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The map is also bursting with activities, mini-games and side-quests for the player to get stuck into they can bet money on mahjong or cock fights, compete in street brawls for money and test their mettle on the street racing circuit. Every main road and highway begs to be raced along, and the city's street grid is intercut by a ton of back alleys and side streets. Flea markets and illegal fight clubs rub shoulders with chop shops and gang hangouts. The game's second trump card is the in-game map of Hong Kong, represented here as a neon-encrusted metropolis where majestic skyscrapers tower over a sprawling hive of illicit activity. It's easily one of game's strongest assets. In short, United Front works hard to pull the player into the game's narrative, and it's easy to become invested in Wei's story even before the action starts. The fact that all the characters in the game are very well written and superbly voiced doesn't hurt, either. It's not completely original, but it's effective nonetheless.
#Sleeping dogs review code#
And the Triad's code of honour is revealed to be little more than a set of manners that the gang leaders are expected to observe as they engage in bloody turf wars, which are later revealed to be part of a more insidious power play.Įvery time the player thinks they have the story clocked, United Front peels away another layer that both changes their expectations and ups the dramatic stakes. As Wei advances through the ranks, his former friends become liabilities he has to protect. The taskforce authorities show a disturbing willingness to blur the lines of legality the regular police find themselves having to use Wei's Triad connections to solve crimes that their commanders aren't concerned with.
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So on the surface, Sleeping Dogs is about a man with divided allegiances, but as the player progresses through the game, United Front digs deeper with its narrative. In a way, the taskforce commanders are as callous and calculating as the Triad overlords they're trying to bust. They, for their part, are more concerned with building a case against the Triad bosses, and if that means Wei has to break the law, or put himself in harm's way, so be it. His Triad brethren may be a pack of violent thugs and psychopaths, but they have strong codes about loyalty and family, and they care far more about Wei's well-being than his police commanders.
#Sleeping dogs review series#
It's set in a huge urban sandbox that the player navigates on foot and in vehicles, it tells a crime story through a series of fetch-quests and, yes, there are a ton of mini-games, side missions, car chases, gun battles and fist fights.Īs Wei works his way up the Triad ranks, he becomes more valuable as a police asset, but he also becomes attached to the criminals he's essentially trying to bring down. To put it bluntly, Sleeping Dogs owes a huge debt of influence to the Grand Theft Auto series. If the plot set-up in Sleeping Dogs sounds a little tried and tested, then the gaming structure that houses it will strike readers as even more so. What Wei's new Triad mates don't know is that their newfound muscleman is an undercover cop, tasked with bringing down their criminal organisation from within. Wei asks if Jackie can get him some work, and before you know it, Wei's collecting protection money from market stall owners, stealing and selling cars and beating up rival gang members with a tyre iron. Things kick off with Wei being thrown in a holding cell for selling narcotics and while there, he bumps into Jackie, a childhood mate who is languishing down the bottom end of the food chain in the local Triads. Sleeping Dogs tells the story of Wei Shen, a Hong Kong bruiser who has just returned to his hometown after a lengthy stint in the US. But if you're able to stop picking at its component parts and just appreciate Sleeping Dogs as a whole, you'll most likely find that it's one of the most thrilling and consistently enjoyable games of 2012.
#Sleeping dogs review movie#
Here is a game that sounds like a cocktail of movie tropes and game mechanics that have been reheated and refried so many times that you can practically smell grease on them. For proof of this, one need look no further than Sleeping Dogs, United Front's love-letter to Hong Kong action movies' late 1980s heyday. S ometimes, it's not what you do, but how you do it that counts.