Thought originally as Activision's response to the massive
goliath, which is Grand Theft Auto, the True Crime series has never managed
even after two episodes to leave any mark in a genre dominated by the might of
Rockstar Games.
This is probably the reason why Activision abandoned True
Crime: Hong Kong in early 2011, which again a few months later was bought by
Square Enix. Renamed Sleeping Dogs, and obviously reworked to the publisher’s
specification, the game managed stir quite some buzz in the recent months, even
to the point of being awaited with feverish impatience by some players. But
why?
Raised in San Francisco, our protagonist Wei Shen, has never
renounced his Hong Kong origins, and he always kept in touch with his people back
home. It is therefore natural that a turn of events puts Wei in a random Honk
Kong jail cell, where he meets an old friend, Jackie Ma, a small scale mobster
who has nevertheless an address book full of high ranked gangsters.
Jackie introduces Wei to Winston Chu, the boss of a local gang, and thus enables
him to infiltrate the powerful Sun Yee On triad. Infiltrate? Well, we forgot to
mention that Shen Wei is none other than agent Shen, Hong Kong state police
officer, charged by his superiors to sneak into the inside of the city’s mafia.
But before we hope to influence the course of business, or
even just approach the Sun Yee On, our hero will have to prove his work, and
take care of some dirty work. Threats, extortion and various shenanigans will
be on the program of his first missions, during which Wei demonstrates
excellent street fighting skills. And between all the rival gangs, triad
enemies and petty thief, Wei will show that he can get his hands pretty dirty.
Fortunately, Sleeping Dogs incorporates an amazing unarmed
combat system, especially for a game close to a certain GTA. Like in Batman:
Arkam City, by a series of button bashing and timed pressure click you can
trigger several types of combos, but also grab an opponent, place two to three punch
and drag him to an electric gearbox to electrocute him. The system works well
and makes the battles dynamic and very tensed, especially when Wei faces ten
opponents simultaneously, and has to counter each one of them perfectly.
With fierce strength, our friend will soon succeed in
imposing his might and gang in the neighborhood, ranking up the Triad ladders
and accessing to larger scale and more dangerous missions. A relatively
standard pattern for the genre, as the missions in question are escorting a
VIP, illegal bugging of a rival’s apartment, a warehouse raid held by another
triad.
The range of possibilities is broad and objectives within a single
mission are varied, and they are often the occasion for Sleeping Dogs to offer
complementary activities that act like minigame such picking a lock, or even
sing karaoke in a guitar hero styled challenge, usually implemented through a
simple but effective gameplay. Above all, the game has the good taste not to
overemphasize these sidequests, which are only made to have a small break away
from the main story.
As one might expect in such open world games, the bulk of
our game time will rather be stealing a passing vehicle (or buy one to add to
our personal garage), race like a maniac, drive over a few pedestrians and teasing
cops as they start chasing us. Encircled by a three-lane motorway, countless
rich and lively streets illuminated by garish neon, hillside roads and a well-done
day-night cycle, Sleeping Dogs’ Hong Kong is a very pleasant and lively
playground whether you’re in a sports car, motorbike or on foot.
Some small problems are more or less bothersome but can
sometime spoil the party, starting with a very simple AI. Quite noticeable
during gunfight sequences, it’s during street fighting that opponents suffer from
the same AI syndrome we find in games like Assassin's Creed or Batman Arkham
City, as they attack in turn without an ounce of intelligence.
Even Hong Kong is rather diverse to drive around, driving
itself as an act is not perfect. Whether it’s a car, bike or even boat,
vehicles have a tendency of being very hard to control, especially if you’re
used to GTA style of hit and run. Although a smart car-ramming feature has been
added in the game, allowing you to bash into a passing vehicle by pressing the
action button and in which direction, this doesn’t help the overall driving
experience.
Nevertheless, rather fun to play, with varied gameplay and
scenery, Sleeping Dogs in hand is a blast to play. Although very close to a GTA
clone, the game certainly offers some original features like its combat system,
or its ability to parkour the streets and roofs, as well as a long series of
extra collectible hunt, numerous sidequests and a love for gang war violence. In
the end, Sleeping Dogs might be your perfect alternative to quench your GTA
thirst.
Ozimandus has been reviewing games and gadgets since 2003. He's not afraid of speaking his mind, and loves to share his love of everything geeky.