Sleeping Dogs opens on Wei Shen, a Hong Kong-American police officer and martial artist, working back in the city he left behind. He is not there to write tickets. He is there to climb inside the Sun On Yee, one of Hong Kong’s most powerful Triad organizations, and pull it down from the inside.
Trailer, via Sleeping Dogs.
Wei Shen and the Sun On Yee
United Front Games built Sleeping Dogs around that double life, and it is the best thing the game has going. Shen reconnects with his childhood friend Jackie Ma, a low-level Triad member, and works his way up until he has the trust of boss Winston Chu. Every favor he does for the gang is a crime he is committing as a cop. The game never lets him off that hook.
Square Enix published Sleeping Dogs in August 2012 for PlayStation 3, Windows and Xbox 360. It began development in 2008 and was announced in 2009 as part of the True Crime series, then canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011 over delays and budget issues. Square Enix bought the publishing rights six months later and gave it a new name.
Fists Before Firearms
The combat is the reason to play. Sleeping Dogs leans on martial arts moves, grapples and environmental attacks rather than gunplay, and it is better for it. Triad XP comes from melee work and violent actions like environmental kills, and the reward scales with how complex the move was. That system pushes you to fight with style instead of mashing one button.
The progression splits three ways, and each path pays out differently:
- Triad XP, earned in melee combat, unlocks improved damage, better weapon durability and unblockable attacks.
- Face XP, earned in civilian side missions, unlocks cosmetic items like clothes and vehicles.
- Police XP tracks Shen’s work on the right side of the law.
A face meter sits on the HUD next to Shen’s health, and filling it unlocks health regeneration and cheaper equipment. Reach a high enough Face level and a valet will deliver your chosen vehicle anywhere in the city.
A Hong Kong Built From Field Research
The open world covers a contemporary Hong Kong split into four districts named after real regions of the city. United Front staff traveled to Hong Kong during development to research the visuals and the sound, and Square Enix London Studios worked alongside them. Shen crosses that map by running, jumping, climbing, swimming, and driving cars, boats and motorcycles.
Will Yun Lee plays Shen. Tom Wilkinson is Thomas Pendrew, who coordinates the mission; Byron Mann is Raymond Mak, Shen’s handler; Kelly Hu is Jane Teng, who runs the police strike force. Edison Chen plays Jackie Ma, Parry Shen plays Winston Chu, and James Hong is Uncle Po, the Sun On Yee chairman.
Caught between his duty as a cop and the bonds he forms with the people he is betraying, Shen finds the line between his identities blurring.
What Holds It Back
The camera is the weak point. It fights you in tight spaces and during the melee exchanges the game wants you to savor, and some animations do not hold up next to the rest of the presentation. These are real problems, not nitpicks, and they show up most when Sleeping Dogs is asking you to be precise.
The story carries the weight anyway. When a massacre tears the organization apart and triggers a war for its leadership, Shen is forced to question who he can trust on either side of the law. That is a familiar crime-drama beat, but the game earns it because it spent hours making you like the people Shen is betraying.
1.5 Million Units and a Camera Problem
Sleeping Dogs sold over 1.5 million units by September 2012, and it deserved the run. The melee-first combat, the triple experience system and the Hong Kong setting all pull in the same direction. The camera drags the score down, but this is one of the more confident open-world games of its generation. 8.2 of 10.
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