Gameplay - 7/10
Storyline - 7/10
Graphics - 10/10
Game Score : 24/30
Hey y'all, hows it hanging? We are back again today looking at another highly anticipated game. Just a small reminder we are having a giveaway at the end of September for a PC copy of Skyrim on Steam. Outside of that only other update I have is that we are almost at 300 likes on our Facebook page so do your part to help the page grow. With all that being said I present to you, Sleeping Dogs.
The game was originally in development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
Sleeping Dogs features a large cast. The player character is Detective Wei Shen, an officer sent deep undercover in a feared Triad gang. The game takes place in a fictional Hong Kong with players assuming control of Wei Shen, an officer of the San Francisco Police Department, who had been seconded to the Hong Kong Police Force. Wei has been assigned by the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau to go undercover and infiltrate the Triad society called Sun On Yee and take them down. The game starts in a Hong Kong Shipping Harbor, where undercover police officer Wei Shen is busted after a drug deal gone bad. Thrown into jail, Wei meets his old friend, Jackie Ma, who offers Wei to join his gang after they are released.
The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts in combat. Players also drive a variety of vehicles including automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The combat system revolves around hand-to-hand fighting, similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum/Batman: Arkham City's "Freeflow" combat system. The cover system allows the player to move between cover, fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific enemy. Individual body parts can also be targeted.
Overall my initial impressions of this game were impressive and I was mad hyped for another open world game to play seeing as how our last open world game we reviewed was Saints Row The Third. Sadly however I might have gotten my hopes up too high comparing it to an epic gaming experience like Saints Row The Third. Don't get me wrong now Sleeping Dogs is a pretty decent game, and employs a lot of game mechanics to set itself apart from comparison to similar games such as the GTA and Saints Row series. However with so many variant game mechanics it comes off feeling like a novelty after a while and interest wains. Thankfully there is a solid story-line present even if a bit cliched; which due to the games fast paced action keeps manages to keep you playing. Definitely worth a try and will most definitely keep you from sleeping...
