Sleeping Dogs is an open world third person action game developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix on August 14th, 2012 for PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, with a later remastered version under the moniker Sleeping Dogs - Definitive Edition released for PC, XBox One and PlayStation 4 in October 2014, and a Mac version in March, 2016.
Development
The newly founded, 10 employee, United Front Games was approached by Activision in late 2007 to create an open world game. It was agreed that development would start in early 2008 under the code name Black Lotus, with a staff of 180, paid by the publisher. One year later, it was proposed that it become part of the existing True Crime franchise from the Activision portfolio, as there were many similarities to the existing games from this series of games with Black Lotus, such as the fact that in both, the protagonist would be a police officer tasked with infiltrating crime organisations in order to take them down, all while exploring an open world city, modelled after a real location while doing small missions between main missions.
Thus, in November, 2009, True Crime: Hong Kong was revealed to the public, in a hope to revitalise the failing franchise. But already, the games troubled development would affected by delays for more polishing to be made. During this phase, Hollywood film editor Tony "Mopar" Ciccone was brought on the project to advise the team on video quality and animations. With all the financial and expert help, game content was almost finished by the turn of the year, ready for final steps to be taken before release.
However, in February 2011, Activision decided to pull the plug on the game as further investment would be done at more loss, as the felt that quality issues would prevent it from meeting even the most optimistic projections. The development team agreed that in a market dominated by Grand Theft Auto IV, Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption, releasing it as is, would've been a mistake, even if it was feature complete and playable from start to finish.
This move meant that 120 staff would be laid off with the studio's future uncertain. But in August, that same year, Square Enix London general manager, Lee Singleton recognised the potential of the project and convinced the company to acquire the rights to the game. But Square Enix did not buy the licence to the True Crime franchise name, so it had to rebrand the game it was ultimately released. The London studio also joined United Front in the final stages of development and finally released in late 2012.
Setting, Plot, Characters and Design
Sleeping Dogs is set in a modern day rendition of the city of Hong Kong, divided into four districts. To get a feel for the city and represent it as accurately as they could, the art design team travelled to the real Hong Kong. There they visited most of the city on foot, interacting with the inhabitants and took more than 20,000 photos from which to draw inspiration for in game assets. They visited parks, markets, malls and nightclubs and interviewed ex-triad members and police officers from whose testimonies the story would draw inspiration from.
Thus, the games starts off with the protagonist, a Hong Kong police officer transferred from San Francisco by the name of Wei Shen would infiltrate the Sun On Yee(based of the real Sun Yee On, subtle I know) via a childhood friend who was now a low level enforcer of the Triad, by the name of Jackie Ma. This would be arranged by them meeting in lock up where they would meet after Wei is arrested following a sting operation with which the game starts.
From here on out, two subplots unfold.
- One where the protagonist fights his way up the Triad food chain gaining more and more trust by doing quests for the Red Pole(Triad Boss) Winston Chu. These brutal missions would test his loyalty to the family, eventually growing in reputation by eliminating competitors or traitors, and finally gaining the trust and access to the infamous triad leader's David Wai-Lin "Uncle" Po advisory council.
- The other is Wei's collaboration with the HKPD in which he receives directives from his superior, police superintendent Thomas Pendrew, which which he communicates via his handler, Raymond Mak. Police objectives include organising sting operations that might risk his undercover identity, gathering intelligence on the other rival triads or conveying information on the personalities that collaborate with the triad underworld.
Of course, at some point, the two identities that Wei must uphold clash. This in the end causes much chaos all across the city, and puts him at odds with almost everyone who had come to expect something of the protagonist. I shall not spoil it, but know that nobody walks away unharmed in some way or another.
To create this wonderful world, the art team wen the extra mile by experiencing the city themselves, as mentioned above. But along with that, local radio stations and record labels were hired to provide the music and DJs to act as the in game radio MCs. Along with this, the general NPCs in the game would would not speak english, but Hong Kong cantonese to add flair. Though that was the case, the main characters that had lines to act withing the story would be top tier actors, such as Will Yun Lee as Wei Shen, Tom Wilkinson as Thomas Pendrew. Emma Stone played a secondary role in Wei's love interest, Amanda Cartwright and Lucy Liu played singer Vivienne Lu, respectively. Here is the full cast list provided by Imdb.com if you are interested.
Gameplay
As mentioned before, the game starts off with an undercover drug bust where Wei is arrested. This mission is linear and acts as a basic tutorial for the game, after which the player is free to explore at his/her own pace with prompts regarding new gameplay mechanics appear on screen or via journal entries via your in game mobile phone. Note that some of these phone entries will also provide lore and information on the characters you interact with during the story.
Combat in the game is similar to the Arkham games, and focuses on melee combat. If features light and heavy attacks that can also form complicated combos. The player can also grapple enemies to use as human shields, push them around into enemies or into objects that can be used to perform environmental kills. These attacks can be performed while unarmed or while using melee weapons such as knives, bats, or even dropped objects such as purses or fish. Ranged weapons exist in the game, but are rarely used so as to stay true to the availability of such weapons in the city.
During missions, three type of experience can be gained:
- Triad XP is gained for violent actions and the aforementioned environment kills. These type of points can also be gained by completing Triad quests and give the player access to perks mainly used in combat.
- Police XP is gained for non-violent actions and avoiding loss of civilian life or avoiding property damage. This type of experience is gained if such conditions are met in any kind of mission or by doing HKPD quests and grant perks such as the ability to hot-wire cars or the ability to disarm enemies.
- Face XP is gained by helping inhabitants in the city that need some help. This also grants access to a meter on the heads up display (HUD) that fills up during combat and once filled, Wei gains more health regeneration, damage and scares off opponents. This type of XP grants clothes that grant benefits and unlocks vehicles.
Traversing the map can be done on foot or by using an assortment of vehicles ranging from bike, motorcycles, cars, trucks and boats. On foot movement can also be aided by all sorts of acrobatic moves when jumping, climbing or sliding over obstacles or from buildings. Although some areas are locked by certain milestones achieved during the main story, the player is free to explore the city at their own pace. Some of these achievements also grant access to new houses that the player can use to change clothes and use police equipment such as CCTV cameras or police scanners.
Aside from the main missions, players can take part in street fighting tournaments, illegal street races, performing action hijacks or visiting a karaoke bar. They can also attempt to woo several girls in the game, completing these side plots awards new actions and clothes among other things. One can also attempt to find all the collectibles in the game, such as shrines to increase health, or finding all the jade statues and bringing them to a dojo master to open up new combat moves.
Reception, and spin-offs
The game released to high praise, both by critics and fans alike, garnering an overall score or 81, 83 and 80, out of 100 on Metacritic for the PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 versions. It was highly praised for its environment and excellent portrayal of the asian city that might as well have come from a movie. The use of cantonese was also very lauded. People also found the melee combat highly enjoyable, especially the environmental kills that felt empowering. The AI was also quite adept, however the car controls were lacking.
The story was received differently from person to person. Some people found it quite engaging and an interesting exploration of the chinese underground crime, while others found it cheesy and boring. I for one found it quite engaging with just the right amount of cheese mixed in. Among other complaints were the graphics, that made some character animations look robotic, and up close shots lacking detail, while far away shots to seem like everything was covered in oil.
To remedy some of the complaints, the Definitive Edition was released that in October, 2014, and included all 24 downloadable content expansions that included clothes, weapons, cars, side missions and story content. Fixes base on community feedback included higher resolution support, higher resolution textures, better lighting and tweaks to gameplay, some art and audio samples as well as stats changes. In the video above you can see Digital Foundry's comparison (though the brightness in the Definitive Edition seems too high).
Sales figures for the game seem to be too low for the publisher Square Enix, even if it had been number 1 in the UK for the first week and number 5 in the UK in the whole year. It also sold over 1.5 million copies by the end of 2012, and bout 1.74 million in 2013. Then again, Square Enix is the same company that said "Tomb Raider"-the reboot, which sold over 5 million was a failure. A failed attempt to create a massively multiplayer spin off called Triad Wars, cancelled in 2015, meant that the developing studio was closed and the future of the franchise is uncertain.
However, a movie announced this year and slated for release in 2018, produced by Neal Moritz and starring Donnie Yen, promises to be a faithful adaptation of the game events, so maybe there is hope.
Conclusion
My impressions on the game are highly positive. In a scene dominated by pure silly fun, embodied by Grand Theft Auto, or the Saint's Row franchise, a more mature take to the open world action adventure is very refreshing. Not that there's anything wrong with stupid fun, I highly enjoy both of those franchises very much, but I do want a good serious story sometimes as well. And Sleeping Dogs delivers this without going too overboard by inserting some humour in there as well.
The melee combat is fantastic, featuring different ways to tackle all kinds of enemies, either by disarming them and knocking them out, or stunning them, or slashing them and of course by using the environment for some gory cinematic kills. The gunplay is passable, but unimportant, and the amount of content there is regarding fighting styles and combos, that using any weapon over melee and gadgets to solve some missions is just boring. My main gripe with the game are the driving mechanics and of course the ridiculous action hijacking, where you jump from car to car to kick out the enemy or car combat that revolves around slipping your car sideways. While that is awesome in games such as Just Cause 2/3, it has no place here, and just breaks immersion.
The art assets in this game are just awesome and consolidate the asian feel. All the lights and temples with large amounts of NPCs walking and driving all over, but at different rates and in different places depending on the time of day, make the city feel alive. If you would like a more solemn experience with just the right amount of cheese while still indulging in satisfying melee combat in a beautifully rendered environment, then I highly recommend this game to round up your open world collection.
What are your thoughts? Have you played the game? Share your experiences, opinions and feedback below, it is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading and keep on steemin'!
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