Welcome to another Spontaneous Sunday, this week I've played Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (2014, United Front Games, Square Enix, Xbox One). It is an updated, current-gen re-release of Sleeping Dogs, which was originally released in 2012 on last-gen consoles. It is one of the free games available through Games With Gold on Xbox Live this month.
"Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure video game by United Front Games and Square Enix London for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 platforms. Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the single-player story follows Wei Shen, an undercover Hong Kong-American police officer on assignment to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organisation. Definitive Edition was released in October 2014 for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It features improved gameplay, setting and audiovisual quality."
- Wikipedia on Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
What do I expect from the game?
As Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure game with crime themes, I expect it to have obvious influences from other games of this genre such as Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row etc, and borrow some features and systems from these games to an extent. Sleeping Dogs is a fairly well known and high profile game so I expect it to be good, though I have never really heard or read any reviews of it. I'm particularly interested in the setting - modern day Hong Kong - as I think it will be an interesting setting and not like any setting I have seen before in a game. In terms of gameplay I expect that it will be mission based, with side missions and collectables scattered throughout the city.
First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?
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| The game's front end |
The game's front end is simple but effective and has an aesthetic that is in fitting with its setting and themes. I started a new game and an intro cutscene played, in which the game's protagonist - Wei Shen - is conducting some manner of shady deal at a docks, before police show up and raid it. The player then takes control of Wei Shen and attempt to escape the police by sprinting, running, jumping and climbing - this acts as a quick intro to the games movement mechanics. This sequence lasts a couple of minutes, with short cutscenes and gameplay flowing seamlessly into one-another as you try to escape through fish-packing plants and apartments before eventually being surrounded and arrested. This is a high-energy intro to the game and also a good way of teaching basic movement.
The next scene sees Shen in a holding cell where he meets with a childhood friend and criminal, as credits play showing the game's array of voice actors which includes such people as Emma Stone. Then Shen enters an interrogation room and speaks with some officers and its revealed that he's actually an undercover officer himself. Theres something very cinematic about the opening sequence and it did a good job at drawing me into the story.
The first few missions involves meeting a gang-boss and running some odd-jobs around a market area, buying new clothes and fighting a fair few thugs. I was instantly impressed by the authenticity of the game world. There's a lot of detail and a lot going on. The environments look and feel authentic and its full of many varied NPCs that have a lot to say and perform various actions in a lifelike way.
The player is introduced to the combat system early on and it feels fluid and easy to grasp; you can use combos, grab and throw enemies etc. After a few missions in an enclosed area, you are given free reign to explore the city, completing missions for the gangs, police and also doing favours for random people.
What do I like about the game? What does it do well?
There's a lot of positive points about Sleeping Dogs. As an open-world game, the game world is obviously important and the developers did a great job with it; the game-world is an attractive and interest place to explore. The variety and detail that has gone into it is impressive, its exactly how I would imagine Hong Kong to be, and the graphics are also very strong - the developers definitely made good use of the Xbox One's graphical capabilities when updating the game from last-gen.
The hand-to-hand combat is a really good system. It feels fluid and fun and theres a few cool mechanic such as grappling and throwing enemies and using the environment in combat. The game also features a parkour-esque movement system that allows you to run, jump and climb around the environment and this often plays a part in missions.
The story is another strong point of the game and also the way that it is delivered. The story seems mature and well-thought out and there seems to be slightly more substance to it than there is in a lot of other games. The game feels cinematic to an extent and the voice actors and script help contribute to this too. The story is revealed at a good pace, with references made by characters to mysterious events in Wei Shen's past that made me want to keep playing and reveal more about the story. The scenarios in each mission are also well thought-out, even the "favours" that you can do for random people could probably have gotten away with being simple "fetch" missions but there's more to them than that - one involved talking to a woman who distracts you while her accomplice robs you and you have to chase him down, and another involved driving around the city taking photos for a clothes vendor to print on t-shirts.
You can also upgrade and customise your character through buying clothes and accessories and earning XP that can be used to improve skills and abilities, which adds another dimension to the game.
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| Character customisation. |
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| Upgrade system. |
Despite my initial thought that the game would be clearly influenced by other open-world crime games like GTA and Saints Row, I think that it does enough to set itself apart from this by means of its interesting setting and its unique mechanics and this works to its credit.
What don't I like about the game?
I don't have many complaints about the game as its pretty solid in most ways and I only have minor issues with it. Firstly, the free-running movement system is good but outside of missions that are specifically designed to make use of it, there aren't many real opportunities to use it. In missions designed for it, you are directed through routes that make good use of it, but in free-roam, it doesn't see much effective use, which is a shame because its a fun mechanic.
The driving physics aren't the best and it can be quite fiddly to drive around the city, for motorbikes in particular. Though with that said, there is a really good mechanic when driving which is the ability to ram which involves pressing X to swiftly swerve sideways which can be used to attack other vehicles and is unique and really fun in practice. Finally, a rather minor but noticeable issue is that the engine audio of the cars is really high pitched and loud and it sounds like you're always travelling at high speed when you're just cruising around. The vehicle audio doesn't gel with the visuals and its jarring and a bit annoying!
Final Thoughts
Sleeping Dogs: Definite Edition is a strong open-world action game in an interesting setting with some interesting and unique mechanics, and a fairly well-written story. I played for about 3 hours and I feel like I've barely really gotten into it, I didn't even get any guns! So I'll definitely be returning to it in the future to play some more. There's no serious issues with it that I have found which may be due to it being a re-release; the developers probably identified the issues from the original release and rectified them for the Definitive Edition.
That's all for this weeks Spontaneous Sunday!
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