Sleeping Dogs is a severely underrated classic, especially for the open world genre.
This game not only delivers in many aspects but even surpasses most games in it's genre. This game does not pull any punches. Most aspects of this game are crafted with care a precision.
The map, while it's the games weakest asset, is still amazing. The streets are vibrant, the density of NPCs is incredible, rivaling current gen games, and the atmosphere is breathe taking. Colorful lights everywhere, interesting and even funny conversations between NPCs across the whole map. The only reason the map is the weakest part, is simply because the map is severely limited. You can't reach the top of skyscrapers, you can't venture into the parts of it that aren't part of a street, and despite the technical square foot print of the map, surprisingly little can actually be traversed. Mostly the map is just a pretty backdrop for the story to unfold, with many areas feeling like they were inserted for a certain story mission to take place. By no means is it bad, but just the games weakest asset, though this never comes in the way of the experience, as the map does serve the game's purpose very well. But I wouldn't recommend this game to a typical open world rampage player, who see games in this genre as a sandbox with endless possibilities.
The Game play:
The game play stands out in a great way, not only does this game give extra care to combat, driving, or shooting, it excels in pacing the individual parts to never bore you through out the 15-20 hour campaign. Combat is considerably deeper than any other open world game I have ever played, while not extremely deep, the combat does provide the player with many fun combos, satisfying feedback, and dynamic animations, to tie it all together. Countering enemies is extremely satisfying, and fighting any enemy feels amazing, similar to a classic beat-em-up without overstaying it's welcome.
The driving is also, near perfect. Cars feels heavy when driving them, and drifting provides just enough control to where you still require skill to execute sharp turns properly. Every car is different but never unbalanced, for example, when you get a fast car, turns are sharper, but the acceleration makes them harder to control, in contrast a large truck will have smoother turns, but cannot recover from crashes as easily. Bikes have a more arcade-y feel, letting you do all sorts of fun things, like very sharp turns, or even wheelies, that let you use practically any obstacle as a mini ramp. Additionally, the car hopping mechanic, while very situational, feels amazing to execute.
Something that any other game would implement into a cut scene, is present within the actual game play, and it feels as cool as it sounds.
Shooting is simply sublime, you do not get a gun very often in this game, but when you do, it's one of the most satisfying experiences in the game, maybe even due to the restraint the devs used when applying the gun play in the campaign. Guns feel powerful and loud, one good shot to the head will trigger an instant ragdoll with a brief and subtle flash, signaling the enemy died. Leaping over obstacles will trigger a bullet-time which you can chain together by leaping over more obstacles.
The story:
What seems to be a pretty straight forward, story, and for the most part is, provides a great sense of progression. You will see Wei as an undercover cop, sitting on a fence while working for the Triads. You will see Wei wake up in a new, better looking house every time he works his way up the ladder in the hierarchy. While many characters are very clear place holders of normal open world gangster tropes, the game provides great characters to get invested in. Wei definitely being the most fleshed out of the bunch with a fairly interesting back story and completely understandable motivations and goals. The story will absolutely go to some crazy dark places, that will keep you wondering what can possibly happens next. But it definitely isn't something that will win any Oscars. It's fun, silly at times, very cinematic in some parts, but also cheesy and with a bit too many characters in other parts. The worst part by far was Uncle Po, simply because of that horrible accent and acting.
I would absolutely recommend this game to players who like to get immersed in their open world games and assume the goals of the protagonists. This is a delicate gem, very easily subjected to scrutiny when players realize that you can't steal airplanes or drive down a mountain, but this is a more sophisticated type of open world game that asks the player to become invested, and to care about the story, not ideal for causing chaos freely.
All in all you may be able to guess that i find this game fantastic. It's definitely deserving of a solid 8.5-9. With short comings, such as occasional bugs, a somewhat abrupt ending, and an underwhelming level up system. But this is a beautiful underrated masterpiece, that should have deserved a sequel a long time ago.
