Introduction

2008 to 2013 is an era which I like to call The Great Drought. The reason for this wasn't the recession or anything else remotely affecting the real world, it was instead an era where there was no new Grand Theft Auto game for 5 whole years. Now this may seem fine, considering we've been waiting for GTA 6 for 12 years now, but in the 2000s, Rockstar Games was releasing games practically every year, sometimes multiple games per year, but ever since the huge success of GTA 4, most of their other established franchises are dead in the water. Anyways, The Great Drought was a great opportunity for the competition to try and weasle their way into the shooting prostitutes and stealing cars genre, which Rockstar had a defacto monopoly on. Their biggest rival was the Saints Row franchise, which as great as it was, it's sales figures are chump change in comparison to GTA. In this 5 year span of drought, many other studios began creating their own variations of GTA, or added GTA elements to their game. The open world genre being so popular today is arguably because of GTA.

In 2011, Saints Row 3 was released and had a mixed reception from long time fans and newbies alike due to many things, but mainly it's over the top tone, which Saints Row has always been known for, however many felt Saints Row 3 was too ridiculous. Previous entries were still somehwhat grounded in reality, with more emphasis on gangbanging (not that kind) and other criminal activity, whereas SR3 was balls to the wall crazy with a zombie virus outbreak and flying motorbikes with rockets. Who could forget the shark gun? So with a split fanbase for GTAs biggest competitor, someone had to take the reins - someone had to prove that Rockstar is not the only developer capable of creating immersive, fun open worlds. In 2012, that someone came; United Front Games gave us Sleeping Dogs, a game that took the GTA formula and turned it into a John Woo film.

Welcome to Hong Kong

The most apparent difference between Sleeping Dogs and GTA is the setting. Instead of the usual American cities, our playground of destruction is instead on the tiny bustling island of Hong Kong. Being one of the most dense places on earth, second only to it's even denser neighbor, Macau, the map is seemingly tiny. However, it is crammed with detail and oozes atmosphere that few games can match. Being that the map is tiny, extra care was clearly taken to ensure every nook and cranny is detailed - this can be seen in the many narrow alleys and side streets which are brimming with atmosphere. Hong Kong is famous for housing its people like sardines, in massive tower complexes with tiny rooms, and Sleeping Dogs nails this aspect of life in Hong Kong. From the beginning of the game to the end, all your apartments, despite gradually being in more affluent neighbourhoods, are still tiny by western standards.

What makes Hong Kong such an interesting choice is the culture clash which can be seen in the game. If you are British, you will notice that the road signs and road markings are the same as the ones used in the UK, and you will notice that cars drive on the left, again a legacy of British rule. You will also notice that lots of signs are written in both Cantonese and English, and you will hear many British accents throughout the game - the most prominent being Pendrew, a British big wig of the Hong Kong Police Department (HKPD). Furthermore, there are plenty of old colonial era buildings which are in stark contrast to the newer , bleak housing projects. Whilst this has no relevane to the gameplay, it's a very interesting subject and to see it in a game is really cool.

Law and Orders

In Sleeping Dogs, you play both sides of the law. You are Wei Shen, an officer of the HKPD in a deep undercover operation inflitrating the most dangerous Triad in Hong Kong - the Sun On Yee. If you've ever seen the film Donnie Brasco, you'll know how this goes. Cop by day, murderous thug by night is not exactly a healthy work-life balance, and as you get deeper into the organisation, you begin to wonder where your loyalties truely lay. On the one hand, it's your job to dismantle this crime syndicate, on the other hand though, they are humans too, and you make friends and become close with the very people you're supposed to lock up. It's an interesting idea that is executed pretty well, and there are some memorable characters that you love to hate or hate to love, like Dog Eyes or Uncle Po. Since it's still a videogame from a relatively unheard of (and now defunct) studio, don't expect Oscar tier writing. Instead, expect the comically stupid but awesome tropes of 80s and 90s action films - slow motion shooting, martial arts, parkour, everything exploding for no reason etc. etc. As said earlier, it might as well be John Woo: the game.

Enter the Dragon

Guns are a rarity in Hong Kong, and in-game Hong Kong is no different. Instead of shooting, combat is mostly a fight to the death with your barehands. Melee combat is fully fleshed out, with new combos and moves available to unlock via Triad upgrades and returning lost jade statues to your former sensei. If you've ever played the Batman Arkham games, you'll notice the combat is not too different from that. However in Sleeping Dogs, there is alot more moves and combos, and in my opinion, it is more satisfying. I have ragged on Batmans simplistic spammy combat in the past, and Sleeping Dogs is very similar, however, I had so much damn fun just roundhouse kicking anyone and anything, I just had to let it slide. Maybe I am being hypocritical, but to be honest, Sleeping Dogs done it right. There's just alot more to do in combat than say Arkham Asylum. The best thing in my opinion about Sleeping Dogs combat system is environmental kills. They are very...creative to say the least - from slamming someones head in a car door to throwing them in an ice chipper, or throwing them on a meat-hook leatherface style, there's really no shortage of ways to end life in this game.

There is alot of combos in game, but thankfully they are not complicated at all, and consist of left clicking, or holding LMB in a certain order. It's incredibly easy to pick up, and it's not like fighting games where combos are all different buttons and require superhuman skills to memorize and time correctly. Sleeping Dogs is a casual game in the best possible way.

Enter The Dragonov

Guns are a rarity, but they're not unobtainable. For a melee focused game, there is a surprising variety of guns ranging from 9mm pistols to Desert Eagles, to assault rifles with grenade launchers, tear gas launchers and more. The guns sound great, however they are somewhat underwhelming when it comes to actual damage. Enemies seem to soak up alot of bullets, and even headshots sometimes don't instantly kill, so it is somewhat immersion breaking. However, it sort of makes up for it with the awesome blood effects. Even whilst armed, you can still perform crazy melee moves, like running up to an enemy, drop kicking him whilst shooting at the same time. It never gets old and it is straight from Hard Boiled. The only way to get guns is to steal them from police officers, or from their cars. Rarely, you can encounter armed Triads defending lockboxes (scavenger hunt item that contains money and sometimes clothing) and you can steal from them too. Guns are at their best when in a scripted mission to be honest, as there is plentiful ammo from dead enemies, and there is lots of cool set pieces. Alot of the time however, the carnage is fully organic with no scripting at all. In paticular there is one side mission where you have to ride shotgun with a fellow Triad and shoot waves of enemy Triads on motorbikes. There are dozens of bikers and it is extremely satisfying shooting their tyres and watching them bounce off the road, exploding. All cars and bikes have very exagaratted, action movie-esque tyre damage and they will always theatrically fly into the air and explode in a hail of bullets and fire.

Drawbacks

There are a few imperfections in this game, most of which are not game breaking, but there are a few times in missions where enemies will get stuck on the terrain, thus softlocking the entire mission. It can be fixed by simply restarting the mission but it is quite annoying when it happens multiple times in a row. This mostly happens in chase sequences - they are not supposed to be tackled until they reach a certain point, but sometimes they bug out and get stuck, but you cannot tackle them, again softlocking the mission. I've played 20 hours on PC and I've had this happen 3 times, so it's not extremely rare nor really common. It's annoying when it happens, but in the grand scheme of things it's minor.

The game also happens to be quite janky sometimes, especially when fighting in tight spaces. Again its not gamebreaking, in fact it's comical, but it is immersion breaking when the guy selling pork buns suddenly levitates. The jank goes hand in hand with my previous criticism.

Summary

Sleeping Dogs is a GTA clone done right. It borrows GTA hallmarks but it also adds something new, that being the melee orientated gameplay and the unique backdrop of Hong Kong. It offers a decent story of working two sides of the law, and its fast and bloody combat makes it a far cry from the usual whack a mole shootouts in GTA. The definitive edition of Sleeping Dogs includes all the DLC, however I delibretely did not include the DLC in this review because they are quite short, consisting of a handful of missions which are basically filler. They are not bad DLC by any means, but they probably warrant their own seperate mini reviews. If you're looking for a casual yet engaging open world game for a fair price, Sleeping Dogs is your best bet. For the low price of £4.39 (on Kinguin) you get a solid 20 hour campaign, assuming you don't rush, and a bounty of side content. I played this game when it first came out on the Xbox 360 and it was easily one of my top 10 most played games, and now on the PC, it looks better than ever and plays more fluid than ever too.