Is that you, Rockstar?
A couple hours into this game and I couldn’t help but think, “Wow, this game is exactly like GTA if it were set in Hong Kong.” And then I realized how much monopoly the GTA series enjoys in the open-world market. For the rest of the game, I had to make a conscious effort not to keep comparing Sleeping Dogs to GTA, and I still couldn’t help it.
Perhaps one reason for this was the way violence is showcased in Sleeping Dogs. Most of us have seen violence like that only in the GTA games. Moreover, when you have a gritty story involving mafia gangs, drugs, prostitution and other vices of the world, you can’t help but draw parallels with GTA.
The psyche of Wei Shen
Anyhow, these similarities don’t, and shouldn’t, affect how good the game is, how well-developed its characters are and how well the plot is presented to the player. You play as Wei Shen, an undercover cop in Hong Kong, with a mission to infiltrate the triads and help in the capture of their most prominent members. The interesting bit is Shen has his roots in these same neighborhoods, in which he was born and raised before moving to the US, and the history he shares with some of these goons runs deep and personal. This causes a conflict of interest at many points across Shen’s undercover journey, and the way he juggles his cop persona and triad persona, keeping one from overpowering the other, forms the crux of Sleeping Dogs. At one point, even the player, along with the Hong Kong Police Department, feels confused as to where Shen’s loyalty really lies.
This inner, personal conflict of Shen’s, and the events that cause it, are what make the game so enjoyable and worth investing in. Not that it demands too much of an investment; it’s a short game, around 12 hours worth of story, 16 if you’re interested in exploration. And there’s a high chance that you will be, because the exploration in Sleeping Dogs is not merely running around and collecting things. You will occasionally encounter collectibles that will require playing a minigame to be unlocked.
Spices and side dishes
For instance, there are these security cameras around town than Shen has to hack, which involves guessing their passcode in a Wordle-like minigame. Then there’s a triangulation minigame wherein you have to keep the target talking on the phone while you zone in on their location. More such minigames have been incorporated with lock-picking and planting bugs in people’s rooms. To some players this may feel like needlessly beefing up the game. Why not just press a button to plant the bug and be done with it, right? To be honest, I don’t think so. The game isn’t really brimming with activities, as it is, so including minigames on top of everything else doesn’t overload the stack at all. Instead, it introduces another level of immersion that should come with carefully installing and calibrating a bug, or, say, analyzing cell phone signals and tracing them to the target while trying hard to keep the call alive.
Along with minigames, there are also side missions and some of them have really interesting and fun activities to do, like going on dates or losing in karaoke on purpose for a friend so his girlfriend can be convinced that there’s someone worse at karaoke than her boyfriend. Each side mission has a reward in store for the player. It’s a pity, though, that the game does not capitalize on the characters that appear in these missions and their relationships with Shen. It kind of makes their appearance hollow and meaningless, as if they were introduced more out of compulsion than anything else, just for the sake of one side mission.
A genuine action experience in Hong Kong
Still, whatever missions there are in Sleeping Dogs, whether main or side ones, are scripted well. Carrying them out feels authentic, as if the player is actually in Hong Kong, owing to fastidious designing of the map. There are narrow by-lanes lined with massage parlors, shady bars and food stalls, and also wide roads in posh areas with tall shopping complexes and neon-lit billboards. These, together with the in-game conversations that are often overlooked, breathe a new life into the game if paid attention to.
Being a game with an undercover cop at its fore, Sleeping Dogs contains its fair share of slo-mo action sequences. You are treated to some good, adrenaline-pumping scenes when hijacking vehicles mid-drive or blowing up tires of moving cars in chase sequences. Melee combat scenes don’t lag behind either. On the contrary, the player gets to see some really over-the-top, gory and explicit moves while executing a melee finisher – thrusting the opponent’s face in a running exhaust fan, or leaving them hanging from a hook in an abattoir, to describe a couple.
Closing notes
One particular thing that I really enjoyed was ‘Zodiac Tournament’ - an homage to East Asian action flicks. It’s basically a fighting tournament between a bunch of people that takes place on a remote island. It’s written and visualized as a 1980s – 1990s action movie and it’s great fun to watch it play out.
There are also 2 DLCs in the Definitive Edition. One is Sleeping Dogs’s own take on ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and the other has Wei Shen as a traffic cop trying to stop a cult from bombing the city on New Year’s. I found the latter to be more enjoyable, although the former also deserves attention for its humorous take on zombies in Shen’s town.
All in all, Sleeping Dogs is a treat to play. It’s short and simple with deep characters and emotive voice acting – oh, and Emma Stone has voiced a character, too! Ever since I noticed it in the opening credits I was on my toes for her character. I did catch her eventually, but was disappointed with the length of her role. Anyhow, the game does have some memorable and well-developed characters, a realistic setting and all of it is supported by an engaging story. It’s worth playing. Recommended without a doubt.
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