Each point system has a skill tree that unlocks new abilities, and there’s a fighting move upgrade system as well linked to collectible finding. Because you’re an undercover officer you get to choose doing missions for both the police and the gangs which means you earn a specific point set for each and face is earned through proving your bad boy credentials to the local populace. However, there’s an element of RPG underpinning your development with upgrades coming in the form of cop points, triad points or face points. Walk/run/drive around a map from marker to marker doing things for NPCs. If this is your first experience of Sleeping Dogs, the structure of the game is straightforward and like any other open world genre title. Speaking of which, despite living and driving in the UK it should be easy to get to grips with left-hand driving in games – seems that I’m far too used to open world being right-hand drive and it took time to retrain my brain. The pedestrians of Hong Kong can tell you all about how often I veered off the road. Even then it’s not actually bad, it just isn’t always as responsive as you want it to be. Bad in that car handling feels too solid unless you liberally use the handbrake. Good in that the relatively deep fighting system lets you get hands on with bad guys when you’re close up, and the shoot and cover mechanics keep you engaged at distance. Keeping with the theme of things remaining the same, there’s nothing at all different about the controls, combat, driving or shooting which is both good and bad. It’s probably a testament to the original release that it doesn’t seem like there’s a major increase in the way it looks, yet it doesn’t scream “LAST GEN!” at you. The power increase in the new hardware means that there are better weather effects, more pedestrians and traffic, and I swear Wei Shen’s hair now moves like a toupee in a gale when he talks. Graphically it holds up reasonably well most of the time, though there is a bit of slowdown in busy situations – mainly whilst driving and spinning the camera around – though on the whole there are no complaints. The atmosphere and impression of the place are definitely there, and it all manages to draw you in. There are the famous landmarks the taxis and their respective colours the markets (even if they are much less densely populated than the real ones) and the language switching between English and Cantonese randomly. Hong Kong island isn’t obviously an exact recreation, but it carries all the key features to make it believable. Such a shame that some of the new generation games we have seen so far can’t get anywhere near to this, though as a bonus it makes up for the fact that whilst there is a resolution bump and some additions here and there, it’s pretty much the same as it was originally. Characterisation, performance and supporting cast all create a really compelling game that actually has you invested in what you’re doing. ![]() If there’s one thing that really stands out when playing through this again it’s how tight and well defined Wei Shen’s tale of conflicted loyalties is. The story aspect needs to be emphasised because this game actually has one. ![]() Sleeping Dogs is the story of Wei Shen, a US cop who returns to his Hong Kong birthplace to infiltrate the local Triad gang (the Sun On Yee) to help loosen the criminal organisations hold on the island state. Even with that in mind, is it worth making the return trip to Hong Kong? United Front also handled the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition at the beginning of the year, so we know they can manage the conversion. Now, like Grand Theft Auto V, it’s had a definitive edition released so that new generation console owners can play with “enhancements”. The game was a surprise in that it was actually good and held its own in the burgeoning open world adventure market, releasing at just the right point between GTA games. In 2012 United Front Games brought us Sleeping Dogs, the Hong Kong cop/criminal caper, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes of the True Crime series.
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