Sleeping Dogs Review

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It has been quite a while since we were graced with a true open world sandbox game of the likes of Grand Theft Auto. Luckily for fans of the genre, developer United Front Games has given them something to burn away a week of summer in the form of newly released Sleeping Dogs.

In Sleeping Dogs you play the troubled undercover cop Wei Shen who just so happens to have been transferred back to his home land of Hong Kong, even though fleeing to the US to escape it all. Upon returning to the mean streets of China, Wei is placed undercover in an attempt to use his past connections in gaining access to the triad hierarchy and ultimately taking it down from the inside. Though what we are left with is pretty much half of the original concept.

The game starts off pretty solid but when things start getting interesting, the plot slowly begins to curl up into a ball and die as the player is guided through a number of rather filler events that basically lead to a rather anti climatic end. I did at times enjoy the story and there are indeed some heart felt moments that unfold during Wei’s climbing of the ranks in the criminal underworld. The problem as I mentioned is that while the first half is really good, the second piece of the story and finally the game’s overall ending just seems like it didn’t know where to go. It is like United Front had been on a creative writing high but then slowly began to burn out like a tasteless, half used cigarette.

It doesn’t help that our leading man Wei Shen is a complete whiney, jerk face either. Wei is basically like two sides of a coin, something that the developers probably did on purpose but something that ultimately feels contradictory and confusing when it comes to Wei’s feelings and goals during his mission. He seems to have a lot of respect for the criminal side of things, yet has complete disrespect for the law and those trying to help him. It makes you wonder why he doesn’t just become a double agent as Wei basically becomes more of a criminal leading up to the dry climax of the game’s final than the criminals themselves. Not only that, but Wei is a completely unrelatable character and a complete scumbag, especially to women. What we are left with is a man that doesn’t seem to know what he really wants. At times he will either help the triads, betray the police or vise versa and this makes me wonder why they didn’t just introduce a type of morality system so that Wei’s intentions can actually make sense at the most important times in the game.

While Wei is no role model, he sure knows how to throw a punch. Taking inspirations from the popular modern day Batman games, Sleeping Dogs allows you to kick ass much butt as you want through the use of an attack and counter fighting system straight out of the Dark Knight’s own game. While basic combos will have you breaking legs and round house kicking your way to victory, the implementation of been able to counter all incoming enemy attacks will have feeling truly immersed in the game’s close combat mechanics that you may even start making Bruce Lee noises as you completely destroy your surrounding opponents.

While China has a strict gun ban exclusively to the public, Sleeping Dogs doesn’t stop itself from having you take part in cover based shooting as well. This is probably one of the more weaker aspects of the game’s mechanics, which sees wave after wave of enemies coming at your with rather poor AI such as running straight at you without taking cover or just standing still while shooting at you like a crazed loon. The shooting itself gains a subtle improvement though when it comes to the car chases which at times feel rather action packed and epic.

The motorized shootouts are probably some of the game’s better sections in the cross hair based combat and always felt welcoming as you blew off motorcycle and car tyres just to see the vehicles and their passengers flail around in explosive defeat. The cars themselves also handle pretty well, so the developers get a big two thumbs up for putting in the time and effort to giving us a near flawless driving experience.

While action is obviously one of the main focuses of Sleeping Dogs, there is still a hell of a lot to do in the city of Hong Kong. Throughout your travels within the golden city you will come across a wide selection of things to do such as drug busts, street racing and even karaoke. This ultimately gives you a rather pleasant distraction between the always available missions and you will at times even find yourself driving towards the next mission location only to have your attention stolen by the sight of a glimmering collectible, or side quest.

Like many open world games though, Sleeping Dogs does come with a slew of progression breaking bugs and glitches that will have you restarting checkpoints countless times because of the game’s sometimes broken scripted events. At one time I was supposed to chase a fleeing truck by motorcycle only to see it crash into a gate that was supposed to close behind it, leaving me stood there staring at this truck reversing and accelerating into the nearby wall as it wouldn’t let me interact with the supposed untouchable vehicle.

Apart from the annoying appearances of bugs, the game is indeed a beautiful world to step foot in, especially on the PC. Hong Kong feels so alive at times that it was hard not to feel the need to want to jump into the game and experience it for myself through Wei’s eyes. So much detail has been put into this world and its atmosphere that it is hard to not wonder if United Front actually somehow picked up Hong Kong and burned it on a disc. Saying that though, it is a true shame that little things like the firearms you use don’t get the same loving treatment. I think every time I picked up a gun I let out a little sigh as I looked at the rather Lego style gun I was supposed to kill enemies with.

Sleeping Dogs is available now for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC!