Originally meant as the 3rd installment in the True Crime series, with (at the time) Activision wanting United Front to give a little revival to the series after the financial failure which was True Crime New York City, with the game set to release as True Crime Hong Kong.
Yet, Activision quickly lost faith on the game, thinking that it would have no way of competing with open world juggernauts like GTA or Red Dead Redemption, together with worry that it would fail like the previous game, Activision decided to play it safe, and cancel the game.
But, the work was not lost, with Square Enix managing to acquire the publishing rights to the game, with a little caveat, they acquired the game itself not the franchise, so renaming was in order, and thus True Crime Hong Kong became Sleeping Dogs, now turned into a spiritual successor for legal reasons.
A few years later, the definitive edition came out, and a few years after, United Front closed shop, the reasons are unknown to this day (I blame Triad Wars).
By the way, I haven’t played any of the other True Crime games, so don’t expect me to do a comparison.
Let’s get on with the game.
Story & Setting
Wei Shen was born and spent his childhood in Hong Kong, yet, due to the gangs and drugs, it was not a good place for a child to grow up, so, after his sister becomes a drug addict, his mom decides to take them to the US, wanting to escape the bad influence, and maybe save Wei’s sister from her addiction.
Yet, the US was never a true home nor was it a reprieve from those very same problems, eventually, the drugs took his sister, and with that, his mother as well.
Eventually, he will see himself back in Hong Kong.
But, he had a life as well, Wei had decided to go into law enforcement, his return to Hong Kong wasn’t solely for nostalgia, it was a job as well, now, his task is to be an undercover cop.
With no family, and childhood connections to known triad members, Wei is the perfect candidate for the job, he must infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad (inspired on the real life Triad Sun Yee On), and dismantle it from the inside, arrest or eliminate leaders and high value connections.
Wei is the perfect candidate for the job, but, he has too much skin in the game, sure he has friends in the Triad, but, the very same people who got his sister into drugs are also part of the Triad.
What is justice? How much is too far when pursuing justice? Things are going to get quite complicated for officer Shen.
Yet, the US was never a true home nor was it a reprieve from those very same problems, eventually, the drugs took his sister, and with that, his mother as well.
Eventually, he will see himself back in Hong Kong.
But, he had a life as well, Wei had decided to go into law enforcement, his return to Hong Kong wasn’t solely for nostalgia, it was a job as well, now, his task is to be an undercover cop.
With no family, and childhood connections to known triad members, Wei is the perfect candidate for the job, he must infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad (inspired on the real life Triad Sun Yee On), and dismantle it from the inside, arrest or eliminate leaders and high value connections.
Wei is the perfect candidate for the job, but, he has too much skin in the game, sure he has friends in the Triad, but, the very same people who got his sister into drugs are also part of the Triad.
What is justice? How much is too far when pursuing justice? Things are going to get quite complicated for officer Shen.
Presentation
Of course, the definitive edition had a graphical overhaul, and, the game looks pretty good, taking into account it came out during the early 8th generation, it had whole new hardware to play with.
The best aspects comes in the environment design, each area looks very pretty and what I enjoy most, each area has its personality, the atmosphere in each area is simply top notch, driving around at night or while is raining really sets the mood for the gritty crime drama the game is going for.
Not all areas are bangers sure, but, for the most part, Hong Kong looks very nice, no matter where you are in the game, the atmosphere in general is top notch.
But, sadly, this doesn’t apply to character models, and animations, the models are stuck in the early 2000s, animations are rough, and character expressions leave a lot to be desired, and it can make some scenes completely fall flat. The stiff animations were a problem in the original Sleeping Dogs as well.
The best aspects comes in the environment design, each area looks very pretty and what I enjoy most, each area has its personality, the atmosphere in each area is simply top notch, driving around at night or while is raining really sets the mood for the gritty crime drama the game is going for.
Not all areas are bangers sure, but, for the most part, Hong Kong looks very nice, no matter where you are in the game, the atmosphere in general is top notch.
But, sadly, this doesn’t apply to character models, and animations, the models are stuck in the early 2000s, animations are rough, and character expressions leave a lot to be desired, and it can make some scenes completely fall flat. The stiff animations were a problem in the original Sleeping Dogs as well.
As for vehicles, cars look pretty good, and there is a lot of ways to damage them, with the game having a surprising amount of variety when it comes to show how much you have messed up your car, it is the same for motorcycles.
Wei has quite a lot of variety when it comes to wardrobe, and the game does allow you to go crazy, you can go from fashionista, to fashion disaster very easily, and, there a cool little detail, of Wei getting covered in blood as he receives and deals damage. Another cool detail, is Wei getting fancier homes as he moves up in the criminal ladder.
Now for the sound department, voice acting is pretty good, with characters speaking both English and Cantonese (the official languages of Hong Kong), mostly English with occasional Cantonese words, although most non-vendor NPCs do speak only in Cantonese.
The music is ok, I do like that they included quite a lot of music in Cantonese and Mandarin to help with the immersion, even though I wasn’t a big fan of the radio, and often just defaulted to the Classical Music station, the others had the occasional banger, still, by the mid-game the radio became pretty much white noise to me. The selection for the karaoke mini-game is ok.
And, ever since what happened to Spec Ops The Line, I am not a big fan of games having licensed music.
Wei has quite a lot of variety when it comes to wardrobe, and the game does allow you to go crazy, you can go from fashionista, to fashion disaster very easily, and, there a cool little detail, of Wei getting covered in blood as he receives and deals damage. Another cool detail, is Wei getting fancier homes as he moves up in the criminal ladder.
Now for the sound department, voice acting is pretty good, with characters speaking both English and Cantonese (the official languages of Hong Kong), mostly English with occasional Cantonese words, although most non-vendor NPCs do speak only in Cantonese.
The music is ok, I do like that they included quite a lot of music in Cantonese and Mandarin to help with the immersion, even though I wasn’t a big fan of the radio, and often just defaulted to the Classical Music station, the others had the occasional banger, still, by the mid-game the radio became pretty much white noise to me. The selection for the karaoke mini-game is ok.
And, ever since what happened to Spec Ops The Line, I am not a big fan of games having licensed music.
Mechanics
Most of the game will be spent fighting, Wei likes to use Kung Fu to take down his opponents, you start with very simple combos, most of which are the typical tap and/or hold the attack button to have some variety, you can make his repertoire better and more involved once you progress through the game. You also get a grab, and a counter move as your only option of defense.
Enemies come in a few varieties, standard, brawler, grappler, agile, and special, each one has its own tricks, with some being immune to grapples, hitting harder, or having unique move sets.
Something I found quite cool, were the environment kills, with you being able to absolutely ruin someone by making use of the stuff around you, and, it can give a certain sadistic glee once you notice new objects, and just want to see how Wei will ruin someone with those.
The game also has melee weapons, which don’t alter combat too much, just doing more damage and having special combos per weapon, and, they have very low durability. Later, you can learn disarming moves, and you can be disarmed as well.
Firearms work as you would expect, although Wei’s accuracy kinda sucks with how loose the crosshair is, it did annoy me that the game had aim assist on by default so I had to turn it off, the gunfights are a standard cover shooter affair, take cover and pop out to shoot, there is a little extra to spice things up, with you being able to slow down time under certain conditions. Weapons are what you would expect, pistols, smgs, and rifles, you can hide a pistol and keep it as a sidearm, and you can only carry 1 weapon not counting the sidearm (if you bothered/remembered you can holster it).
Enemies come in a few varieties, standard, brawler, grappler, agile, and special, each one has its own tricks, with some being immune to grapples, hitting harder, or having unique move sets.
Something I found quite cool, were the environment kills, with you being able to absolutely ruin someone by making use of the stuff around you, and, it can give a certain sadistic glee once you notice new objects, and just want to see how Wei will ruin someone with those.
The game also has melee weapons, which don’t alter combat too much, just doing more damage and having special combos per weapon, and, they have very low durability. Later, you can learn disarming moves, and you can be disarmed as well.
Firearms work as you would expect, although Wei’s accuracy kinda sucks with how loose the crosshair is, it did annoy me that the game had aim assist on by default so I had to turn it off, the gunfights are a standard cover shooter affair, take cover and pop out to shoot, there is a little extra to spice things up, with you being able to slow down time under certain conditions. Weapons are what you would expect, pistols, smgs, and rifles, you can hide a pistol and keep it as a sidearm, and you can only carry 1 weapon not counting the sidearm (if you bothered/remembered you can holster it).
A lot of objects can be shot, but the only meaningful ones are the obligatory red explosives.
As you fight, and take down enemies, Wei will slowly build face meter, once filled, he will get a few buffs, and will regenerate health, this meter will quickly deplete, and everything will go back to normal when back at 0. Keep in mind that you can lose a bit of face meter if enemies have the upper hand in combat.
Next, is driving, its straight forward, very arcade in feel, rain affects it, and if you hit something too hard, Wei will be sent flying. You can shoot while in a car, there is also a whole mechanic of being able to shoot tires of both cars and motorcycles to quickly take them down, and, there is action hijack, which allows you to jump from your vehicle, to another vehicle, and take it for yourself.
The game has boats too, which are even more straight forward, nothing much to say about them, as there is barely any reason to use them outside the missions which have them.
If you can’t be bothered to drive, you can use a taxi to fast travel to certain places in each district.
There is also another thing, there is running and chasing, when you run you can quickly traverse around the environment, by hitting the button at the right time, and, the chasing events will require you to do this effectively, but, you also have to be mindful of things that slow you down, like civvies getting in the way. Failing to press the button in time will just make the animation slower, and not pressing it at all will result in Wei stumbling over or on the obstacle.
Each main story mission will award both police xp, and triad xp, depending on your performance, you start with full police xp and lose it if you are clumsy, reckless, and/or cause unnecessary damage, for triad xp, you start the mission with 0, and earn it by being ruthless, combat effective, and/or by doing general criminal behavior. At the end of the mission, your score will be tallied and xp for both will be given accordingly.
Getting levels on both police and triad, will allow you to buy upgrades for Wei.
Since the game is open world, of course, it is littered with collectibles, side content, and other things.
There are the Cases which are little side-quests of Wei solving crimes, which of course, net you extra police xp, there are also small police missions with Wei assisting cops and SWAT around town, for extra police xp as well.
Then there is the favors, which sometimes give you a small amount of triad xp, a small amount of face xp, and on occasion, will give you really good passives. These can range in all manner of things, like driving someone away from cops, committing insurance fraud, going on a date, chasing thieves, etc.
Face xp gives you extra bonuses, like extra passives when you fill the bar in combat, or being able to buy more fancy cars and clothing, and it also enhances some other aspects of the open world, like the duration of certain service related buffs.
The best way to earn face xp is to win the races, more races unlock once you have more cars and motorcycles.
Some side content can also award vehicles and clothing.
As you fight, and take down enemies, Wei will slowly build face meter, once filled, he will get a few buffs, and will regenerate health, this meter will quickly deplete, and everything will go back to normal when back at 0. Keep in mind that you can lose a bit of face meter if enemies have the upper hand in combat.
Next, is driving, its straight forward, very arcade in feel, rain affects it, and if you hit something too hard, Wei will be sent flying. You can shoot while in a car, there is also a whole mechanic of being able to shoot tires of both cars and motorcycles to quickly take them down, and, there is action hijack, which allows you to jump from your vehicle, to another vehicle, and take it for yourself.
The game has boats too, which are even more straight forward, nothing much to say about them, as there is barely any reason to use them outside the missions which have them.
If you can’t be bothered to drive, you can use a taxi to fast travel to certain places in each district.
There is also another thing, there is running and chasing, when you run you can quickly traverse around the environment, by hitting the button at the right time, and, the chasing events will require you to do this effectively, but, you also have to be mindful of things that slow you down, like civvies getting in the way. Failing to press the button in time will just make the animation slower, and not pressing it at all will result in Wei stumbling over or on the obstacle.
Each main story mission will award both police xp, and triad xp, depending on your performance, you start with full police xp and lose it if you are clumsy, reckless, and/or cause unnecessary damage, for triad xp, you start the mission with 0, and earn it by being ruthless, combat effective, and/or by doing general criminal behavior. At the end of the mission, your score will be tallied and xp for both will be given accordingly.
Getting levels on both police and triad, will allow you to buy upgrades for Wei.
Since the game is open world, of course, it is littered with collectibles, side content, and other things.
There are the Cases which are little side-quests of Wei solving crimes, which of course, net you extra police xp, there are also small police missions with Wei assisting cops and SWAT around town, for extra police xp as well.
Then there is the favors, which sometimes give you a small amount of triad xp, a small amount of face xp, and on occasion, will give you really good passives. These can range in all manner of things, like driving someone away from cops, committing insurance fraud, going on a date, chasing thieves, etc.
Face xp gives you extra bonuses, like extra passives when you fill the bar in combat, or being able to buy more fancy cars and clothing, and it also enhances some other aspects of the open world, like the duration of certain service related buffs.
The best way to earn face xp is to win the races, more races unlock once you have more cars and motorcycles.
Some side content can also award vehicles and clothing.
Wei can participate in drug busts, which have 3 phases, 1st find the sell spot and beat up the triad members there, 2nd hack the security camera, 3rd go back home and use the camera to identify the dealer and have him busted, the 1st phase will award face xp, and the 3rd phase will award police xp. Keep in mind that hacked cameras count as a collectible.
You can find boxes filled with money, sometimes they have clothes, and sometimes you have to perform the unlocking mini-game, they aren’t too relevant, the same can be said for the hidden money shrines.
Out of all the collectibles, the ones that actually matter are 2 kinds, the health shrines which increase your maximum health each time you find 5 of them, and the jade statues, which you can take to the martial arts instructor to learn more combos, grapples, and new moves.
Clothing can give benefits as well, having a complete shirt, pants, and shoes combo can net some really nice bonuses, like having discounts when buying cars, or earning extra triad or police xp, doing more melee damage, etc. And, having lavish accessories can net extra face xp. Although, some missions will force Wei to have a specific outfit on.
There are quite a lot of mini-games which are done during missions and side content, like hacking, planting bugs, opening safes, lockpicking, and triangulating positions, they are pretty straight forward.
Wei’s phone can also give access to side content, and has the option of replaying missions, sometimes, missions will require Wei to give someone a call.
Then, there is the extra services, each giving a temporary buff to Wei, eating food will let you regenerate health, drinking soda will you a melee damage buff, etc. The effects can be boosted and can last longer depending on face xp.
There are some extra activities to make money, like playing poker mahjong, or betting on cockfights.
Finally, since this is the definitive edition, there is DLC added as part of the package.
The more notable ones are:
A DLC which give you some extra missions to earn a very overpowered car.
The Zodiac Tournament, which gives a short little side-story inspired and being a homage to martial arts movies from the 80s.
Nightmare in North Point, which gives a short storyline about Wei fighting ghosts, yaoguai, and jiangshi, using the power of sketchy Chinese medicine and kung fu.
Year of the snake, which takes place after the main story, and has Wei fight a group of cultists who want to commit acts of terrorism.
All of them are pretty short, less than 2 hours each.
You can find boxes filled with money, sometimes they have clothes, and sometimes you have to perform the unlocking mini-game, they aren’t too relevant, the same can be said for the hidden money shrines.
Out of all the collectibles, the ones that actually matter are 2 kinds, the health shrines which increase your maximum health each time you find 5 of them, and the jade statues, which you can take to the martial arts instructor to learn more combos, grapples, and new moves.
Clothing can give benefits as well, having a complete shirt, pants, and shoes combo can net some really nice bonuses, like having discounts when buying cars, or earning extra triad or police xp, doing more melee damage, etc. And, having lavish accessories can net extra face xp. Although, some missions will force Wei to have a specific outfit on.
There are quite a lot of mini-games which are done during missions and side content, like hacking, planting bugs, opening safes, lockpicking, and triangulating positions, they are pretty straight forward.
Wei’s phone can also give access to side content, and has the option of replaying missions, sometimes, missions will require Wei to give someone a call.
Then, there is the extra services, each giving a temporary buff to Wei, eating food will let you regenerate health, drinking soda will you a melee damage buff, etc. The effects can be boosted and can last longer depending on face xp.
There are some extra activities to make money, like playing poker mahjong, or betting on cockfights.
Finally, since this is the definitive edition, there is DLC added as part of the package.
The more notable ones are:
A DLC which give you some extra missions to earn a very overpowered car.
The Zodiac Tournament, which gives a short little side-story inspired and being a homage to martial arts movies from the 80s.
Nightmare in North Point, which gives a short storyline about Wei fighting ghosts, yaoguai, and jiangshi, using the power of sketchy Chinese medicine and kung fu.
Year of the snake, which takes place after the main story, and has Wei fight a group of cultists who want to commit acts of terrorism.
All of them are pretty short, less than 2 hours each.
Final Thoughts
I have mixed feelings towards this game, on one hand, there is a lot I really like, but on the other, there are a lot of little annoyances which quickly add up, and by the end, I couldn’t wait to be done with the game.
There are parts of the story that I like, but it suffers from moving too fast, 1 mission you are an errand boy, 2 missions later you might as well be the underboss. There is also the issue that characters who do realize that Wei very obviously glows, are very easily dealt with, giving very little stake on the undercover cop angle. Some characters are very under utilized, specially on the police department side, Teng is only there for a few missions, then is relegated to the side content, Raymond only exists for the filler, and Pendrew likes to actually do things… Off camera.
The game has a lot of gameplay things which annoyed me, like changing clothes taking away my guns, reloading checkpoints sometimes taking away my vehicle, canceling missions taking me back to Wei’s house instead of the start mission area…
Sure what the game has is fun, but, everything gets overused, its cool to chase someone the 1st few times, it gets old by the 10th, same for opening safes, same for action hijacking, same for following missions, etc.
Although Hong Kong looks nice, driving around it… Had to get used to driving on the left, no biggie, the problem came from having to go from one side of the map to the other for a mission, by the end of the game, I couldn’t be bothered, so I just used the taxis to get around quickly, sometimes going back to the main menu just to respawn at Wei’s house. The open world suffers from becoming tedious and stale, which is the logical conclusion of the genre to be fair.
Combat becomes very repetitive, gunfights get old really fast, and even though the game does try to spice things up, its not enough, fighting is the same, no matter if its the tutorial enemies, or the final boss, the only difference is what combos you have.
The story has its moments, but by the end, the best way I can describe it, is underwhelming, the same for the short DLC stories.
The game tries too hard to take from both GTA and Yakuza, instead of trying to have a strong core itself, a lot falls flat due to this. Its biggest problem, is that it didn’t commit enough to what made it unique.
To be honest, I am disappointed with the game, back when it came out I liked it a lot, but now, I am not seeing much of the magic, most of my gripes are from the tedious open world, and the annoyances which kept adding up, still, the game has some fun moments which I did enjoy, but it doesn’t do enough with what good it has, so its quickly taken over by the myriad of annoyances and lackluster execution.
At the end, I can see why Sleeping Dogs 2 was canceled.
There are parts of the story that I like, but it suffers from moving too fast, 1 mission you are an errand boy, 2 missions later you might as well be the underboss. There is also the issue that characters who do realize that Wei very obviously glows, are very easily dealt with, giving very little stake on the undercover cop angle. Some characters are very under utilized, specially on the police department side, Teng is only there for a few missions, then is relegated to the side content, Raymond only exists for the filler, and Pendrew likes to actually do things… Off camera.
The game has a lot of gameplay things which annoyed me, like changing clothes taking away my guns, reloading checkpoints sometimes taking away my vehicle, canceling missions taking me back to Wei’s house instead of the start mission area…
Sure what the game has is fun, but, everything gets overused, its cool to chase someone the 1st few times, it gets old by the 10th, same for opening safes, same for action hijacking, same for following missions, etc.
Although Hong Kong looks nice, driving around it… Had to get used to driving on the left, no biggie, the problem came from having to go from one side of the map to the other for a mission, by the end of the game, I couldn’t be bothered, so I just used the taxis to get around quickly, sometimes going back to the main menu just to respawn at Wei’s house. The open world suffers from becoming tedious and stale, which is the logical conclusion of the genre to be fair.
Combat becomes very repetitive, gunfights get old really fast, and even though the game does try to spice things up, its not enough, fighting is the same, no matter if its the tutorial enemies, or the final boss, the only difference is what combos you have.
The story has its moments, but by the end, the best way I can describe it, is underwhelming, the same for the short DLC stories.
The game tries too hard to take from both GTA and Yakuza, instead of trying to have a strong core itself, a lot falls flat due to this. Its biggest problem, is that it didn’t commit enough to what made it unique.
To be honest, I am disappointed with the game, back when it came out I liked it a lot, but now, I am not seeing much of the magic, most of my gripes are from the tedious open world, and the annoyances which kept adding up, still, the game has some fun moments which I did enjoy, but it doesn’t do enough with what good it has, so its quickly taken over by the myriad of annoyances and lackluster execution.
At the end, I can see why Sleeping Dogs 2 was canceled.
Pros
- + Very good atmosphere and environment design.
- + A lot of small little details which makes Hong Kong feel alive.
- + Underrepresented setting.
Cons
- - Tedious open world mechanics.
- - Average story.
- - Repetitive combat, quests and missions.
7
Gameplay
Everything is fun at the start, and maybe up to the mid game, but the constant repetition quickly makes everything wear out its welcome, the open world stuff is very tedious to do.
7
Graphics
Great atmosphere and environment design, with some really good ambiance and beautiful vistas, but mediocre character models with stiff animations.
5
Story
It either rushes through, or spends too much time in meandering, suffers from the open world design, the payoffs are underwhelming, and leaves a lot to be desired.
7
Sound
Good voice acting combining 2 languages in a very diegetic way, decent use of licensed music to improve immersion, although the music selection was average.
1
Replayability
The tedium of the open world mechanics is enough deterrent.
7.3
out of 10
Overall
Sleeping Dogs tries to be many things, while barely giving chance to be itself, it wears its inspirations openly, for good and for ill, the open world design is both its selling point, and its Achilles' heel, with a lot to do, but with a lot of repetition and tedium, has a very interesting plot, but its payoff is underwhelming with many pacing issues, and underwhelming execution, has a lot of combat with some cool use of the environment, but the sheer amount and lack of variety eventually turns it into a chore. Sleeping Dogs is filled with good and interesting ideas, but those ideas are repeated ad nauseam, it isn't a bad game per se, it just that it plays too safe sticking to formulas, and what does differently is repeated far too much, it is a painfully average game, with occasional glimpses of very high potential.
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