Sleeping Dogs: Review
Thanks to the series Grand Theft Auto a whole genre has appeared in the gaming industry, the representatives of which are usually called – GTA-clones. An open world with complete freedom of action, of course, cars for every taste; crime plot, chases, shootouts, robberies… The names of the games changed, but the essence remained the same. However Rockstar I wasn’t afraid to experiment: GTA, still remaining the flagship of its own genre, with each new part of the adventures of the great thief it brought something new to the gameplay. The main character could not only engage in criminal activities, but also devote some time to his personal life – go to a bar, take part in street racing, dress up in a fashion boutique and invite a girl for a cup of hot coffee. However, this did not negate the ample opportunities for all sorts of fun: nothing prevented you from throwing a couple of Molotov cocktails into the crowd, organizing a deadly ride through the city at night on a tank, jumping from the roof of a skyscraper on horseback on a motorcycle – there were enough opportunities to realize your fantasies. Despite the seemingly quite serious last parts of the series, a certain part of such madness has not gone away, remaining one of the highlights of the game.
Some of the followers went further, building the entire game on this cheerful anarchy, sliding the gameplay with the plot at the same time into the abyss of bacchanalia and complete surrealism – this, as many guessed, is a nod towards Saints Row: The Third.
You can choose another path – focus on realism (as far as possible in such games) and a serious plot. That’s exactly what the studio did United Front Games, somehow quietly and without unnecessary fuss, releasing another variation on the theme GTA — Sleeping Dogs.
One among strangers
In fact, Sleeping Dogs should have been born much earlier, and she intended to publish them Activision, not a Japanese company Square Enix. But a year ago True Crime: Hong Kong first she changed owners, and then her name. Yes, yes, Sleeping Dogs – ideological continuation of the series True Crime, which, as is clear from the original name of the game, moved from the slums of New York and Los Angeles to the no less cramped nooks and crannies of Hong Kong.
The main character of “Dogs” returned from America to his native Hong Kong. Policeman Wei Shen receives a difficult task – to infiltrate one of the city gangs in order to collect information about the top of the criminal world of this city thoroughly saturated with crime. Taking the first step is surprisingly easy – old acquaintances help, and Wei’s true identity is unknown to almost no one, including the local police. The infiltrated agent faces a difficult path – starting from the very bottom, as an errand boy for the leader of a small group, he will have to rise to the level of the shadow masters of Hong Kong, without forgetting about his task.
The plot of the game tries its best to correspond to all the features of typical Asian action films about the difficult work of law enforcement agencies. Corruption and self-interest, cruelty and uncompromisingness of the Triads, the police, sometimes not inferior to bandits in this cruelty, loyalty to duty and betrayal of friends, shootings, fights… Add to this the elusive similarity between Wei and the famous actor Chow Yun-Fat (Chow Yun-fat) – those who like creations John Woo (John Woo), they definitely won’t be disappointed.
Imitating films about the Hong https://fatbettopcasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ Kong mafia was only beneficial – precisely because of this Sleeping Dogs has acquired a unique flavor that distinguishes it favorably from other similar games that never cease to exploit the already hackneyed theme of criminal life in one of the American cities. Pleasantly pleased with the seriousness of the plot. No, there are also funny moments, but they only set off a not-at-all-fun story. There is no sugary pathos here, no excessive self-irony, sometimes reaching the point of absurdity (which is often the sin of GTA, especially the third part). There are also plenty of violent scenes – the authors clearly took age ratings into account in the last place. But here, too, there were no excesses – no one places much emphasis on the “blood”.
The main character is not a machine at all, carrying out orders at any cost. The writers slowly reveal to the players a portrait of a man torn by a difficult choice between loyalty to the oath and the recognition of new friends. Other characters in “Dogs” are not far behind in this regard: seemingly heartless bandits, it turns out, are capable of emotions, and one and the same hero can suddenly show a completely different side of himself. There is almost no standard “good-bad” division here. For this, special thanks must be given to the designers, thanks to whom each character looks like an individual, and not an extra for the crowd. It is impossible not to note the work of voice actors, among whom such names as Tom Wilkinson (Tom Wilkinson), Emma Stone (Emma Stone) and Lucy Liu (Lucy Liu).
City lights
The city itself is also alive and real. I haven’t been to Hong Kong, but the slums here are quite consistent with my ideas about the financial capital of Asia. The lack of heavy traffic spoils the impression a little: despite the fact that the characters in the dialogues sometimes complain about traffic jams, in the game the streets are quite spacious. But that doesn’t make it any less interesting to just, without a specific goal, drive a car in the night rain, admiring the city life going on as usual.
However, in virtual Hong Kong you don’t have to suffer for long from idleness – there is something to do here. We have access to several tasks at once, of which two types can be distinguished – Triad missions, where Wei will have to deal with not entirely legal matters, and work for the police – surveillance of mafia leaders, investigation of crimes, detentions and other difficult work of an embedded agent. By completing these missions, we move further and further along the storyline, so don’t rush to complete them right away – the game is quite short, so it’s worth paying attention to the side missions, of which there are also plenty here. For example, Wei is a fairly well-known person in the city, so ordinary passers-by often ask for help in a difficult situation. Fix a car, give a ride to a neighboring area, deliver a package… It’s a little unrespectable for such a tough guy like our hero, but in the end it almost always comes down to a fight or a chase with shooting, so the image of a street fighter (or vice versa – a crime fighter; it depends on the circumstances) will not suffer. There is a separate line of missions to combat drug trafficking: we hack into a street surveillance camera near places where drugs are sold, having previously cleared the surrounding area of those who interfere with this, and then from our home we connect to this camera and give a command to capture the drug dealer.
For those who like to explore the world, hidden in the secluded corners of the city are suitcases with currency and valuables and small prayer altars that give an increase to the maximum level of health. And here you can sing karaoke, eat at a street eatery, place bets on cockfights, change your “outfit” in clothing stores, invite a girl (and more than one) on a date, take part in street races… You definitely won’t be able to stay idle.
I’ll become a gangster – let them teach me
For completing missions and side quests, Wei receives experience points. Moreover, this experience is of several types: for working for triads we get, surprisingly, triad points, for completing police tasks we get police points. They beat the enemy with particular cruelty – they earned a significant increase in “gangster” experience. But it’s easy to lose police points if, during a mission, you damage private property and commit criminal acts against ordinary citizens. There is also an authority scale, which is filled mainly by completing side quests.
Each type of experience when reaching a new level provides the opportunity to choose one of many improvements. And everything is not limited to the standard increase in damage and protection – there is, for example, such exotic things as a personal car with a driver. In addition, there are advantages of “leveling up” that are not so obvious at first glance – the opportunity to own your own property, from clothes to vehicles, opens up gradually, depending on the level achieved. You won’t be able to buy a cool car and dress up “civilly” right away – if you please, first show everyone what kind of authority you are. In turn, some clothes provide a noticeable increase in damage in battles or speed up the “leveling up” of a certain type of experience.
A little to the side is a tree for learning new hand-to-hand combat techniques. More precisely, it is located on the same screen as other improvements, but you will have to learn in a rather trivial way – you need to find one of the 12 figurines that were once stolen from a martial arts trainer, and return it to the owner. He will happily reveal another secret of mastery (you need to independently choose which technique to study from the two branches of development), after which you can freely apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
My kung fu is stronger than yours!
And fight in Sleeping Dogs happens very often. There are also plenty of shootouts, but the main emphasis is still placed on all kinds of assault, and fights using firearms noticeably lose in entertainment. Sometimes, even if you have a pistol at hand (and this is rather rare in the game), it is much more interesting to solve the issue with your fists.
However, Wei’s fists alone are not enough – he is excellent at using improvised means in battle. Tapping on the head with a tire iron or skillfully working with a “pen” is a nice thing. In general, thanks to the hand-to-hand combat system, the fights here are surprisingly varied: opponents can be punched and kicked, knocked to the ground, hit against walls, escape from their grips and carry out counterattacks. But the most important feature is, of course, the use of special attacks using environmental details. Once you grab the enemy by the chest, the game highlights those objects that can help neutralize the enemy. Throw the stunned bandit into a trash can, throw it onto the exposed wires of an open electrical panel, hang it on a sharp hook, push it into the trunk of a car (then you can have fun driving around the city in the same car to the angry screams of your awakened enemy). Thanks to the wealth of fighting techniques, brawls never get boring, and different types of opponents force you to look for your own tactics against each. The animation is a bit of a let down, making some strikes look jerky and unnatural, but overall the fights look much better than what we’re used to seeing in similar games. Euphoria would also come here – it would be absolutely wonderful.
In general, physics is one of the few weak points of “Dogs”. After GTA 4, the behavior of cars on the road here looks a little poor, so it’s much more fun to ride a two-wheeled vehicle or even travel on foot (if the distance to the destination is short). Another advantage of moving around the city on your own is Wei’s love of parkour. They won’t let you climb onto the roof of every house, but jumping over a fence, climbing scaffolding to another secret place with a safe or figurine is easy. In fights, you can also use jumping and high-speed overcoming of obstacles, simultaneously knocking the enemy down.
When the main plot is completed, the player is left alone with those secondary tasks that he did not have time to complete. And then all the charm of the game instantly collapses – without a global goal, Hong Kong is no longer so attractive with its lights. You begin to notice the flaws of the graphics engine, and the implementation of physics mentioned above that is far from the best.. Sleeping Dogs it is the plot that is the skeleton on which everything else rests. While you are following the exciting (and it is truly exciting) story of Wei, who is almost single-handedly leading his fight against a huge mafia structure, you simply do not notice the shortcomings. It’s just a shame that this story ends so quickly. Although… a good story shouldn’t be drawn out, really?
Pros: the plot is in the best traditions of Hong Kong action films John Woo; bright and memorable characters; living city; interesting hand-to-hand combat system.
Cons: outdated graphics; I would like a better implementation of car physics.
