Kris Wall reviews Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition…
Sleeping Dogs had a long hard road to see the light of day. When it was first announced, it was to be the third part in the True Crime series, True Crime Hong Kong under development by United Front Games. It was later cancelled by Activision who on top of budget costs and repeated delays, believed it just wasn’t good enough to compete in the open world genre. Square Enix entered six months later, purchasing the publishing rights from Activision and allowing United Front to continue development on the game, out of the ashes of True Crime Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs was born. When it finally released in 2012, no one expected Sleeping Dogs to be a good as it was, especially after the disappointing True Crime 2. In fact, Sleeping Dogs surprised everyone by being genuinely quite brilliant. Two years later it’s back with a next gen ‘Definitive Edition’.
Borrowing heavily from Infernal Affairs and Hard Boiled, you play Wei Shen, a detective entrenched deep within the Sun On Yee triad gang and tasked with bringing them down from the inside while a gang war looms on the horizon for control of Hong Kong. It’s full of genre cliches like crooked cops, criminals looking to get out and start a new life and loyalties torn between doing the right thing and the brotherhood that the triad represents. However it’s all neatly held together with some great voice acting that really helps sell the story, Will Yun Lee (The Wolverine) is on excellent form as Wei Shen, weaving between English and Cantonese to really give depth to his character. Meanwhile Tom Wilkinson and Kelly Hu lend great support as his police handlers and the great James Hong weighs in as Sun On Yee leader, Uncle Po. Even a younger Emma Stone stops by (before her star took off) to lend her voice to one of a few girlfriends that Wei can acquire. It all weaves together to create a gripping narrative that drops in some incredible set pieces and superb twists and turns that will keep you invested in Wei’s story and hooked to the very end.
Like most third person open world action games made after Grand Theft Auto III, Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed, Sleeping Dogs borrows heavily from all series. You have the sprawling open world (though not as big) as Grand Theft Auto, the excellent combat system from the Arkham series that allows you take on multiple enemies like a kung fu master and the free running parkour elements lifted straight from Assassin’s Creed. It’s all highly derivative but it’s the setting of Hong Kong itself that gives life to Sleeping Dogs and helps it establish a strong enough identity to stand out in a pretty crowded genre.
Like the Arkham series, Sleeping Dogs makes you feel awesome as you’re playing it. Just as Arkham made you really feel like The Dark Knight himself, and more recently, Shadow of Mordor making you feel like the biggest threat to ever stalk Middle-earth, Sleeping Dogs effortlessly makes you feel like a supercop, you are classic Chow Yun Fat starring in your Hong Kong action movie. Combat feels brilliant, it’s incredibly visceral and the bone crunching attacks wouldn’t look out of place in The Raid. Light and heavy attacks can be mixed up with counters, throws and weapons to make you a formidable threat to anyone that gets in your way. You can grab enemies and use the environment to your advantage, putting people through aquariums, burning them on ovens, putting heads through speakers and in the most outlandish of all, impaling them on a swordfish.
Driving is similarly excellent, cars handle well enough and the later models will have you hurtling around Hong Kong at breakneck speeds. Nudging the right stick in a direction will also make your car ram in that direction to shut down other cars.Wei can also slow down time to engage in high speed shootouts, engines can be blown apart, drivers can be taken out with incredible accuracy but it’s clipping a tire with a bullet that yields the most fun. Should a bullet meet the slightest hint of rubber, the vehicle in question will immediately flip end over and cartwheel across lanes of traffic in a fiery dance of death. Should you be bored of your ride, you can also drive up alongside any other vehicle on the road and ‘action hijack’ it in motion, whereby Wei seemingly abandons reality and the laws of physics to leap from vehicle to vehicle to commandeer it as his own. It’s all incredibly ridiculous and over the top but so much fun to play
While combat and driving are all excellent fun, the game is still slightly let down by the gun play. It’s perfectly serviceable as a cover shooter, popping out and letting off headshots but the guns themselves feel really weak. I’m definitely no military expert but I’m fairly certain than wielding an M60 machine gun should feel and sound a lot weightier than it does here. It’s by no means a deal breaker but when when everything else comes together so well, it’s just a shame that it feels like you’re running around with a pea shooter when you’re not laying down the law with your fists and feet. I’d also level the same small gripe that I leveled at Grand Theft Auto IV, as the game progresses and you earn some serious amounts of cash but it never feels like there’s much for you to spend your money on other than fast cars and fancy suits.
Sleeping Dogs is also governed by a really good scoring system that marks your performance as a cop, as a member of the triad and as a citizen of Hong Kong. Given the overlapping narrative of the story and flipping between cop and triad missions, the game rates you based on actions associated with each. As a cop you’ll be scored on efficiency, cracking cases in good time, not damaging public property or harming civilians and levelling up here will allow you access to lockpicks, quick disarms and allowing slow motion gunplay inbetween action hijacks (because it isn’t already crazy enough) . As a triad you’ll be scored on ruthlessness and brutality, mixing up your attacks and not relying on the same move sets while utilizing your environment to your advantage, here you’ll be rewarded with extra moves to break arms and legs and a devastating leaping elbow strike straight out of Ong Bak. Building your reputation as a civilian by doing side missions and helping out with odd jobs increases your citizen level which grants you access to high powered cars and fancier clothing, which further boosts your rep within Hong Kong. Scoring highly as both a triad and a cop is a fun challenge with their contrasting play styles.
Sadly the next gen overhaul seemingly only extends to some pretty great effects work. It doesn’t look leaps and bounds over its last gen version but the plethora of effects work that have come into play make everything pop more, the neon hustle and bustle of a Hong Kong market place really coming to vivid life, sliding across car bonnets in pummeling rain while gunning down enemies in slow motion looks ridiculously stylish while chasing down criminals across rain slicked streets and rooftops looks cooler. As is now standard for re-releases, the game also comes bundled with all of it’s DLC, the horror themed Nightmare in North Point, The Year of the Snake and Wheels of Fury.
Of all the remastered re-releases for the Playstation 4, Sleeping Dogs is probably the hardest to recommend, it’s been out far too long for people who have already played it for it to stand out amongst 2014s newer Assassin’s Creeds and Call of Dutys, it’s improvements are also pretty superficial. However, if you haven’t played Sleeping Dogs at all, I highly advise you to grab a copy this time around and lose yourself in its world, it tells a great story, there’s plenty to see and do with loads of side quests, activities and collectibles but most important of all, it’s an absolute blast to play.
Pros:
Everything combines to make you feel like a supercop
Interesting story
Hong Kong feels alive
Great effects
Cons:
Doesn’t look particularly Next Gen
Might struggle to stand out amongst the crowded and newer Christmas releases
Guns feel weak
Not really much to spend your money on other than cars and clothes
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Kris Wall
