Back when Sleeping Dogs came out, I avoided it due to how many people were saying this was a GTA ripoff. And while they are kind of right in that respect, Sleeping Dogs won me over with its solid gameplay and compelling story. This game shows that sometimes, just because a game is emulating another game's gameplay and/or style, doesn't mean that it can't be a great experience in and of itself.
The best part of Sleeping Dogs is its narrative; in particular the characterization of the protagonist, Wei Shen. Wei is an undercover cop who has come back to his home city of Hong Kong to take down a criminal organization called the Sun on Yee from the inside. What awaits Wei is a world full of violence, comradery, betrayal, lavish life, and horrific death. The game immediately hooks the player by introducing you to Wei and his superiors on the force. Afterwards, Wei goes undercover and joins a small part of the Sun on Yee. From there, the player experiences everything with Wei. In particular, we see just how conflicted Wei becomes as he sinks deeper and deeper into this life. Is he a cop? Is he a gangster? Or is he something else entirely? The game is always playing on this idea in very subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways.
The story isn't perfect, though. I'd say the first 2/3s of the game are really well done, with the game sort of lagging in the last act. The story just feels stretched and nowhere near as interesting after a certain horrific event in the story. The game did have a somewhat satisfying ending, though. It at least leaves you with a good taste in your mouth, despite some particularly noticeable pacing issues.
Aside from Wei, the supporting cast is pretty strong as a whole. In particular, I really enjoyed Jackie, Pendrew, Raymond, Teng, Uncle Po, and Winston. Some of these characters are archetypes that we've seen in just about all of these types of games, but they're written well enough that you do genuinely care about them as the story progresses. Having strong characters in a game like this is absolutely necessary, and Sleeping Dogs knocked that out of the park.
With that being said about the main cast, the game also greatly missuses certain voice actors and cast members; in particular the various romantic interests that Wei can meet. The game has the voice talents of actresses like Emma Stone and Sandra Oh, only to be in a couple of missions that amount to nothing more than Wei getting lucky and getting a random perk from it. Its honestly really bizarre. Why get this amazing talent in your game only to give them roles as these nothing characters? It honestly feels like they put them in to get their names in the opening credits, which they do by the way. It boggles my mind, because these romantic interests have great potential to add more drama and stakes to the story, but are ultimately wasted.
If you've played GTA, you'll feel right at home with the gameplay of Sleeping Dogs. Driving tons of vehicles that range from sports cars, boats, and motor bikes. The driving itself feels smooth and tight. I always felt that any mistakes made were my fault and not the game for having control issues. Occasionally, the camera can freak out when driving, but I only experienced this when I was in reverse and going around at an awkward angle.
The biggest difference from GTA is the hand-to-hand combat. This is more akin to something like the Batman Arkham games, where the player hits one button for combos and another for counters. But, to Sleeping Dog's credit, the hand-to-hand combat has several things that set it apart from Arkham. The most noticeable of these differences is the environmental kills. Grabbing enemies and dragging them to certain things in the environment will allow you to slam dumpster lids on their heads, put their skulls through a buzzsaw, or electrocute them with a power box. It's very satisfying to use these environmental kills, as is the combat as a whole. The game forces you to change your tactics a lot and experiment with different combos and attack types. It makes the combat much more dynamic and interesting.
There is also a good amount of gunplay in this game. The gunplay was serviceable. I wouldn't say it was great, but it certainty wasn't terrible by any means. These are more prevalent in the latter half of the game, but thankfully are not used to replace the excellent melee combat. The shooting sections are also paced pretty well in the story so that you don't feel like its taking over the experience.
In terms of the main missions themselves, they are pretty well varied. It can feel a bit repetitive in that last 1/3 of the game, but for the most part, I really enjoyed the mission design and objectives in this game. Side missions also provide a good amount of variety and wacky moments. I can't say that there's anything that tops some of the wacky moments in GTA, but it was still enjoyable to see what interesting character I'd meet in my next side mission.
Not all side missions are great, though. For example, there are a lot of cop missions for you to complete on the map. Some of these mission include drug busts, invading gang territory to make arrests, and planting cameras around gang territory to catch criminals in the act. These missions are neat the first few times you do them, but they quickly become repetitive and boring as you continue to complete them. I ended up ignoring them and gunning straight for the story and face missions.
Beyond the face and cop missions, there's other standard GTA-esc fun to be had: races, extra combat missions, and various optional tasks for you to complete. These are all pretty much exactly what you expect them to be. There's some fun to be had with them, but I ultimately chose to ignore them for the most part.
Progression in pretty fantastic in Sleeping Dogs. You have two separate EXP bars: Cop and Triad. Through your performance in missions and various side missions, Wei gains experience in these two areas, which then allows him to learn more skills that can further improve his combat abilities. You can also find Jade statues throughout the story missions that allow Wei to go to his old karate school and learn new techniques. I always felt like I had something more to learn in this game, more combat secrets to uncover, and looked forward to learning more about my combat arsenal.
It is worth noting that I did have some glitches here and there in my playthrough, though they were nothing major. Sometimes I could see vehicles or NPCs spawn in, sometimes characters were supposed to be holding objects but the object would just end up floating, and I had a few instances where the game would stutter and drop the framerate. Nothing that I personally found too distracting, but it was noticeable.
Sleeping Dogs was a bit of a sleeper hit for me (easy joke, I know). I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but thanks to some very solid gameplay and a genuinely interesting and well written story, I really enjoyed my time with the title. Would I say it comes close to the quality of your usual GTA title from Rockstar? Nope, not a chance. But United Front and Square Enix gave us a really great game in the same vein that could help ease any GTA fan's itch for a new title while we wait for GTA6.
The best part of Sleeping Dogs is its narrative; in particular the characterization of the protagonist, Wei Shen. Wei is an undercover cop who has come back to his home city of Hong Kong to take down a criminal organization called the Sun on Yee from the inside. What awaits Wei is a world full of violence, comradery, betrayal, lavish life, and horrific death. The game immediately hooks the player by introducing you to Wei and his superiors on the force. Afterwards, Wei goes undercover and joins a small part of the Sun on Yee. From there, the player experiences everything with Wei. In particular, we see just how conflicted Wei becomes as he sinks deeper and deeper into this life. Is he a cop? Is he a gangster? Or is he something else entirely? The game is always playing on this idea in very subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways.
The story isn't perfect, though. I'd say the first 2/3s of the game are really well done, with the game sort of lagging in the last act. The story just feels stretched and nowhere near as interesting after a certain horrific event in the story. The game did have a somewhat satisfying ending, though. It at least leaves you with a good taste in your mouth, despite some particularly noticeable pacing issues.
Aside from Wei, the supporting cast is pretty strong as a whole. In particular, I really enjoyed Jackie, Pendrew, Raymond, Teng, Uncle Po, and Winston. Some of these characters are archetypes that we've seen in just about all of these types of games, but they're written well enough that you do genuinely care about them as the story progresses. Having strong characters in a game like this is absolutely necessary, and Sleeping Dogs knocked that out of the park.
With that being said about the main cast, the game also greatly missuses certain voice actors and cast members; in particular the various romantic interests that Wei can meet. The game has the voice talents of actresses like Emma Stone and Sandra Oh, only to be in a couple of missions that amount to nothing more than Wei getting lucky and getting a random perk from it. Its honestly really bizarre. Why get this amazing talent in your game only to give them roles as these nothing characters? It honestly feels like they put them in to get their names in the opening credits, which they do by the way. It boggles my mind, because these romantic interests have great potential to add more drama and stakes to the story, but are ultimately wasted.
If you've played GTA, you'll feel right at home with the gameplay of Sleeping Dogs. Driving tons of vehicles that range from sports cars, boats, and motor bikes. The driving itself feels smooth and tight. I always felt that any mistakes made were my fault and not the game for having control issues. Occasionally, the camera can freak out when driving, but I only experienced this when I was in reverse and going around at an awkward angle.
The biggest difference from GTA is the hand-to-hand combat. This is more akin to something like the Batman Arkham games, where the player hits one button for combos and another for counters. But, to Sleeping Dog's credit, the hand-to-hand combat has several things that set it apart from Arkham. The most noticeable of these differences is the environmental kills. Grabbing enemies and dragging them to certain things in the environment will allow you to slam dumpster lids on their heads, put their skulls through a buzzsaw, or electrocute them with a power box. It's very satisfying to use these environmental kills, as is the combat as a whole. The game forces you to change your tactics a lot and experiment with different combos and attack types. It makes the combat much more dynamic and interesting.
There is also a good amount of gunplay in this game. The gunplay was serviceable. I wouldn't say it was great, but it certainty wasn't terrible by any means. These are more prevalent in the latter half of the game, but thankfully are not used to replace the excellent melee combat. The shooting sections are also paced pretty well in the story so that you don't feel like its taking over the experience.
In terms of the main missions themselves, they are pretty well varied. It can feel a bit repetitive in that last 1/3 of the game, but for the most part, I really enjoyed the mission design and objectives in this game. Side missions also provide a good amount of variety and wacky moments. I can't say that there's anything that tops some of the wacky moments in GTA, but it was still enjoyable to see what interesting character I'd meet in my next side mission.
Not all side missions are great, though. For example, there are a lot of cop missions for you to complete on the map. Some of these mission include drug busts, invading gang territory to make arrests, and planting cameras around gang territory to catch criminals in the act. These missions are neat the first few times you do them, but they quickly become repetitive and boring as you continue to complete them. I ended up ignoring them and gunning straight for the story and face missions.
Beyond the face and cop missions, there's other standard GTA-esc fun to be had: races, extra combat missions, and various optional tasks for you to complete. These are all pretty much exactly what you expect them to be. There's some fun to be had with them, but I ultimately chose to ignore them for the most part.
Progression in pretty fantastic in Sleeping Dogs. You have two separate EXP bars: Cop and Triad. Through your performance in missions and various side missions, Wei gains experience in these two areas, which then allows him to learn more skills that can further improve his combat abilities. You can also find Jade statues throughout the story missions that allow Wei to go to his old karate school and learn new techniques. I always felt like I had something more to learn in this game, more combat secrets to uncover, and looked forward to learning more about my combat arsenal.
It is worth noting that I did have some glitches here and there in my playthrough, though they were nothing major. Sometimes I could see vehicles or NPCs spawn in, sometimes characters were supposed to be holding objects but the object would just end up floating, and I had a few instances where the game would stutter and drop the framerate. Nothing that I personally found too distracting, but it was noticeable.
Sleeping Dogs was a bit of a sleeper hit for me (easy joke, I know). I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but thanks to some very solid gameplay and a genuinely interesting and well written story, I really enjoyed my time with the title. Would I say it comes close to the quality of your usual GTA title from Rockstar? Nope, not a chance. But United Front and Square Enix gave us a really great game in the same vein that could help ease any GTA fan's itch for a new title while we wait for GTA6.