Sleeping Dogs (360/PS3/PC)

[Winnow]

This game has been a pleasant surprise so far.

Essentially, it's very much like GTA IV, set in Hong Kong. I'll compare the game to GTA IV a lot in my comments, but it's not a GTA IV vs Sleeping Dogs thread. It's useful to point out the good and bad points of the game.



Environment:

Outstanding. Feels more detailed and alive than GTA IV. After you get through the initial little chase scene that opens up the story, it's one of those stop and stare type games. I was supposed to be following someone and had to blow him off to just take in how cool everything looked. There's activity going on everywhere you look and lots of nooks and crannies to check out.

You'd be hard pressed to find more than a few square blocks on the entire map. Roads are twisting and turning all over the place and there's heavy use of the Z-axis as well. I'm amazed at how many walkways, alternate routes, etc I see. The map is plenty big. The detail in the game is impressive. The graphics are on par with GTA IV with a few exceptions but the amount of variety seems beyond what GTA IV had. Just like GTA IV, you'll find cloned pedestrians.

Story/Acting:

There's nothing too special about the story so far but the the voice acting is excellent. To go along with the voice acting, there are great animations/cut scenes, etc. While the overall grand scheme of things doesn't come off as special, the individual storyline missions have been fun.

I'm only a few hours into the game so can only sparingly comment on this part. You do have opportunities for relations. The first "romance" type mission/person has been well done. While the game is more violent (bloodier) than GTA, it focuses less on random violence, and so far, a little more tame on the ho's and bros part of GTA.

As with most of these games, there are a ton of cut scenes in the beginning of the game which taper off as you become familiar with the main characters. Thankfully, the cut scenes are very well done and not nearly as long as the Yakuza ones. (if you read my Yakuza 3/4 thread, I mentioned how impressed I was with the environment but that pales in comparison to Sleep Dogs)

Fighting/Movement

Excellent. The game is more Yakuza than GTA in this area. I'd say even throw in a little Batman Arkham city and Assassins Creed as well. There is a full melee combat system with skill based combo moves you can improve or gain new ones. Counter attacks and grappling weigh heavily on your ability to successfully kick someone's ass.

I mentioned earlier that the maps have a lot of Z-Axis and the game takes advantage by providing an Assassisn's Creed "lite" style of movement where you can climb/sprint ect through enviroments.

Sometimes you are reduced to walking only when a storyline is going on and they need to make sure the NPC you're with gets out all of their lines before you get to the target. That part feels a little sluggish. Camera movement is a tad worse than GTA I'd say.

Vehicles:

Probably the worst part so far, slightly more so than GTA to give a comparison, which isn't known to be great in that department. For some reason, there are a lot of "temp" little fences placed around the city and knocking down one of these hits you with negative points on your police "HEAT" rating. I understand they want you to be more careful than you had to be in GTA IV but there's already enough obstacles and driving is hard enough to not need penalties for hitting these little fences. I'm getting used to driving but the way the camera flips around, etc could certainly be improved.

It's pretty easy to piss off the cops but I've found it's not too hard to ditch them.

Customizing:

Plenty of crap to keep you busy. You can buy clothes, cars and it looks like your home starts out crappy like in GTA and you get better as you go. There are a lot of side quests and other distractions cock fighting, karaoke, etc to do. I haven't seen all these yet.

Difficulty:

There is no difficulty setting that I could find. I managed ok on the first few quests but they ramp up pretty fast. You gain skill points in various ares, combat/police, etc that you can improve on. My hand hurt after an hour or so as there's a lot of counter punching, etc but I think the fighting is well balanced and fun.

One thing I recommend is taking the time to find the "healing" shrines that a map of will become available pretty early in the game:

[Show]

Do the "Amanda" quest as soon as it becomes available and then the follow up quest (call Amanda on your phone) right after to gain access to the locations of the healing shrines.

Once you can see these shrines, you might want to take a break from the storyline and go find all these shrines...which will take you a LONG time considering the size of the map and complexity of the map. As you find the shrines, your health increases, 10% for every few shrines you find, up to a total of 100%, doubling your total available health. Combat isn't a breeze (for me) so this will help. At the same time, there are "lock boxes" placed around town so while you're finding these shrines, you'll discover some of these boxes which will give you money, weapons, etc. At least for the very first part of the game, money is a little scarce so this helps. You'll also familiarize yourself with the map a bit which will help with the later missions.

I'm enjoying Sleeping Dogs. If you liked GTA IV and want a game that does some things better, somethings worse, with an Asian slant (pardon my pun) to it, this game is worth getting. For the budget people who will wait, it's worth getting whenever it hits your price point. There are tons of achievements, etc. A very well put together game that will keep you entertained in this genre until GTA V. Oh yeah, don't forget to drive on the left side of the road.

Music/environment audio effects is also a strength of this game.

An overall an 80 score on Metacritic:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360 ... ic-reviews

Well deserved and I'd rank it a bit higher. The diversity in scenery/visuals in Sleeping Dogs is amazing.

edit: also,

-the first Cop Upgrade you should get is "Slim Jim" which allows you to grab pretty much any vehicle not occupied without setting off alarms.

-pressing X while driving gives you a short speedburst/ramming that lets you take out other vehicles on the road. Driving in this game is a lot more fun than I thought at first.

[Fairweather Pure]

I'll get it when it's 20$ or less. I have too many open world games in my backlog to pay full price for it.

[Winnow]

There's a demo avail on Xbox Live and PSN now to check out.

[Aslanna]

I'll get it when it's 20$ or less. I have too many open world games in my backlog to pay full price for it.

Same! Along with Saints Row 3.

[Winnow]

Just went back to play a little more of Sleeping Dogs.

Way underrated game.

Would like to see a sequel on the next gen consoles but don't think there are plans for it.

[Fairweather Pure]

I bought it for dirt cheap abd played the first 30 minutes ordo. It's a kick ass game for sure. Glad I got it. I look forward to really digging into it some day.

[Leonaerd]

I bought it for dirt cheap abd played the first 30 minutes ordo. It's a kick ass game for sure. Glad I got it. I look forward to really digging into it some day.

Drunk Fair. Drunk Fair. Drunk Fair.