Sleeping Dogs belongs in this camp as well, and strikes a happy balance between the fundamental differences of combat between Batman and Yakuza.
We got it from the Batman: Arkham series, Yakuza, and to some extent, Assassin's Creed. Yet as convincing as he is, the story never portrays Wei as being truly conflicted, or in danger of losing himself, although a few cutscenes try to convince you otherwise.įor over a decade, I've longed for a group of games to carry on the brawling legacy of Streets of Rage and Final Fight. You begin to believe Wei's loyalty to his fellow gangsters and his genuine rage when his "brothers" have been wronged. The story is a clear homage to decades of crime films featuring undercover protagonists, and explores the common theme of losing oneself to the well-curated undercover persona. This material is ripe for a prequel, but Sleeping Dogs aptly focuses your attention on the present, immersing you in Hong Kong’s underworld through Wei's perspective. His motivations are never hamfisted: you don't need to lose a sister to gangs and drugs to sympathize with Wei’s emotional baggage. Where the filler-free narrative approach works is by not centering the game on Wei's quest for vengeance. The "rise through the ranks" story conceits in urban open world games have run their course, and Sleeping Dogs would have been a great example of the latter had it not been for the hurried nature of Wei Shen’s promotions as a member of the Hong Kong Triad. The two downloadable side stories-one involving Chinese horror myths, the other recasting protagonist Wei Shen as a traffic cop-excel by being lighthearted in tone, a fitting contrast to the tension-heavy story of the main game.įor as much as Sleeping Dogs excels in its conciseness, much of the narrative pacing feels rushed. With all the post-release content added to the Definitive Edition, you're looking at an additional five hours. Thanks to the city's tight design, it's not unheard of to reach 100 percent completion-and 100 percent satisfaction-in less than 25 hours. Even if you're just yards away from a hidden collectable, it might take you 10 minutes to find the one route to reach that treasure. Distractions in Sleeping Dogs work because the game mixes passive diversions with dynamic ones, and just because activities are close to each other doesn't mean that Hong Kong is a city bereft of challenges. You might be on your way to start a story mission, only to see an exotic car a client wants drive by. It's a city of countless, well-placed distractions, from street races to gang hideout infiltrations. United Front Games' vision of Hong Kong isn't the largest urban game world, but like the real city itself, it makes the most of its limited space. Yet, as the second of Square Enix's "Definitive Editions," this enhanced version of Sleeping Dogs does not exhibit the same level of care as this year's Tomb Raider re-release. As one of the better open world games of the last two years, this rerelease is not unexpected. Compared to recent game versions of Los Angeles in Grand Theft Auto V and Chicago in Watch Dogs, the dense depiction of Sleeping Dogs' Hong Kong lends itself well to all-business efficiency, where it doesn't take long to get anything done, whether it's a story mission or a stress-relieving brawl that you pursue. It's not an experience padded with multiple cities or the obligatory "slow living" town at the outskirts of the world map. Sleeping Dogs is an open-world crime game for busy people.
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