Sleeping Dogs

I’m probably not the first person to admit this, but I don’t think the Grand Theft Auto games are actually that fun to play. They are spectacle crime simulators, with arcady driving and mediocre gun combat. While their narratives feature top notch voice talent and good moment to moment writing, the stories themselves end up as cliche Mafia stories involving feuding gangs and eventual betrayals. Enter Sleeping Dogs, a game developed by the now defunct United Front Games, a GTA clone with a Hong Kong action twist. And strangely enough the change in setting and melee combat actually made me a believer in this GTA clone.

You play as Wei Shen, an undercover cop infiltrating a Triad clan known as the Sun On Yee. The Sun On Yee is notorious for rooting out rats. You quickly learn that the previous undercover officer was brutally tortured and killed. Wei’s own legitimacy is questioned by the gang members but fortunately he proves himself worthy to them. As Wei begins to work his way up the ranks of the clan, it starts to dawn on him that he is in too deep. Wei starts to sympathize with some of his brothers especially with Jackie, a scrawny low level goon who sells fake watches. The rest of the plot involves Wei balancing his duty as an officer of the law and as a violent Triad member.

Sleeping Dogs gets the melee combat and the traversal right. The melee combat is visceral and satisfying. It is a simple combination of punches, counters and throws, but challenging where mindless button mashing will quickly get you killed. To break down the monotony of combat, there are environmental takedowns. Wei can grab foes and throw them into hazards including phone booths, ventilation fans and exposed electric circuits. I found the combat to be reminiscent of a cross between the Batman Arkham games and the heat actions from the Yakuza series. The second element that Sleeping Dogs excels at is the parkour system. By timing the A button at the right moment, Wei can vault over walls, glide over benches and make epic leaps over buildings. The parkour system helps make chases fun and is reminiscent of Hong Kong action films.

The glaring weakness of Sleeping Dogs is the gun combat. The gun combat in it of itself is fine; there is a slow down mechanic that triggers when you parkour and aim at the same time. The problem is that guns make melee combat obsolete. Even with your melee skills maxed out, guns are superior in every way. The game tries to mediate this issue by explaining that guns in Hong Kong are very rare. But then the game proceeds to break its own rules in the second half of the game where it seems as if every single baddie is armed to the teeth. It is possible to engage these foes with your fists, but it is much easier to head to the nearest form of cover and use your guns instead. It also doesn’t help that some of the costume DLC for Sleeping Dogs is purposefully built to make Wei an unstoppable gun-toting killing machine

The narrative of Sleeping Dogs is a very predictable crime story but still an enjoyable experience due to the Hong Kong setting. There are some strong memorable characters like the aforementioned Jackie and Mrs. Chu, the mother of a Triad leader who has a rather gruesome way of serving justice. The side characters however, especially the love interests, are heavily underdeveloped. The game has a habit of introducing you to a character, having you spend two side quests with them and then completely abandoning them as if they have never existed. The only side character and love interest that has a decent closing arc is Ilyana, but that is only after you decide to complete all of the Police missions. The side quests feel pretty run of the mill and I recommend only completing them until you have maxed out your experience.

While I’m not a native Hong Konger, I am familiar with the language. The good news is that Sleeping Dogs is a decent portrayal of Hong Kong. The environment is evocative of the real Hong Kong, with the car driving wheel being on the right side and cars driving on the left side of the road. The bad news is that the Cantonese is all over the place. Characters often mix English and Cantonese together in their conversations which doesn’t make any sense especially in Hong Kong. The only type of Chinese people that speak this way are non-native Chinese like American Born Chinese because they don’t have the sufficient vocabulary to say a full sentence in Cantonese. It’s very strange because characters like Mrs. Chu and others speak in perfect Cantonese, so I suspect it is a vocal casting issue. My other big qualm about the dialog is that almost everyone speaks with an American accent even though Hong Kong was formerly a British colony.

My takeaway from Sleeping Dogs is that it is a GTA clone done right. The game feels fresh and exciting with the setting being in Hong Kong. The melee combat and traversal are fun enough by themselves and sets it apart from just being another GTA clone. The problem I have with Sleeping Dogs is that guns completely trivialize melee combat. The game also has an issue of introducing side characters only to immediately abandon them soon after. Sleeping Dogs is almost too evocative of a Hong Kong action film. It’s good dumb fun as long as you don’t think too much about it.