most of the soundscape you will experience) have maybe 1-2 dins repeated ad nauseam. And seriously, I could not be more disappointed with the cars: why a sedan sounds the exact bloody same as a sports car or freakin motorcycle is beyond me. Trucks are at least different, but you barely drive those so it’s small praise. Guns have some variety as well if only because there are few models in the game, but they still come off as weak compared to other AAA titles with firearms. The only thing that felt consistently good were the takedowns, though I can’t say whether that came from a genuine auditory cue from them or my general appreciation for their brutality/use in combat.

Voice acting is mostly mediocre. Will Yun Lee does a good job as Shen, and I was a big fan of Byron Mann’s portrayal of Shen’s handler Raymond despite his limited screentime (wish there was more), but a lot of the other Asian actors failed to make their characters standout. I wonder if part of this had to do with the game being English with some Chinese words thrown in Animus-style, but rarely did I feel intimidated or entertained by the mobsters. A ton of celebrities were also hired to do round out the supporting cast, but you’ll be disappointed to know that the majority of them, from Emma Stone to Lucy Liu, are barely in the game, having maybe 2 missions that abruptly end whatever excuse for a sidequest the writers drummed up for them. Of the ones that have a longer haul, they did a good job, with credit to Tom Wilkinson and Kelly Hu in particular for standing out as Shen’s law enforcement coworkers. As far as generic NPCs go, don’t even get me started- there were times where Sleeping Dogs made me miss Oblivion.

The score by Jeff Tymoschuk plays its part. I didn’t find many moments that stood out particularly, but there was also nothing distracting. One of the things that kind of hurts the OST is all the driving you do. Sleeping Dogs managed to license a lot of music, and your car is restricted to only playing music from the radio stations you can switch between. As such, much like with Suicide Squad, the score often takes a backseat to whatever pop music (pop music as in popular music, not the genre) you’re playing. Personally, I would’ve liked to have heard an older-school Chinese influenced soundtrack in the background as those instruments always stood out to me whenever I heard them.

But overall, sound is lackluster. As gorgeous as Hong Kong is, it never feels like a lively city, even when you’re talking through the markets or through crowds of people, which is a huge component of atmosphere-making.

Finally, we get to gameplay, which is where the crux of Sleeping Dogs’s appeal rests. Gameplay is divided into two categories: driving/movement and combat. As you can probably guess from my opening paragraph, I loved the driving. Of all the non-racers with cars that I have played, from GTA to Watch_Dogs to even Arkham Knight, Sleeping Dogs outdoes all of them (with the exception of two flaws). The developers successfully achieved that balance of acceleration and turning, allowing you to successfully maneuver your way through tight-knit streets and corners. There are a lot of races in the game, and I’m generally not a fan of racing minigames since the driving mechanics usually falter. But because Sleeping Dogs successfully created a system of vehicular movement that was truly enjoyable, I eagerly completed all of them.

The exceptions I referred to earlier, though, regard the camera and reverse driving. Unless you are shooting, don’t even bother trying to move the camera, as it will get all janky and give you a headache. Trying to reverse longer than a couple of inches is even worse, as suddenly the car looses cohesion and sends you twisting and turning elsewhere. Now, these didn’t impair my enjoyment because the default camera is solid (and when you have to engage in driving shoot-outs, the manual camera is good) and you never have to reverse for an extended period of time.

Unfortunately, movement on foot is a lot more limited. One of the recurring problems you’ll find with Sleeping Dogs is how it seems to incorporate or build some concept/mechanic, only to falter in seeing it through to its completion, meaning you get a lot of half-designed ideas. The parkour is one of these- Wei is able to initiate animations that climb structures or leap beams or slide across cars, but it isn’t evenly incorporated around the game’s world in the same vein as an Assassin Creed or even Far Cry game. A frustrating thing that can happen is when you are on a highway or overlooking a body of water and you are unable to jump over the former’s guardrail or the latter’s fence because for some reason the devs didn’t think to expand the parkour to them. It really limits the pathfinding to linearity, despite there being a decent system in place. There’s also no jump button, so there’s that.

With combat, look, I’ll be blunt- you’re getting discount Arkham. Sleeping Dogs tries to ape the freeflow system albeit with a different martial arts style and slightly different set-up: instead of attack, counter, stun you got attack, counter, grapple. But the general idea is the same of moving between guys, wailing on each of them whilst avoiding getting interrupted. The problem is the flow just isn’t there- enemy detection is very hit-or-miss, meaning there’s a good chance you don’t move to your next intended target. Making things harder is that all enemy archetypes have access to a block that prevents them from being struck. The idea is obviously that you’re supposed to grapple them, but the issue here is that this stance is indistinguishable from their regular pose, meaning you can’t know for certain whether a thug has their guard up versus just standing there. Sleeping Dogs also has the annoying feature of you being unable to attack guys who are attacking you- you have no choice but to counter. Compare all this to Arkham where the flow was smooth, only certain enemies could block you, and you could uppercut someone instead of countering them (though the catch was that was often slower).

One slight saving grace of Sleeping Dog’s hand-to-hand are the environmental takedowns I alluded to earlier. There are a surprising amount of them, and a lot of missions have you going to areas that include even more unique opportunities like skewering someone on a bunch of swordfish or releasing a car hood on their skull. Absolutely brutal, sadistic, and fun to do.

No matter my complaints, you can have fun with the fighting in a button-mashy kinda way. What you CAN’T have fun with are the gun shootouts. Geez, this entire system felt like it was tacked on late into the development cycle because someone at United Front Games realized that the Chinese Triads probably use guns in addition to h2h. Rather than fleshing out the latter system and dealing with the unrealistic nature of gunless Hong Kong syndicates, you get this cheap cover shooter thrown in that takes all the worst problems of the subgenre and combines them into one category: weak-feeling firearms, bullet sponge enemies that don’t realistically react to getting shot (seriously, they’ll hop around for a bit, then go back to guns ablazing as though a shot to the leg means nothing), mediocre AI, respawning enemies, poor aiming, and downright terrible hit detection if you’re even a little far from a thug (and I’m not just talking from single-shot weapons, which would be understandable; I’m talking spreadable ones like shotguns and assault rifles). It would’ve been so much better if the devs had focused on crafting a unique martial arts combat interface over throwing in this downright poor aspect. The worst part is you don’t even get access to any guns for side content UNTIL you beat the story, not even from stores, making it feel even more tacked on to the world.

All combat-related upgrades (whether new perks/abilities, unlockable skills like finding guns in cop cars, or moves) are gained via three systems: triad points, cop points, and jade statues. Triad points are only earned from story missions (which are replayable) and involve you doing violent/criminal things; cop points can be earned from the story or from doing law enforcement related side missions (cop missions or drug busts)- in story, they’re honestly annoying to get as 3 are given by default and decrease if do anything like break property, hit a civilian, or even fail a parkour hotkey. Thank goodness the game gives you the option to earn them through other means as the story mission ones were annoying to gather, especially in missions that involve you driving; finally, jade statues (as I talked about before) are strewn throughout the game world- returning them to Wei’s sensei allows you to purchase an additional combo move, and these were honestly pretty sweet and downright necessary for the fight club side missions. That being said, there are a couple of limb breaking ones that do admittedly allow you to cheese the combat by virtue of them being OP.

There’s an additional experience system called Face which you get from completing races and other side missions- tbh, there were so many ways to earn face that the level 10 cap was way too short IMO. Regardless, raising your face value gives you benefits in the game world like access to new vehicles and discounts at stores, so it’s worth investing in.

Despite all these experience systems, Sleeping Dogs isn’t an RPG. You won’t have to grind for anything, and I really appreciated how all upgrades were unlockable from side content rather than grinding or purchasing from a store (the only things you can buy are clothes and vehicles). It lent the title a bit of an old-school feel that is lacking in a lot of AAA titles.

I liked being able to switch between side missions and story objectives with a click of the joystick. Wish more games did this over having to go through the map or a menu.

But does that side content make up for the flaws in the narrative? Unfortunately, no. I did love the races, but almost everything else was straight-up repetitive despite some dialogue variation: you’re either engaging in a shootout, driving someone while engaging in a shootout, chasing down someone who robbed you, or fighting a bunch of guys in a mosh pit amongst other small variations. The repetitiveness honestly brought back memories of Spider-Man 2’s side stuff. Now, Sleeping Dogs’s world was visually interesting enough that I had no problem completing things, but I don’t imagine others maintaining this same fortitude for long.

Even the nonrepetitive stuff feels half-baked. You’ll remember I noted that one recurring problem with Sleeping Dogs is it introduces stuff that it doesn’t further develop. The romance side missions are a big example of this, wherein Shen will go on a date with someone, then they break-up with him or (in the case of Stone’s character) don’t even show-up. It felt so unfulfilling. There’s a series dedicated to Shen helping this scientist with his high-tech car that ends with Shen just deciding to take it and the guy saying okay in an anticlimactic way (also opens up a series of new side missions involving using said car, albeit it literally comes down to you just staying in one place and shooting enemy cars that drive-by). There are other missions where Shen will agree to do some parkour moves for a random guy. All dumb.

The sole exception are three case missions wherein you help Inspector Tang solve crimes in Hong Kong. They had their own unique narrative to them, worked alongside the main story, and were very engaging. It’s a dang shame there were only three of them as I wanted a lot more!

There are collectibles in the form of locked briefcases that contain money and articles of clothing (and sometimes guns!), health shrines that increase your health, and security cameras that can be hacked and….do nothing. All of these can be unlocked on your map once you do the romance side missions (why they’re tied to them idk, but I’m grateful for the perk). On the topic of romance missions, there’s also karaoke songs that you can play (the gameplay being a mediocre version of Guitar Hero), and I hope it was Will Yun Lee actually singing!

There are a couple of short story DLC that come with the Definitive Edition on Steam. Because they are set after the main game, I have to mention spoilers about them so I’ll post them at the very end. But if you want a tl;dr, Year of the Snake sucks and Nightmare in Northpoint is awesome.

In the end, I definitely think Sleeping Dogs is fun enough to warrant a playthrough. You’ll fall in love with Hong Kong and the driving is the best I’ve experienced in a AAA title. At a $20.00 asking price, you’re definitely getting your bang for your buck, even if you get tired of the side stuff.










SPOILERS
The first is “Year of the Snake,” which starts off relatively interesting- you have Shen being punished for his chaotic actions in the main narrative via being demoted to traffic cop. As this is happening, a new cult terrorist group emerges wanting to destroy Hong Kong. Sadly, that concept is wasted on a storyline that doesn’t even try to be a storyline- it literally is more like a bunch of side missions that were marked as “story missions” that do not build up or culminate in anything but a lackluster finale. Shen having to deal with the consequences of his behavior is thrown out the window as he basically does whatever he wants with barely any pushback. The worst part is how, despite taking place after the events of the main game, you aren’t given access to any of your extra combat abilities since Shen is forced to wear a cop uniform that restricts him to tasering people he grapples and handcuffing people he charges. There was only one new takedown thrown in and triggering cops is an instant game over since Shen gets kicked off the force. You also get a pointless collectible in the form of evidence bags that don’t even get marked on the map, and to top it all off, no visual change is done to the game world (despite taking place in a separate file) outside of some fireworks. The only thing I did like was the reports section in the phone containing new data. Overall, a disappointment.

The second one, Nightmare in North Point, is a lot like Undead Nightmare in that it features Shen dealing with a supernatural threat -- jiangshi or Chinese vampire-zombies arising from the dead after a tormented mobster named Smiley Cat arises to seek revenge on those who wronged him. The narrative here was deliberately humorous, but the thing I really enjoyed was how there was actual build-up and storytelling going on with each mission. Things felt better designed, and while the structure was repetitive (go to an area and beat up Jiangshi), I did like how there was a drive towards a singular goal and a bit of a mystery regarding Smiley Cat. The decision to have Vincent be Shen’s ghost partner over Jackie was admittedly odd since the two didn’t have a real friendship in the main game, but Osric Chau did an excellent job playing him during his moments. The new Jiang Shi and Yaoguai enemies are beautifully designed, containing that ethereal nightmare quality to them that has come from Chinese Mythology; you get another set of reports that focus on aspects of Chinese traditions/folklore; there is an actual aesthetic change, with mist floating through the streets, a blue twilight filter on camera, and NPC civilians having glowing eyes and disappearing in a fiery animation whenever they are knocked-out/killed. Some new takedowns have been added as well.

Unfortunately, there were flaws, namely Smiley Cat- his voice acting was terrible and I feel the writers could’ve made him more serious than he actually was. The idea of Shen having to face the vengeful spirits of people he’d killed in the main game was solid, but the short nature of the storyline meant that these interactions were limited to just three of the guys and ultimately a bit rushed. Finally, the Jiang Shi are taken out like regular thugs, albeit requiring a grapple takedown (although you can still beat them with environmental takedowns). They pretty much fight like regular thugs (and bleed like them too strangely despite being ghostly), making them reskins in a way despite their sick visage- more could’ve been done here for sure (the Yaoguai are at least unique in their attack patterns and teleportation skills).

Overall though, it’s clear that effort was put into Nightmare in North Point compared to Year of the Snake, and I enjoyed my time with it. Also no pointless collectibles, so that’s a plus (although a LOT of repetitive side missions involving just fighting more and more zombies).