Quick game review: Sleeping Dogs.

I just finished playing Sleeping Dogs (PC version) and I thought I would post a small review.

Graphics

The graphics in the game are good. I can only speak for the PC version, but the graphics should be roughly the same for console versions, except for one thing.... There's a free piece of DLC for the PC version that adds high resolution textures. This requires you have a graphics card with 1GB of video memory, but gives the graphics a nice sharp look to them. It's no Crysis, but it seems, to me at least, about on-par with GTA4, with higher res textures. Click below screenshot for a bigger version.

Gameplay

Think Grand Theft Auto with less gun play and more Kung Fu and you'll have a pretty good idea. The melee combat is good, with more moves being unlocked as you complete tasks within the game. There's the standard fare of GTA-like gameplay such as races, vehicle snatching, shootouts, collectables, and so on. The shooting, which comes into play later in the game, is good. The vehicle controls don't feel *quite* as tight as in GTA, but I never felt the need to complain about it, I doubt you would either. It's a pretty small difference.

Conrols

While the PC version has perfectly fine controls, I opted to use the Xbox 360 controller. Fortunately, that gave me a good feel for what it would play like on a console, and I can safely say that it should play just fine either way. Aiming a gun would be a little better with a mouse, but I found everything else a lot more fun with the controller. The only oddity I ran into is that the game seemed to really want to use the mouse/kb combo. I would have to start the game and move my character with the controller WITHOUT touching the keyboard or mouse for the game to accept the controller, regardless of what options I used. After that, however, it played just fine.

Sound

I found the sound to be the weakest part, but not because of the voice acting. The voice acting was spot on. Anyone who's played Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row knows that the radio is a pretty big part of the sound experience, and I found that part lacking. Music selection ranges from a few Asian tunes to classical music. Not much noteworthy to speak of there, nothing memorable. But like I said, the voice acting is great, as are sound effects.

Story

You play as "Wei Shin" a cop that goes undercover to take down the Hong Kong based organized crime group known as the Sun On Yee. The game focuses on the struggle that Wei Shin goes through balancing his duty as a cop with his growing loyalties to his fellow gangsters. I thought it was interesting and well done. I never got bored of the story and was always interested to see what would happen next. No complaints.

Fun

If you have fun with the game play of games like Grand Theft Auto, you'll surely enjoy this game. I liked the various mechanics and game play aspects. Little things like being able to ram other vehicles during races or police chases are pretty cool. Things like hacking cameras or picking locks proved to be interesting enough without becoming annoying. I had plenty of fun with it.

Final Thoughts

The only thing I had heard of Sleeping Dogs was that it was merely "okay" or "average" before I played it myself, which is sad because I think it's a lot better than that. I found the story interesting, the gameplay enjoyable and the voice acting very good. The only thing I really disliked was the lack of anything memorable or interesting in the vehicle radio, which isn't that big of a deal. If you enjoy the Grand Theft Auto games, I think you'll enjoy this, especially if you like the Asian twist on the formula.

Score

4/5