Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point
released on Oct 30, 2012
DLC for Sleeping Dogs
After his girlfriend is kidnapped, Wei must fight through an invasion of hopping vampires, demons, and the ghosts of his past who are threatening to take over the city. Luckily, Wei has new moves and weapons at his disposal to make it through this nightmare.
Also in series
Released on
Genres
Reviews View More
Technically a part of the Definitive Edition, but it was originally sold as an additional bit of DLC, so I'm reviewing it as such (as we usually do here). It's fairly short, but it's a fun, campy bit of spooky fun that took me about 4-ish hours to do all the content in.
Nightmare in North Point is a side story that seems to sorta take place either near the end or after the end of the main game's story, but that has little to no bearing on the actual plot of either. Wei Shen is on a date with Not Ping on the night of the Festival of Hungry Ghosts (basically the dead who were never buried, so who are doomed to wander hell forever with a never-ending hunger). Not Ping is captured by a mysterious ghostly assailant who Wei is totally incapable of hurting, and it's slowly revealed that not only have all of the citizen of North Point been replaced with ghastly possessed corpses, but Jiang Shi (hopping vampire/zombies) and Yaoguai (demonseses) have also come to wreak havoc! With the help of Old Salty Crab and your until-recently-dead friend Vincent, Wei sets out to save his girl and his city from a vengeful ghost!
The story is, much like the Zodiac Tournament small DLC in the main game, a very campy fare that is somewhat of an homage to Hong Kong movies of old, just this time horror films instead of action films. The paper talismans you stick on the Jiang Shi to kill them read "巧克力煙肉", which means "chocolate bacon", and the ending to it all is a Thriller reference. Not Ping and especially Old Salty Crab were already some of the most fun side characters in the main game, and the dead enemies of Wei who get revived for it are also a fun little throwback. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, which fits its fairly short run time quite well.
Mechanically, the main differences are fairly slim. The DLC only takes place in North Point, the starting area of the game (which is also the best designed, so no problem there, personally), it's always night time, there are no civilians or police, and you can't even earn money, really. The possessed civilians will randomly attack you as you walk/drive around, and Jiang Shi are very tough compared to normal baddies, and given that the main game only has like 3 (technically more like 4) enemy types, it's pretty cool this DLC has two completely new ones. Jiang Shi can grab you for a really horrible melee attack that'll drain your health like no one's business, so you need to quickly press the counter button once they get you if you don't wanna say goodbye to a quarter or even half of your health. Yaoguai start out a lot scarier than they end up being, as they can teleport around you to get out of the way of your attacks. The missions themselves aren't that different from anything in the main game, and the most significant new bit of content are the new enemy types, if I were to really boil it down.
Verdict: Recommended. If you have the Definitive Edition of Sleeping Dogs like I do, then this is a no-brainer to check out if you enjoyed the main game. It's more Sleeping Dogs, as fun as it always was, with that same silly sense of humor to it. If you were picking up the DLC by itself, the base price of $7 is pretty fair, I'd say, at least compared to the base game's normal $60 price. I was thinking it'd be like $15 or at least $10, but it's nice to see a DLC pack that has no delusions about how much content it actually has and is priced accordingly.
Nightmare in North Point is a side story that seems to sorta take place either near the end or after the end of the main game's story, but that has little to no bearing on the actual plot of either. Wei Shen is on a date with Not Ping on the night of the Festival of Hungry Ghosts (basically the dead who were never buried, so who are doomed to wander hell forever with a never-ending hunger). Not Ping is captured by a mysterious ghostly assailant who Wei is totally incapable of hurting, and it's slowly revealed that not only have all of the citizen of North Point been replaced with ghastly possessed corpses, but Jiang Shi (hopping vampire/zombies) and Yaoguai (demonseses) have also come to wreak havoc! With the help of Old Salty Crab and your until-recently-dead friend Vincent, Wei sets out to save his girl and his city from a vengeful ghost!
The story is, much like the Zodiac Tournament small DLC in the main game, a very campy fare that is somewhat of an homage to Hong Kong movies of old, just this time horror films instead of action films. The paper talismans you stick on the Jiang Shi to kill them read "巧克力煙肉", which means "chocolate bacon", and the ending to it all is a Thriller reference. Not Ping and especially Old Salty Crab were already some of the most fun side characters in the main game, and the dead enemies of Wei who get revived for it are also a fun little throwback. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, which fits its fairly short run time quite well.
Mechanically, the main differences are fairly slim. The DLC only takes place in North Point, the starting area of the game (which is also the best designed, so no problem there, personally), it's always night time, there are no civilians or police, and you can't even earn money, really. The possessed civilians will randomly attack you as you walk/drive around, and Jiang Shi are very tough compared to normal baddies, and given that the main game only has like 3 (technically more like 4) enemy types, it's pretty cool this DLC has two completely new ones. Jiang Shi can grab you for a really horrible melee attack that'll drain your health like no one's business, so you need to quickly press the counter button once they get you if you don't wanna say goodbye to a quarter or even half of your health. Yaoguai start out a lot scarier than they end up being, as they can teleport around you to get out of the way of your attacks. The missions themselves aren't that different from anything in the main game, and the most significant new bit of content are the new enemy types, if I were to really boil it down.
Verdict: Recommended. If you have the Definitive Edition of Sleeping Dogs like I do, then this is a no-brainer to check out if you enjoyed the main game. It's more Sleeping Dogs, as fun as it always was, with that same silly sense of humor to it. If you were picking up the DLC by itself, the base price of $7 is pretty fair, I'd say, at least compared to the base game's normal $60 price. I was thinking it'd be like $15 or at least $10, but it's nice to see a DLC pack that has no delusions about how much content it actually has and is priced accordingly.
A pretty middling and forgettable DLC, but nothing too bad.
I like the concept and the dialogue can be pretty good at times, I like the interactions with Vincent and Salty Crab, however I really wish more was done with it. I feel like bringing back everyone that died in the main-game could've been much more fun or harrowing, but this DLC decided to do neither.
The side activities are pretty pointless, your reward for doing them is just getting stuff you already had in the main game, so there's basically no incentive to do them.
The main missions are just fighting the same two new enemy types over and over, which can get a little boring, there's a lack of variety that even in this DLC's very short length, can be felt.
Overall, it's a big ol' "meh" that you don't really need to play.
I like the concept and the dialogue can be pretty good at times, I like the interactions with Vincent and Salty Crab, however I really wish more was done with it. I feel like bringing back everyone that died in the main-game could've been much more fun or harrowing, but this DLC decided to do neither.
The side activities are pretty pointless, your reward for doing them is just getting stuff you already had in the main game, so there's basically no incentive to do them.
The main missions are just fighting the same two new enemy types over and over, which can get a little boring, there's a lack of variety that even in this DLC's very short length, can be felt.
Overall, it's a big ol' "meh" that you don't really need to play.
"I fear not the man who has pressed 10,000 buttons once, but I fear the man who has pressed the B button 10,000 times."
A lot of fun as a DLC for Sleeping Dogs. It's dot action, vampires, ghosts and demons. What's not to like? It doesn't last very long though and the missions can be completed in a short amount of time, but it's still a lot of fun.
VIDEO CLIP DE JARFA + CROSSOVER DE THIRILLER
this was pretty terrible ngl