Sleeping Dogs

I was really skeptical about this game because it looked just like another GTA clone. You can definitely feel that formula, but it's improved. I read reviews about this game through other websites and got a general idea of what I was getting into.

The story is top notch as well as the voice acting. Controls are really responsive. I think the focus on the fighting engine is the best part. I try to find reasons to fight people in the game. I'm not a big racing fan, but the vehicle controls are smooth and realistic feeling. The authenticity is what I love. I enjoy the Chinese culture and have many Chinese friends so playing the game felt familiar.

The main issue I have with the game is the camera control. While driving, fighting, or just generally traversing the the game there are times when the camera gets all wonky. Other than that I can't think of any reason not to at least play the game. Good job Square-Enix for picking up this game instead of letting it die.

In many ways GTA has been dethroned by this game. Sleeping Dogs is a lot of fun, and seriously addictive. It may lack the complete freedom of GTA IV (no flying vehicles available), which I guess is still considered the benchmark for open world video games even 5 years on, but Sleeping Dogs is far, far more refined with superior graphics and details, as well as featuring a much more likable protagonist.

As I began to play I felt that the game was very similar to the True Crime games. I later learned that it was actually planned as True Crime: Hong Kong, before Activision cancelled it and passed it over to Square Enix who continued to develop it as a new title. So this really is the 'spiritual second sequel' to True Crime that we never got, and I have been accidentally referring to it as such. As far as I am concerned it is.

The game stars Wei Shen as an undercover cop raised in California who returns to Hong Kong to infiltrate the mob. It's full of clichés but is highly entertaining and never once boring. There are a variety of missions including gunfights, fist fights, foot chases, car chases, boat chases, espionage, as well as multiple side missions and upgrades. Highly addictive stuff indeed. And bloody too, very, very bloody. Believe me, the game justifies the age restriction without ever seeming forced.

I do have some complaints, like not being able to hail taxis and missing them every time you dash for them. Also there never any cars to hijack when you need them, meaning you'll have to run up the street hoping to block the way of a passing vehicle. The radio stations are not as humorous as GTA, but there are some nice tunes on there.

The game is liberal with trophies, and features loads of DLC on the PlayStation Network, including two new missions sets. I'm not done with this game yet!

Graphics A Sound A Gameplay A+ Lasting Appeal A+

(Excludes the dlcs Nightmare in North Point, Zodiac Tournament, and Year of the Snake, as I already reviewed each dlc on their separate IMDb page)

Being a huge fan of True Crime: Streets of LA, this video game was much anticipated to be one of my favorite games. Sadly, that's not what happened. The game is great; the combat is fun, and the story is intense, but some of these mechanics (for example, driving and camera panning) were too clunky for me, and the game itself felt completely different from True Crime. Whatever, it was still fun and visually beautiful, although I would say it's a bit forgettable. What I didn't forget was that pork bun vendor. "Why you don't have pork bun in your hand?"

Edit: I ended up coming back to play this video game once again for an array of reasons; for one, there's a few dlcs I've never got around to completing, second, it was 2014 since the last time I've played the main story and forgot almost everything, so I decided to start from the beginning, and third, I needed a break from Dragons Dogma, and this game seemed like a great game to play in between. Revisiting this game has been a great experience for the most part. This story of Wei taking on the Hong Kong triads by becoming a triad was a dynamic campaign, doing missions for the Sun On Lee, and also doing missions for detectives. While the story is fun, the landscape of vibrant Hong Kong is where this game grabs me. Some truly mesmerizing scenes, with plenty of fun, cool sites to explore. While I do think the driving was a little off, I was able to get used to it fairly quickly, and was able to navigate the highways and backroads with ease. The main campaign was lots of fun, although it seemed kinda short, and all the extra side missions and collectibles to find was filling, although repetitive.

There was a couple random dlcs I got that just added police missions, a random swat team mission, and a survival mission where you kick monks ass. All 3 were extremely forgettable, and probably could be avoided as they are just replayable missions that don't do or give you anything neat except either police or triad skill points .

In all, I'm really glad I decided to give this game another go, as I actually found myself more entertained than the first time I played it. The main game and all the dlcs took me a little over 40hours, but it really only felt like 15. Gonna bump my score from 3.5 Stars to 4 Stars.

This is my favourite game ever, the atmosphere if the game is great and the characters too ! This game is far too underrated to my eyes !

When I first tried to play Sleeping Dogs, I did not like it. The combat was frustrating and I never felt like I was doing it right. I took some time away from it and started it up last week and I loved it!

This isn't your typical open world city game. It focuses on fighting combat more than guns. There are a decent amount of missions with guns, but since it is Hong Kong, they're hard to come by in the open world. The main focus of the action is fighting like you're in a Hong Kong action movie.

The combat is essentially a version of Arkham Asylum. There are counters that can be done when an enemy lights up and is about to hit. But it goes deeper as you can almost do fighting game combos to fight enemies. The flow of the combat isn't as graceful as Batman as you're not really able to connect counter after counter together. This one is more strategic as some enemies you can only counter before damaging, or ones you can only grapple or land heavy attacks.

The shooting combat is probably the weakest. It doesn't feel 100% as smooth as it should, but it suffices for the missions you need it. Normally it's just cover shooting and lock on to enemies until they're dead.

The main draw for me is the story it tells. You are an undercover cop with the Sun On Yee triad gang. You have to balance being a cop and a gangster. The side missions for the cop side are alright, they get super repetitive, but they're still fun. The side missions for the gang are more fun and varied.

It's cast of characters are fantastic and Wei is much more enjoyable to be than the generic GTA characters.

My only gripes with it are that the gunplay seems undercooked, but the focus is the hand-to-hand combat which is what makes up for it. The combat takes a moment to get used to, but it's essentially a brawler done right in an open world which really hasn't been done as all the GTA fist fights were terrible.

This is easily one of the top non-GTA open world games. Its fun to play and has a fantastic story to progress through.