Sleeping Dogs - Xbox 360

Nightmarish Sleeping Dogs DLC To Release In Time For Halloween

Matt Helgeson — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 00:15:00 GMT

United Front's open-world action thriller is getting a new DLC pack that pits Wei Shen against some undead Triads. Things could get bloody.

Entitled Nightmare in North Point, the DLC centers around the tale of a deceased gang member that comes back as a zombie, and will also feature vampires and assorted other occult creatures for Shen to battle. Looks like a good time, and it's nice to see United Front and Square Enix supporting Sleeping Dogs with post-launch content. Watch the trailer below.

Nightmare in North Point releases on October 30.

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A Solid, Yet Unremarkable Criminal Adventure

Dan Ryckert — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:47:00 GMT

Saved from the brink of cancellation by Square Enix, the former True Crime: Hong Kong has been reborn and repackaged as Sleeping Dogs. Putting players in the shoes of undercover cop Wei Shen, the game tasks players with infiltrating Hong Kong’s expansive Triad criminal organization. The experience is worth playing, but the buggy gameplay makes former publisher Activision’s lack of faith in the title understandable.

On the surface, Sleeping Dogs is organized in a manner similar to Grand Theft Auto’s tried-and-tested formula. Wei is free to explore the city at his leisure, performing side quests or story missions whenever he chooses. While the story itself doesn’t offer much in the way of creative mission objectives, a healthy assortment of distractions are available. Wei can arrange drug busts via security cameras, participate in fight clubs and street races, find hidden statues that unlock new melee moves at the dojo, and pray at shrines to increase your maximum health.

Most activities take you down a unique progression ladder. Performing police-oriented duties like drug busts unlocks new gunplay abilities. Staying undercover and performing tasks for the gang levels up your Triad ladder, which grants you new melee skills. Helping the citizens of Hong Kong raises your Face level, which allows you to purchase fancier cars and clothing. Fans of GTA’s hidden packages can keep an eye out for dozens of hidden lock boxes throughout the city. They reward you with tons of cash, but there isn’t much to spend it on outside of cars, clothes, and food that grants temporary stat boosts.

Fans of Rocksteady’s Batman games should enjoy Sleeping Dogs’ fighting system, as it features Wei countering and attacking like he was the Caped Crusader himself. Sleeping Dogs features satisfying (albeit familiar) encounters, and you learn several painful-looking moves throughout the game. You can also pull off brutal environmental attacks. My personal favorite was body-slamming a baddie into a wooden pallet of swordfish heads, impaling him with their sharp noses.

Taking on Hong Kong’s underworld with your fists and feet is great, but the gunplay is cookie-cutter by comparison. Shootouts only become frequent later in the game, and their generic nature made me want to charge out from behind cover and deliver a few jump kicks instead of shooting bullets.

When everything works correctly, Sleeping Dogs is fun. Combat is rewarding, the leveling system stands out from the open-world pack, and driving feels natural (not to mention fun, considering the ram ability that every car possesses). Unfortunately, I encountered several bugs and other issues. During a mission that featured me being driven around, a vehicle blocked the road and I couldn’t proceed. While learning a new melee move at the dojo, the game forced me to quit the mission because it didn’t recognize that I was performing it correctly. I had to restart one mission multiple times because the non-player character I was supposed to follow wouldn’t spawn (although I could hear his voice). On top of bugs like these that forced checkpoint restarts, I also experienced minor annoyances like a lack of transitional animations during combat and lines of dialogue that abruptly cut off.

Sleeping Dogs has enough entertainment value to justify Square Enix’s decision to save it from cancellation, but it also displays a lack of polish that makes its troubled development evident. For fans of open world games, it comes at a good time. Gamers who purchased Saints Row: The Third most likely finished it months ago, and we still don’t have a confirmed release window for Grand Theft Auto V. If you’re looking to explore the criminal underbelly of a city and get in some trouble, you could do worse than Sleeping Dogs while you wait for Rockstar’s top dog.

Mixed Loyalties And Massage Parlors

Ali Rapp — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:30:00 GMT

I spent three hours tooling around Hong Kong in Square Enix's upcoming title, Sleeping Dogs.

Players control Wei Shen, an undercover cop sent to Hong Kong in order to infiltrate a Triad organization called Sun On Yee. Shen has an in via his childhood best friend, and has no qualms about participating in gang activities. However, he is still clearly loyal to the police force, making for an engaging story dynamic. For example, while on an assignment for Sun On Yee, I become a little too rambunctious and destroy some of Hong Kong's city property (when you tell me to chase after that car, I'm going to hit all the mailboxes I need to in order to catch it). That lowers my cop score, which affects how quickly I can level up my cop abilities. The same goes for undercover assignments in the Triads. While on duty for the police, racking up Triad points is more difficult, meaning it takes longer to level up my Triad abilities. Wei Shen’s dual loyalties result in some discomforting moments. I try to play for both sides, which results in a guilty conscience. When I hit city property on Triad missions, I legitimately feel bad. When gleaning information from my trusting childhood best friend, I feel traitorous.

Sleeping Dogs employs a simple leveling and perks system that lets players choose the abilities on which they’d like to focus: cop, Triad, health, melee, or face. Face is similar to charisma, as it boosts the amount of respect NPCs give to Shen. I decide to split my focus, unlocking a strike damage bonus (a Triad perk) and a cop ability called Slim Jim, which allows me to break into cars without busting the windows or setting off the alarm.

Combat is fluid and easy to learn. In the three hours I played the game, I was given a weapon only a handful of times, so the majority of my fighting was done with fists and feet. Some of the unlockable perks seem to indicate that weapons become more accessible and useful later. The game doesn't have a tutorial, though the first few fights were slow enough that I was able to take my time in understanding combos and other fighting mechanics. I dislike button mashing, but rarely feel like I'm able to take my time and execute good combos in many fisticuff games. Sleeping Dogs gets the formula right and makes combat understandable, challenging, and well-paced.

Learning to drive is a little less forgiving. Motorcycles are hard to handle, and it just so happens that Shen's first vehicle is a bike. Going in reverse, be it in a sports car or a city bus (which I drove for a side mission), is frustratingly slow, especially in the heat of a car chase. I drove a lady's car off a dock and into the harbor so she could collect insurance on it, though, so maybe that makes up for it.

The game has a somewhat troubled past. Originally an Activision property, Sleeping Dogs (formerly True Crime 3) was picked up by Square Enix, which dropped the True Crime license. Nonetheless, despite some gameplay quirks, I found myself unwilling to turn off my Xbox and give up playing Sleeping Dogs. The game is a boatload of fun and manages to skillfully combine open world exploration and challenging combat. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the final version.

Punching Pedestrians To Death

Kyle Hilliard — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:41:12 GMT

Sleeping Dogs, the True Crime turned napping K9 open world crime drama was on hand at this year’s E3.

Square Enix had hands-on demos of the game available as well as a hands-off presentation that showed off more aspects of the game. The hands-off presentation showed gunplay, melee combat, a chase sequence, and a little taste of driving.

The presentation began with undercover detective Wei Shen threatening an intimidating man with a pony-tale with as many f-bombs as he could. Shen wants the man out of his territory, and when pony-tale refuses, Shen decides to try and kill his entire gang by himself. This begins with some cover shooting in a bar. Shen jumps over tables and slows down time to pull off headshots as he makes his way out the restaurant. Once outside, a chase sequence begins. Shen is a formidable parkour runner and makes quick work of walls and obstacles that get in his way. Shen stops to punch a few people in the face, and eventually gets stuck in a shootout with one of his buddies by his side. Ducking bullets, Shen and his buddy climb into a car and start driving after pony-tale.

Shen’s friend is driving while he shoots out the window. The wheel is in the right side of the car, which threw me off at first. It makes sense because the game takes place in Hong Kong, but initially I was amazed at how well Shen was able to drive with his whole upper torso leaning out of a window firing bullets. Every time an enemy car approached, Shen aimed for the tires triggering a slow-motion car flip.

Shen’s friend is not a good driver, because eventually the car they are driving in begins flipping when they hit pony-tale’s car. The camera cuts to show the crash from the inside of the vehicle, which was a cool effect.

After the crash, Shen emerged from his turned-over vehicle bloody and injured, but managed enough strength to kill pony-tale with a handy one-liner.

Once I was able to get my own hands on Sleeping Dogs I did the first thing everyone does when they enter a new open world game: I began punching everyone in sight. I punched one person and an alert popped on-screen saying, “one civilian injured.” I punched the same person again, and the same alert popped on screen. After a third punch I got a new alert: “one pedestrian killed.” Shen must have a furious right hook, because he can kill a pedestrian with three punches.

After I had my fun, I began to actually pursue my goal, which was to try to find some random bald guy who needed a good punching. I talk to a food vendor who points towards the man, who immediately takes off running. I begin the chase, holding the A (or X) button to sprint and tapping the A (X) button to vault over obstacles. When I finally catch up with him, a group of his goons are called to take me out. The combat has taken obvious cues from the Arkham Batman games, which is an excellent system. You can punch away at enemies, and when they are about to attack you, they light up red for you to perform a counter attack. I finish off the group by grabbing the last guy and throwing him into a dumpster.

I make my way to the roof to finally take out the man I have been chasing, who is joined by more thugs. I knock out a handful of them, perform fancy counters to take out a few more, and grab one guy, walk him over to a rooftop air conditioning unit and shove his face in the fan blades.

As I confront the man I have been chasing, cops show up on the rooftop (someone probably called complaining about their air conditioning), and arrest me. Shen is undercover after all.

Sleeping Dogs has a lot of fun moments. The combat isn’t on par with Arkham, but pulling off counters in that familiar way is a lot of fun. Being able to grab enemies and walk them up to environmental dangers is cool, and the chase sequence, although simple, delivers an intense romp through Hong Kong’s back alleys. I don’t think Sleeping Dogs is going to stand out in the open-world crime drama genre, but it feels solid, and I’m looking forward to punching more pedestrians to death in the streets.

New Sleeping Dogs Trailer Is Not For The Squeamish

Joe Juba — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:06:26 GMT

For better or worse, many video games are violent. Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs is one of those games, and if this trailer is any indication, it doesn't shy away from graphic torture and brutality.

Beneath the gory exterior, however, Sleeping Dogs (formerly True Crime: Hong Kong) appears to be shaping up well. But don't take my word for it; check out the trailer and screens to see for yourself.

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Get Up To Speed With A New "Sleeping Dogs 101" Trailer

Jeff Cork — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:01:13 GMT

There's a lot going on in United Front's upcoming open-world crime drama. Fortunately, this new video provides a nice crash course on the highlights. Actually, considering its focus on dismantling gangsters with meat cleavers, pay phones, and engine blocks, perhaps "nice" isn't the best descriptor.

Take a look at the clip below to see how far undercover Hong Kong cop Wei Shen is willing to go as he infiltrates one of the city's most notorious gangs. Also, check out the game's combat, driving, and more.

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Sleeping Dogs is coming August 14 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

See Sleeping Dogs In Action With New Trailer

Joe Juba — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:16:00 GMT

Combat is front and center in this new video for Square Enix's open-world action title. Emphasizing an arsenal of combos and takedowns, Sleeping Dogs focuses on melee combat rather than gunplay.

Sleeping dogs releases on August 14. When you've watched this trailer, you can watch another one or read our hands-on impressions with the game.

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New Sleeping Dogs Trailer Shows Off Hong Kong

Matt Helgeson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:28:24 GMT

In a new trailer entitled "Undercover Hong Kong," the team at United Front Games details how the city's vibrant culture has influenced its upcoming action epic Sleeping Dogs.

It's an interesting look at how real life is influencing the game formerly known as True Crime: Hong Kong.

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Sleeping Dogs Packs Fun Racing And Rock Steady Combat

Tim Turi — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:40:00 GMT

The streets of Hong Kong can be rough, especially when you’re tangling with the hard-as-nails mob, The Triads. Thankfully, I was able to fight and race through the crowded, crime-filled streets from the safety and comfort of GDC 2012 at a recent Square Enix event. My hands-on time with Sleeping Dogs involved chasing down targets through the streets, cramming thugs’ faces into fan blades, and speeding down the streets in a souped-up race car.

My time as Wei Shen, an undercover cop infiltrating the deadly Triads, begins with a meeting of mobsters in a room tucked away inside a restaurant. A guy named Ming owes us money, and it’s up to me to make him pay up. Leaving the restaurant I pass dining patrons, rows of vendors in the streets slinging pirated movies, and tourists taking photos in front of a fountain. Sleeping Dogs captures the bustling, thriving neon streets of Hong Kong and makes exploring them a rewarding experience.

The casual stroll switches to an intense foot chase as soon as Ming sees us coming. Suddenly shops and startled citizens go zipping by as we chase Ming over fences and around innocent bystanders. Eager to escape at all costs, Ming grabs random people and shoves them towards me, forcing me to juke around them. One poor soul even gets bumped off a roof and falls to his death. Eventually I catch up with Ming on a rooftop, who sicks a group of thugs on me.

Combat in Sleeping Dogs feels remarkably like Batman: Arkham City. You’re free to deliver a flurry of martial arts punches and kicks to the gang of thugs, and can counter incoming attacks with the tap of a single button. While beating up bad guys is a jolly good time, I particularly enjoy the variety of environmental kills. I threw a guy over a railing, smashed someone’s head into a vending machine, pitched some fool into a dumpster, and crammed one unlucky goon’s face into a rooftop air conditioner fan. Sadists are going to love mopping up Sleeping Dog’s rabble. After finally getting my hands on Ming, who was now wielding a big knife, I expertly dodged his attacks and beat him to a pulp just before the cops showed up to end the fun.

The next gameplay section highlights the underground racing scene running through Chinese gangs. After a lot of trash talking with a rival, Wei bets his challenger $100,000 and a car full of girls that he can beat him in a race. Speeding through the brightly lit streets feels like every other racing game I’ve ever played. Easing off the gas to glide around corners and slamming the brakes for tight turns feels solid. I liked performing P.I.T. maneuvers to send other cars careening into oncoming traffic and trees on the side of the road. Unfortunately, my limited driving skills resulted in two failed racing attempts. I didn’t feel too compelled to keep starting the race over after every failure, so I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens when we humble the competition.

I haven’t played Yakuza, True Crime, or any other third-person crime game outside of the Grand Theft Auto series, but I could get used to beating up henchmen like Batman and brushing up on my lacking racing skills in Sleeping Dogs. While the game looks and feels good, the real opportunity the game has to stand out from other crime games is the story. Hopefully, Sleeping Dogs will get a lot more interesting than collecting debts and illegal street races fueled by heated egos.

Sleeping Dogs Gets Boxart And A New Trailer

Kyle Hilliard — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:00:41 GMT

The new trailer for Sleeping Dogs offers a whole lot of gameplay, and little bit of story. You can also see what the box for the game is going to look like.

In Sleeping Dogs, you take on the role of undercover cop Wei Shen as he tries to take down the Sun Oh Yee triad from the inside. You will be driving and shooting, but you will also be performing hand-to hand fighting with a combat system that Square Enix is describing as "imaginative."

Sleeping Dogs is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC during the latter half of 2012.

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