Sleeping Dogs is not a perfect game. It has some flaws, but those are not flaws of apathy or ignorance. They’re flaws of ambition.
I’ll tell you the moment I realized how great this game was: It was when I was thinking about the vehicle physics and it dawned on me that it wasn’t that the driving was crappy, it was that each vehicle handled too realistically for the control scheme.
It’s that textured.
In a lot of ways, it simply builds on the ideas of others. But Sleeping Dogs has a lot of virtues. Here are five of them.
#5) The Wonderful Combat System
Combat systems can be the death of many games, but not this one. Essentially Sleeping Dogs has the combat system of the Batman: Arkham franchise, but built around kung fu instead of batarangs. It’s surprisingly deep as well; you can’t just blindly mash buttons. Of special use are the environmental attacks, which are generally tributes to Hong Kong cinema takedowns and essentially insta-KOs. But you can’t use them on the tougher enemies, so strategy comes into play.
#4) The Size and Scope of Hong Kong
I’ve got no idea whether this is a realistic depiction of the city of Hong Kong. But it’s definitely a depiction of Hong Kong as you see it in John Woo or Johnnie To movies. It’s big enough and dynamic enough, full of complaining citizens, little shops, and collectibles, that it feels like a living, breathing city.
#3) The Motivation of the Missions
The missions themselves are somewhat varied but there’s only so far you can go with this. What does make it work is the varying motivations. You’re not following orders: People you know and friends of friends are asking you favors. It builds the sense that you’re in a living, breathing world.
#2) The Level System
The level system is particularly unique and engaging, as well. You have five skill trees: Cop, Triad, Melee, Face, and Health. For each story mission you start, you start with a full cop meter that slowly drains as you damage property or civilians. Your Triad meter slowly fills as you beat up mooks. Your Face meter fills as you complete side missions: Go on dates, sing karaoke, do favors, win races, and so on. Melee is leveled up as you find jade statues around the city. And your health meter rises as you find shrines to pray at. You will need every single one of these perks.
It’s a clever way to motivate you to play carefully and spend time exploring while still rewarding you for beating people up and getting you to play the side missions.
#1) How It All Gels With The Story
The best part about this is how it pushes forward the story. In the end Sleeping Dogs is very much a Hong Kong action drama and everything you do pushes forward the story. As you rise from low level scumbag/barely trusted undercover cop to respected Triad member/vital source of intel, it explores the conflicts inherent and the ethical problems any undercover cop has to face. More than once, you’re going to accidentally get some poor bastard killed. And it’s going to eat at you. The story itself is fairly outlandish, although not to the excesses some games go to, but the characters are grounded and believable.
In short, it’s an excellent game with a better story. Play it, you won’t be sorry.