The easiest
way to describe Sleeping Dogs is via
the title I used for this entry. Basically, the game boils down to an Asian
version of Grand Theft Auto – it’s a
big sandbox crime game set in Hong Kong, and takes two steps forward but one
step backward with its portrayal of morality. It seemingly offers you a bit
wider of a path to take at first before you realize, nah, this is just as
violent and immoral as Grand Theft Auto,
even if you are playing a cop.
The premise –
You’re Wei Shen, a cop on loan from the San Francisco PD to a department in
Hong Kong, where you grew up. Because of your background and because you grew
up with the lieutenants of the gang triads, you’re tabbed for undercover duty.
As opposed
to pretty much every other undercover situation ever though, the department
doesn’t seem to mind you regularly executing gang members. Or running over
pedestrians on the street – If you do happen to get caught by the police
afterward, well, it’s just a $15,000 fine / bribe to get out of the clink.
Since the
game can be tricky in spots, I did get caught by the police a couple times, and
each time that struck me as ludicrous. Why not have your character just respawn
from a checkpoint instead? That’s what happens when you’re actually doing a
mission for the triad or the police force.
Beyond that,
if you want to platinum the game, it requires that you do some really morally
squeamish things for completely unknown reasons. One of the stat awards
requires that you kill 50 cops, even though it’s technically possible to play
through the main storyline without intentionally killing police officers. Another
stat award requires 50 destroyed vehicles, so the easiest way to do that is to
ram civilian cars on the highway – there actually aren’t that many missions
with the triads where you can destroy their cars repeatedly.
These
elements detract a bit from a really solid narrative – the game was published
by Square-Enix, and shares some plot elements with their better games – and some
good innovations when it comes to the sandbox genre. As opposed to, say, Infamous, anything that you can collect –
health upgrades, melee upgrade statues – is shown on the mini-map and can be
manually selected on the map. Then, depending on the location, you get
turn-by-turn directions presented on the screen. (It’s nice when a game set in
the present somewhat acknowledges the idea of GPS.)
So, overall,
getting back to the actual game… If you can get past the moral hurdles I
outlined a bit, then Sleeping Dogs is
worth its purchase price, which is about $10 to $25 on eBay, depending on
whether you want it new or used. It’s also currently free for Playstation Plus
subscribers.
(I’ve inadvertently
been shilling for them the past couple of blog entries, but it’s mostly because
I got rid of my cable to save money. My GameFly and PS+ membership combined is
barely a quarter of the cost of what my cable TV cost.)
Random note:
Sleeping Dogs keeps up the trend of
Emma Stone playing non-redheads for some inexplicable reason. Even in digital
form, she shows up as a blonde. Dear Emma, since I know you’re no doubt reading
this, please stick to the red hair. Even if it’s not your natural hair color, I
guarantee you, it’s a good look on you.
The picture of Emma Stone is a fairly common
wallpaper from the Internet, which I found via Google Images. And if she needs
more proof to go back to red, about 90 percent of the results for “Emma Stone
hot” are with her as a ginger.
