Sleeping Dogs

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 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.