Sleeping dogs worth buying?

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

OT: Fuck yes. The game is one of the best sandbox crime games this gen with a terrific story and gameplay to match. Wei's little Die Hard rampage near the end was fucking spectacular.

agree with this, and to be honest i'm fucking impressed with a sandbox style game having the story it did...by no means was it "OH MY GAWDDD MUST PLAY MORE" but i actually wanted to do the story missions everytime and i could actually play it for hours at a time without getting bored.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

Yes. Yes it is. It's a great game. I've already summed up my opinion on it in a different thread:

It's the most fun I've ever had with a sandbox game. The story seems to be taking itself way too seriously, to the point when it's filled with unintentional laughs (those are the best kind I think). It tries so hard to be dramatic and serious that it comes across as silly and awkward, but I find it all the more endearing for it. It's like a puppy that pisses itself and then gives you that sad look that only puppies know how to do. You just can't hate it.

As for the gameplay, it's a blast. I found myself laughing out in excitement more often than not. Not particularly deep but IMMENSELY enjoyable. This is what a FUN game looks like. None of that GTA well-written story-focused grim misery, none of that saint's row's 'humour' that's trying way too hard to be over the top and kind of falls flat in the end. That game is just fun. Plain and simple. It's fun to run a motorbike off a pier, jump off at the last second as it hits the water and land in a motorboat, start up the boat, run full-speed onto the shore levelling a group of gangsters, get off flying spinning kung-fu kicking the first of the last two guys standing in the head, then grab the other one, shove hime into a phone booth and shatter his ribcage against the receiver.

Yes. You can do that.

definitely get it.

 

[Milanezi]

I loved this game, had lots of fun with it. The relationship system however was "weird", I either missed the tutorial or it just sucks, but I really feel like I missed something there. It is, however, a truly minor aspect of the game. The main mission is pretty serious, although it strongly carries a kung-fu movie undertone, after all, even though you can go around as armed as any GTA character you'll probably be doing most of the combat in hand-to-hand combat, which is a kung-fu spectacle as expected

Driving around is weird at first because you actually have to drive on the left, but it's fun. There's also a "hijacking" system for you to jump from one car/bike to another, something that goes totally against the laws of physics, but it's so damn fun you won't really care lol

Pretty great graphically speaking with good gameplay, and it's undeniable the way it looks like Hong Kong. It's not as big as GTA, but it's big enough to grant you fun worth your money.

I heard it say this was supposed to be a True Crime title, they changed the name because there were a lot of complications during the production of True Crime, so much so they feared it would actually harm the game's performance in terms of sales and all. So they simply called it "Sleeping Dogs"; between you and me, I believe this story because it DOES feel like a True Crime game, only better.

In case you don't know, you'll take the role of an american cop, natural born in Hong Kong, who goes back to his birthplace to infiltrate the Triad... Or something like that, I'm not so sure anymore, been a while since I finished it. If you want a shorter version of the story watch a great movie called State of Glory, only you have the Irish instead of the Chinese, and you get Gary Oldman doing crazy shit, because that's what he does best lol

 

[Eduku]

I think most of the others have already summed up the game nicely, but I do want to say how incredible the world is in Sleeping Dogs. My girlfriend grew up near Hong Kong and goes there quite often, and she actually pointed out some of the locations that she recognised while I was playing the game.

 

[GoaThief]

I thought it was one of the best games from 2012. Maybe it's my love for Asian culture (been to Hong Kong twice) and movies, but Sleeping Dogs just nails it. It has a lot of problems, but the gameplay, the driving, and the city makes it all amazing.

Are you serious? Driving looks so bad from what I've seen on videos

Driving is shit, Saints Row the Third is just as bad. GTA IV still remains the best in class.

However, Sleeping Dogs overall is a great game and especially worthy of a purchase at that price. Voice acting is superb, both the deadpan and the utterly ridiculous yet intentionally poor for the laughs. The graphics are god-teir and I've yet to play a game that captures the heart and soul of a real world place (I've spent time in Hong Kong) as much as it does. Loved the melee combat too, how can one not like busting out King Fu badassery to one of the finest game soundtracks I've heard in some time. Dedicated Warp and Ninja Tune radio stations (heavenly) - plus some absolute Dancehall/Bashment smashers to boot.

 

[NathLines]

I loved it. It's nice to have a game set in another culture and I really prefer the focus on melee combat rather than gunfights. There's seems to be a lot of homages to Chinese martial arts movies if you're into that, but I don't really know since I don't really watch those.

 

[Forobryt]

snip

Pro Tip: Get a motorcycle and wheelie into oncoming traffic. Just do it.

This is the best tip i have seen related to the game. Think i spent more time flying than actually driving whilst playing. Well atleast when i wasnt blocking up roads with cars just so i could hear loads of angry asian drivers shouting at me, or driving on the pavement to destroy all the parking meters.

 

[Michael Collett]

I'm not big on sandbox games - I keep buying them and getting bored as soon as the game finally lets you explore on your own. That didn't happen with Sleeping Dogs. I did every mission in the game and it was over in 20 hours. I didn't get every collectible, just the ones I drove past.

The story is cliche-driven but no more so than your average hollywood action flick. The missions are reasonably repetitive with your typical "Pick up a guy/drive to a place then shoot all the dudes/getaway in a flashy car chase" missions dominating. That said Sleeping Dogs really nails those aspects so it never feels like a chore.

The combat is fun and flashy, similar to Batman Arkham Asylum but you have to be a bit more responsible for your own movement and the combos are only 3-5 moves. You unlock a heap of new moves which are really simple to pull off, sure you may just find your favourite and repeat it to win but its more fun to just see how many different moves you can pull off in one fight. Car combat is one of the coolest things, shooting out tires on pursuing cars usually flips them and nothing feels more bad ass. You can shoot out the drivers, passengers or tires for a quick disable or pepper the bonnet to trigger an explosion.

Don't get fooled by the experience system, you never need to pick between your triad and police score. I would recommend maximising your triad score because I was only 3/4 to maximum on triad experience when I finished the game.

As a bonus, the girlfriend missions are just one offs! You go on one date and get their special bonuses and never have to go take them bowling!

 

[Ldude893]

As a gamer from Hong Kong, I waited for this game since it was still under the True Crime title. I was highly pissed when it got canned by Activision, but then overjoyed when Square Enix picked it up again while changing the title.

I'm slightly iffed about some differences between the game's version of Hong Kong compared to real life, but honestly I thought the developers did a great job. It's one of the best representation of Hong Kong in any video game, and it's never bad when I get to rampage the streets of my own city with a virtual minibus. The fighting is similar to Arkham Asylum, and though it does get repetitive it's one of the best aspects of the game. The driving physics are over-the-top; merely shooting the tire of a moving vehicle will cause it to flip and explode like a hybrid between a Pinto and the Space Shuttle Challenger. Still, it's much smoother than the driving in GTA IV, in which driving any vehicle is almost like handling a rock on a three-wheeled shopping cart. Plus, in car chases you can hijack the other vehicle by flinging yourself onto it from the one you're driving, which is ridiculous but awesome.

There's something of a faction meter that measures the character's affiliation with both the Triads and the police, and it changes depending on what the player does in-game. But it's pretty minor; getting a higher meter for either faction gives its share of benefits, but it never changes the outcome of the game. It does complement the game's main story about a cop going undercover among the Triads, which is basically a homage to every big Hong Kong crime movie ever made.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's one of the best sandbox games out there, but I think it's still worth buying if you want a fun little free-roaming game set outside an American city for a change.

[sub]CAPTCHA: No regrets. See, even the CAPTCHA agrees with me[/sub]

 

[Soxafloppin]

I actually really enjoyed it. It kind of took me by surprise.

In terms of game play its a jack or all trades, master of none. Theres better combat, driving, shooting etc in other games but this still blends them together nicely.

I'm not saying the Story is anything special but the characters are a lot of fun, especially Jackie.

Overall I'd say you'l enjoy the game, I sure did, the humor is great in it as well.

 

[veloper]

Think about GTA4 and make it better (the combat, the atmosphere, the city), but also a shorter experience and you have Sleeping Dogs. It's good.

 

[Arafiro]

Everyone in this thread is saying that the combat was this great thing, did I play a different game?
The hand to hand combat was completely impossible and killed my progression on the spot whenever you were forced to actually fight anything. I couldn't even get past that mission with the aquariums on the wall (the one where it introduces the rhythm minigame).

 

[timeformime]

Sleeping Dogs was an incredible find for me having been a huge GTA IV fan. This is GTA IV with way, way more polish, way more stuff to do, that feels much more like a sandbox, in a much more interesting city. On PC, playing with an HDMI cord to my couch, the visuals are fantastic.

It's all hand to hand combat, but you do learn new moves regularly, so think of it as an Arkham City brawler in your crime sandbox. It keeps you on your toes, and if you start to psych yourself out, you can easily screw up the counters and moves. When you get in the zone, though, you'll take out fools right and left, very much like an actual fighting game.

The story is good, though not great, and I got into it after a while, but Wei Shen is no Niko Bellic or John Marston. If the story had been R* quality, this game would have been off the charts with reviewers.

The driving is fine, and it grew on me as I got more and more vehicles. One plus: you can action hijack any car on the road at any time.

Buy it! This and Max Payne 3 are two great under-recognized games of this year that do what they do really, really well.

 

[veloper]

Everyone in this thread is saying that the combat was this great thing, did I play a different game?
The hand to hand combat was completely impossible and killed my progression on the spot whenever you were forced to actually fight anything. I couldn't even get past that mission with the aquariums on the wall (the one where it introduces the rhythm minigame).

Could well be. General consensus is that combat in SD was a bit on the easy side and certainly not impossible.

 

[Arafiro]

Everyone in this thread is saying that the combat was this great thing, did I play a different game?
The hand to hand combat was completely impossible and killed my progression on the spot whenever you were forced to actually fight anything. I couldn't even get past that mission with the aquariums on the wall (the one where it introduces the rhythm minigame).

Could well be. General consensus is that combat in SD was a bit on the easy side and certainly not impossible.

Damn, I literally couldn't complete that mission even after a couple hours trying again and again. The whole combat system didn't work for me, eventually I ran out of those environmental instant kill points and then I was just screwed.

 

[veloper]

Everyone in this thread is saying that the combat was this great thing, did I play a different game?
The hand to hand combat was completely impossible and killed my progression on the spot whenever you were forced to actually fight anything. I couldn't even get past that mission with the aquariums on the wall (the one where it introduces the rhythm minigame).

Could well be. General consensus is that combat in SD was a bit on the easy side and certainly not impossible.

Damn, I literally couldn't complete that mission even after a couple hours trying again and again. The whole combat system didn't work for me, eventually I ran out of those environmental instant kill points and then I was just screwed.

Maybe you missed some basic stuff somewhere at the start of the game? Nearly every melee attack can be easily blocked and those rarer attacks that cannot be blocked normally, require you to press some other button that is promted in the middle of the screen.
The game really shouldn't be that hard.

 

[GoaThief]

Everyone in this thread is saying that the combat was this great thing, did I play a different game?
The hand to hand combat was completely impossible and killed my progression on the spot whenever you were forced to actually fight anything. I couldn't even get past that mission with the aquariums on the wall (the one where it introduces the rhythm minigame).

Could well be. General consensus is that combat in SD was a bit on the easy side and certainly not impossible.

I wouldn't say it is easy in the later parts of the game, ditto those fight clubs. Saying that however, it's certainly not ridiculously hard and all you generally need to succeed is some spatial awareness, combo timing and counter mastery. The latter is probably the most important of all, practice it and don't button mash or string a massive combo when surrounded so you are not locked in and unable to trigger a counter move.

 

[veloper]

Everyone in this thread is saying that the combat was this great thing, did I play a different game?
The hand to hand combat was completely impossible and killed my progression on the spot whenever you were forced to actually fight anything. I couldn't even get past that mission with the aquariums on the wall (the one where it introduces the rhythm minigame).

Could well be. General consensus is that combat in SD was a bit on the easy side and certainly not impossible.

I wouldn't say it is easy in the later parts of the game, ditto those fight clubs. Saying that however, it's certainly not ridiculously hard and all you generally need to succeed is some spatial awareness, combo timing and counter mastery. The latter is probably the most important of all, practice it and don't button mash or string a massive combo when surrounded so you are not locked in and unable to trigger a counter move.

The fight clubs are good, but also entirely optional.
Later parts of the game can actually be easier than the intermediate bits, if you turned in all those jade statues and searched for the health shrines. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the game a 3 (but I still like it very much).

 

[NearLifeExperience]

Definitely worth getting! It's not a huge milestone in open world games, but it's got a nice fluid combat system going on, a good sense of humor and a story that is interesting enough to keep you occupied. In comparison to games like GTA and Saints Row; guns are a rare commodity in Hong Kong and more than often you will have to rely on your driving skills or the ol' one-two to dispatch your foes. Luckily, Wei Shen has a decent amount of kung fu moves and enviromental kills to his disposal (I remember shoving a dude in a kiln oven!) so that's not a problem at all. Two things I didn't like about this game was the stupid voice-acting (why is everyone speaking perfect english!?) AND THE GODDAMN FUCKING MANDATORY KARAOKE STUFF OH GOD WHY. The radio stations play some really cool tunes, from Chinese hiphop to death metal and tradtional music.
There's also the standard racing quests in the city that are.. okay I guess.

In short, if you like kicking dudes in the face and making sweet jumps in a bustling Hong Kong, go ahead and get it!