Sleeping Dogs review

If you wish that GTA: Chinatown Wars on your mobile devices was in fact a full-blown 3D free-roaming action adventure then you’ll definitely get your wish with Sleeping Dogs. Actually, that’s doing this game a great disservice because Sleeping Dogs certainly isn’t just another GTA clone.

You play the game as Wei Shen, an undercover cop who’s loyalty becomes split as he gets ingrained in the criminal underworld whilst also trying to bust them for the big man. At first glance you’d think it’s the usual blend of story missions for differing factions operating both for good and bad and a whole load of side quests you can choose to complete or ignore as you go about your business - the big difference here is that everything in terms of game mechanic is far more polished.

Combat at first is all hand to hand. In a manner similar to Batman, you’ll be kicking, punching and countering and building combos as you go. You can even use objects around the environment so smash your opponent’s heads in which is immensely satisfying. Everything is fluid and this is by far the best fighting I’ve seen in a sandbox game.

As you do missions for the police and the Triads you gain XP and find statues which can be used to upgrade your gear or take to the dojo where you can learn some new combos for kicky-kicky-head time. You’ll also gain ‘face’ as you go which increases your reputation, letting you wear new clothes and talk your way out of situations.

Targeting when shooting is a little bit floaty when you acquire guns later on but the addition of slow motion when you vault over items is a cool touch. You’ll also be driving around the streets of Hong Kong on motorbikes and in cars and there are plenty of races to take part in, as well as the ability to shunt pursuers out of the way to make a quick getaway.

Characterisation is also strong. Wei Shen is likeable with a humorous side at times and it’s actually fun not playing a villain in this situation for once who may have to do bad things for the greater good.

Sleeping Dogs is actually one of the best open world sandbox games I’ve played. It’s not as silly or bombastic as Saints Row but certainly benefits from really solid combat which usually gets neglected in this type of game. For this reason it can’t get any less than 9 out of 10.

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Related: free-roaming, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Sleeping Dogs review on Youtube