It took Saints Row three iterations to finally step out from beneath the shadow of Grand Theft Auto and occupy its own space, especially in terms of humour up against GTA IV’s much more serious slant. Sleeping Dogs, technically the third in the True Crime series but rebranded by new publishers Square Enix, has no such aspirations, choosing instead to stand proudly with a GTA flag wrapped around its shoulders. It is GTA IV crossed with Stranglehold. It is Burnout melded with Need for Speed. The Departed handcuffed to Arkham Asylum. It contains all the open world bells and whistles we expect, from cell phones to side missions to customised clothing and hidden collectibles, all eddying about within the large explorable city of Hong Kong.

From the opening scene – which sees you running to escape arrest, ducking and weaving around pesky bystanders and vaulting over objects with free-running aplomb – the story draws you in with fantastic writing delivered via excellent vocal performances. You play as Wei Shen, a police officer deeply undercover in Hong Kong’s underground, so deep that only a few officials in the police department know that you are a cop. It’s nothing new as far as stories go but when it comes to gameplay this tug and pull between the law and criminal necessity offers deep internal and external conflict. For example, each mission grades you in relation to how much extra damage and violence you undertake, reducing how much Cop XP you get if you’re a destructive driver and unconcerned with the accidental murder of innocents.



The “two worlds” storyline offers Wei multiple ways to progress. Complete missions for triad gangs and you’ll gain points in the Triad tree, where upgrades such as damage bonus, melee weapon resistance and counter recovery are up for auction. Cop upgrades, on the other hand, endow Wei with helpful modifications such as fast disarm, Slim Jim (quickly break into cars), increased vehicle ramming damage and the police trunk key (unlock police car trunks to get weapons). A third levelling tier comes in the form of Face Advantages. Your Face level reflects your propensity to stop and talk to people in the city, helping them with side missions (symbolised in game by yellow talk icons). Face unlocks include increased intimidation of enemies, stronger effects from food and drink (each thing you consume offers temporary buffs), vehicle discounts, melee disarming and the ability to summon a car valet any time you like.

Hong Kong is realised in gorgeous detail, especially at night during rain, its array of tall buildings, windows, balconies and layered modifications standing witness to every thing you do. After a handful of training missions, the city is yours to explore, traversal of the large space made intuitive due to its GTA leanings. Things are slightly different, though. It can’t be understated how strange it feels to play an open world game where the traffic drives on the left hand side of the road, even though we do so in Australia in real life. Also, the radio stations on offer as you drive aren’t pumping out Western hits. Instead, your wheel time is accompanied by a mix of Western and Eastern beats, instruments and vocals. Incidental dialogue from pedestrians deepens the fiction, with some speaking in English (owing to the city’s colonial history) and others in Cantonese.

Much has been said about Sleeping Dogs’ combat system and I have to say that I’m usually not a fan of hand-to-hand combat. Here, a mixture of Assassin’s Creed and Arkham Asylum has been combined, resulting in some really fun moments. Attacks are mostly linked to the X button (even if playing on PC, the offered compatibility with a 360 controller is highly worthwhile), with heavy attacks enacted when you hold the button in. Counters are mapped to Y, with enemy attacks signposted by their bodies glowing with a red outline.



The timing window for counters is quite wide, but spamming Y does not work, which is a step up from Assassin’s Creed. The most enjoyable possibilities open up when you grab a goon (by pressing B). Once you have them by the scruff, objects in the environment glow red, indicating a nasty surprise for your head-locked opponent. Sometimes these are as harmless as throwing them in a dumpster, but several lethal options include shoving their heads in spinning metal fans and (my favourite) throwing them over high railings.

Missions are drawn from the predictable open world handbook, comprised of the usual fetch quests, fights and chases, but it’s all thrilling due to the aforementioned city detail and the way in which each stage of gameplay – whether driving or on foot – has its own extra elements. During vehicle sections, you’ll often come up against enemy cars and vans, as well as the police. The added ability to shunt in a direction to run them off the road adds a Burnout flavour to take-downs. On foot chase sequences are a bit like LA Noire chases with added hurdles, as Wei leaps over benches and store counters, climbs over fences and pulls himself up ledges, all requiring timed button presses to do so smoothly.

Chases usually end in combat stand-offs with five or six goons, yet the wave-like regularity of forced combat never feels tired due to the robust range of options available to you. In fact, when firearms enter into the picture, it’s almost a disappointment, although the game is designed to take their implementation into account. Whereas GTA IV and its clones would see you crouching behind cover to take pot shots at enemies, Sleeping Dogs is designed with Wei’s physicality in mind, so that you are encouraged to leap over cover and disarm opponents, shooting on the go in smooth, confident lines as time slows down to compensate for your exposed situation.



Later missions welcome firearms into the fold, adding further complication to the kinds of situations Wei encounters. It’s not uncommon for a mission to start with a shootout, followed by a chase, then taking someone hostage, shooting your way out of that, and then a vehicle chase with Wei able to shoot from his car and leap onto moving vehicles to hijack them, finally bringing your quarry to justice. Each main mission exemplifies how a collection of gameplay fibres can be deftly woven into exhilarating experiences.

Sleeping Dogs’ blender like approach to design could have so easily faltered, but it doesn’t. The mix is just right. It doesn’t overstep its influences but it doesn’t need to. The Hong Kong setting and Wei’s struggle to maintain both of his competing personas create a compelling world. The driving model is superb, offering exact control whether on a bike, speeding in a racing car or tailing a suspect in a chicken truck. The combat is fluid and fun, with many valid options available at any time.

It’s amazing to think that this game was almost cancelled and cast aside due to budget costs and development delays. We don’t know how much of what is now Sleeping Dogs (it began life as True Crime: Hong Kong) was handed over to Square Enix, and perhaps we never will, but it would have been criminal for a game of this calibre to slip between the cracks. It is the perfect open world fix in the lead up to GTA V and full credit to United Front Games and Square Enix London for crafting this entertaining, engrossing and deeply impressive title.