LTTP: Sleeping Dogs

[forevercloud3000]

I may really despise Square Enix of late, but that does not change the fact that Sleeping Dogs is such a criminally underrated game. I never payed the game much attention back when it was first released, I only knew that it was a troubled development and it is the spiritual(and kind of literal) successor to the True Crimes Series. Luckily, Playstation Plus allowed me to snag it for free. I downloaded it but it still sat un-played for quite some time.

Finally, one bored moment I decided to give the game a whorl. Boy, was I suprised. I personally have never been that much of a fan of Open World Sandbox games like GTA. I actually returned GTAIV a week after buying it because I just could not get into it. I hate the idea of playing a game that condones being a public menace to society (no offense to those that enjoy that). Sleeping Dogs allows you to play as an undercover cop. You have to always put on the image of being a bad guy, but all the while evading harming/killing innocent bystandards. It tells a story of Wei who returns from America to his slum of a home town in Hong Kong. This time he is undercover, infiltrating gangs he once mingled with as a child.

The game offers a healthy amount of High Speed Chases either on foot or in a car. Both are crazy fun. When on foot you end up parkouring all over the city trying to catch your mark. Dashing through windows, sliding across cars, jumping railings, etc. When in the car it can really intense. One mission may require that you subdue the vehicle the best you can. Usually entailing you shoot out the car's tires. This is done in a Slow motion sequence allowing you to more carefully aim. Unlike the on foot chases which are usually fairly linear, Car chases are entirely dynamic. No fear of linear set pieces that just take you through the motions, these sort of feats are done with the actual in-game mechanics. You will find missions where you have to re-obtain a vehicle by riding really close to it........ on a busy freeway...... while going the wrong way..... hanging out of a car window/standing on a bike..... then jumping to the other vehicle. It is INSANE!!!!!!!

 

Then there is the hand to hand combat, which is more used than gunplay in this game, a rarity. It can be likened to games like Batman Arkham series. Counters, attacks, grapples, etc. I wouldn't say it is as fine tuned as Batman's, but it is pretty damn good for a Sandbox game like this where actual gameplay mechanics take a back seat to overall immersion. As a Cop undercover you sometimes have to control yourself on not just murdering these thugs mercilously, because it is oh so easy to do. Instead you want to just incopacitate them. If you really just don't give a flying F*** you can throw enemies off high ledges, put their heads in propellers, dump their bodies into trash cans, or just go crazy with a knife/hatchet/paton.

Fire arms are scarce outside of fights that require them. Never too dificult to transition right into a gun battle though. The game has the perfect alibi as to why gun fights are fewer and farther between, as guns are much harder to come by in China than in US, with guns not being widely sold to public. Not sure how true that is but it works for me.When being cornered while taking cover, you can sometimes take the fight to the enemy by quickly popping out of cover and sliding across surface tops in Slo-Mo, allowing you to take a few cheap shots at them before it recovers.

The game has this very refreshing attribute of taking things verticle. Similar to how Uncharted 2/3 does, forcing the player to traverse in all sorts of ways. You will climb buildings in dark alleys, sneaking through windows, and entering buildings which almost look like they can't be. I love this attribute.

The game also bolsters the Smartphone concept where most of your day to day interactions start there. This is probably pretty standard at this point but nice anyway. You call your Police/Triad contacts. As you continue to keep doing missions you meet more and more people. Soon you can call certain girls up for dates, or a personal Valet who will BRING YOU A CAR NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN LIKE 3 SECONDS!!!!!!!! That last feature is a godsend. Some missions will also require you take photos of crime scenes, or as evidence. The Phone can be used to track certain interests or hack digital locks. So many uses.

Graphics wise this game is normal, but the style is very refreshing. You really feel like these are the streets of HK, to the shadowy slums, to the bustling and packed city scapes. All the buildings are tall and overbearing. It really helps creating a sense of immersion. Cars are always a flutter, as are the pedestrians who will have their own conversations as you pass by. In particular, your next door neighbor in the slum town is this old woman and her daughter who dates a triad. The mother is ALWAYS giving someone grief when you enter/leave the apartment. I actually stand around just to listen to their conversations because they are always good for a laugh.

You can fully customize Wei's appearance, choosing preset outfits or mix and matching as you see fit. They take you through a gradual progression. You dress like a normal street thug in the beginning, then you start to gain more expensive duds. Clothing have stat boosting effects as well. Some allow you to gain more Cop points, Triad Points, or Face Points. Customizations can usually be seen in cutscenes which depending on your choices can be entertaining.

Also let me say bravo for not a hooker in sight to f*** then beat to death to get money back. Instead the game only host classy massage parlours, which will give a temp boost on health.

 

The Bad

-Camera, oh dear god the camera. It can usually be controlled manually no problem. Yet, for some ungodly reason the camera whips around backwards when backing up in a car, with no auto-behind feature to be found. This creates an issue when you are doing street races and enemies bump you and sent you flying into a wall. You try and back up and spend an extra 10secs trying to get the camera back on track (the controls stay set with whatever your camera angle is....).

-The dialogue can be cheezy at times. Sometimes the characters are just too literal with what they are feeling which makes it come off as un natural. Bad guys can be just too "ha ha I'm Evil!" at times. The overall themes of the game across just fine though.

-Minimap shifts position to whatever direction you are currently facing. I prefer my minimap to stay static but there are no options to change this.

-Sometimes unclear on what your actual objective is. Sometimes TOO clear as to what they want you to do to the point there isn't a challenge.

-While the graphical scale makes this game a marvel, its not the most polished. Jaggies everywhere(not a prob for me), some really funky textures that attempt at masking flat store window displays. It might have worked..... if the player wasn't always so close to said windows.

-I wonder if anyone of actual Asian descent worked on this game. I like the fact the game alternates between actual chinese dialect and english speaking. Everyone speaks Chinese from afar but as you get close it will start to translate. The game also attempts to teach you a bit of Chinese phrases as sometimes certain words are not translated in speach but defined for you in subtitles. The only problem is some of the NPCs can definitely come off characacture-y. Some might deem it racist. Over all I think the developers tried to do the area the most justice they could.

 

Verdict

So I have not actually beaten the game just yet. I am sure I am pretty close though. It has been a really enjoyable ride. More fun than I think I have ever had with a GTA/Saints Row kinda game.