What was once True Crime: Hong Kong was released under the name Sleeping Dogs and graced our screens in August last year. It was a project dropped by its original publisher, Activision, and was - thank God - picked up by Square Enix - our good friends behind titles like Kingdom Hearts (I know that Final Fantasy is bigger than KH, but I don't like Final Fantasy *gasp*).
Common question: Is Sleeping Dogs similar to/as good as/the snuggle-buddy of Grand Theft Auto?
Forget GTA. Yes, Sleeping Dogs is incredibly similar, but there are enough awesome features to separate it and it is every bit as playable. It bears resemblance to other games as well in certain features such as free-running and combat. Personally I love the fact that this game is not based in America and does not just follow some hard-up scumbag looking for a bit of cash. It just makes it that bit more interesting. In fact, in many ways I prefer this game to the GTA series and I'll touch on this later in the article.
Not having played games from the True Crime series, I really cannot comment on how it compares and which features have been retained by Enix, but what I can comment on is that this game is a masterpiece. You become Wei Shen, a Chinese-American who is a plain-clothes police officer trying to infiltrate the notorious Sun On Yee branch of the Triads in Hong Kong.
Sun Yee On anyone?
We follow Wei as he battles with his own morality between his personal ties to his fellow gang members and his professional ties with the HKPD, and we see the effect it is having on his psyche. I may be looking a bit too deep, afterall my boyfriend insists that Wei is one of those canvas-type characters that you can colour by numbers, but personally I think Wei has a strong character. There are instances in the game where Wei suffers nightmares, and also hears the voices of his nearest and dearest from both sides of the morality spectrum. I think Enix did well to showcase the unstable side of the protagonist because it makes him that bit more realistic and human, unlike games such as GTA where it become hard to believe Tommy/CJ/Niko can mow down all those peds without so much as a bat of the eyelashes. I love a good story, and I find that in this game although the story is a little clichéd, it is executed fantastically.
In the gameplay, missions are scored with both police XP and Triad XP which you accumulate to unlock rewards which enhance Wei's skills - usually in combat. There is even a separate XP scale named "Face" which rewards you based on the number of side missions you complete as favours to NPC's. The karma concept is becoming more common in games of this genre (think Red Dead Redemption) and I think it is an excellent idea so gameplay can become more personalised. In Sleeping Dogs, however, the scale is unbalanced and police XP is a lot more readily available than Triad XP. Ultimately, the player is inundated with police XP and struggling to find Triad XP, and I'm afraid this poor implementation loses the game points from me. Also your Triad/Police score has little bearing on actual game events and how NPCs react to you which again loses marks.
Also for people who like a personalised gameplay experience, the number of different items of clothing in this game borders on the ridiculous. I'm not really one to dress up my character and at times it felt like a bit of a fashion parade, but there is a lot out there to be had and certain clothing combinations even unlock things such as XP boosts or an increase in melee attack power. Yay!
In spite of the main plot being quite weighty, the game is reasonably short and I found it very easy to complete. It took me just over 25 hours to platinum it, although not without amusement. My personal favourite trophy: "A Slap in the Face - Kill Someone with a Fish". Obviously, if you're a trophy hunter, this will be excellent news, but if you're looking for an epic game, this isn't it. Luckily I'm somewhere in the middle. There is no real substance behind the side missions. They are just your standard "find me this motor" errands, but I suppose at least there are plenty of them. There is also a dating system, but it is not well-implemented at all. Each woman you may only have 1 "date" with, after which certain collectible items show on your map. Whilst the perk is great (no more printing out maps and marking them with a bingo pen), I don't think they should be so readily available, and the dating should have more substance to it. I love a good story. To get background information, there is also a cop feature on your phone which allows you to read characters' case files which I found pretty neat.
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The game is very immersive and has a reasonably authentic Chinese atmosphere which I adore. The soundtrack is good and the voice acting is partially Cantonese which really adds to it for me. You can also adjust subtitles to show all, none, or only to translate the Chinese. The one gripe I have with the map is that much of it cannot actually be explored and is fenced off or blocked by buildings. The environment is stunning and I consider it quite an accurate representation of Hong Kong, it's just a shame they restricted it. The hand-to-hand combat is about as inauthentic as it comes though. Apparently everybody in Hong Kong knows Kung Fu. I don't mind because it's entertaining and the combat system works very well with many different combos - you don't just mash the square button and hope for the best. I dislike that modern games rely so heavily on firearms so Enix wins my admiration for having a legitimate hand-to-hand combat which liberates you from using a heater 24/7.
There are a few mini-games within the world of Sleeping Dogs which are at first entertaining but may beging to get a little tiresome. Some of these are optional, for example the Poker-Mahjong style game which can just be used for a little extra cash but I find near impossible to win. Other mini-games however are mandatory and must be performed excessive amounts of time in normal gameplay. Does anybody remember the boardgame Masterminds? You know, the one where you have to guess your opponent's little coloured peg sequence. Yep. There is a minigame like that which is used to hack security cameras, but it's done with numbers and it is easier than Lindsay Lohan.
I just want to touch on a couple of other things which I noticed.
In the first playable part of the game you are introduced to freerunning. The problem is that in Sleeping Dogs it seems a little bit laboured and jaunty. You eventually get used to it, but on first play it does seem a little disjointed. The brakes when driving are particularly harsh too, giving no degree of graduation. The lightest tap on L2 will make Wei slam on the brakes as if a child has decided to play chicken with the bonnet of your car. These are just minor details which only briefly affect gameplay, such as on racing sidequests or when you are having to chase someone down.
The Social Hub: a lovely little piece of kit on your start menu where you can compare stats with your friends, repeat missions and so forth. Personally I really enjoyed the satisfaction I got from seeing that I had beat other peoples' scores on difficult missions. Then again I am a competitive little so-and-so. It's just a nice little perk, but it is also tied in with a couple of trophies so do keep an eye on it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It was a new take on an old genre and the new location, storyline and gameplay mechanics stopped it from going stale. This game is essential to your collection. Just please, don't let your loyalty to GTA form your judgement of Sleeping Dogs. If you do, you'll be missing out on a real gem. I would definitely like to see another instalment of Sleeping Dogs in the future.
Rating: 8.5/10
