Sleeping Dogs

[CoS_Ethan]

Yeah, the game looks awesome, I like the setting and stories, some Chinese songs are not bad!!

[Sno]

I wasn't expecting this to be anything, but i decided to get it on a recommendation and i've been having a pretty great time with it. It's so very much GTAIV, but with a bit of Assassin's Creed combat and parkour. Not a terrible thing, i feel.

However, I think that it is so much like GTAIV that it invites some unfavorable comparisons. Mainly, i'm really not a fan of their driving model, i think it feels like it lacks weight. I mean, and the game is not really doing a whole lot of anything original to hang its hat on. I think their melee system is really pretty superb, but it is very much the style of combat Assassin's Creed has had going on.

Really beautiful game too, i think there's a bit of uncanny valley with the character models, but the city looks absolutely incredible.

It's a very nice and well-made GTA-style game, and though it's not really doing anything particularly remarkable, it's likable and worth a recommendation, i think.

[toblix]

So ... about the collectibles. Am I going to be missing three secret chests at the end of the game, without any information about where to go look (other than which part of the city I should look around in)?

[juv3nal]

So ... about the collectibles. Am I going to be missing three secret chests at the end of the game, without any information about where to go look (other than which part of the city I should look around in)?

If you do the "date" missions all the collectibles are revealed on the map. 3 girls unlock map indicators and one unlocks additional races.

[toblix]

Oh sweet! Thanks!

Another thing. When fighting the big guys that can't be grabbed and that grabs you and makes you wrestle yourself free, I'm only able to counter them about half the time. Is there something wrong with me?

[Orv]

The ones that choke hold you while a buddy inserts your crotch into your sternum? Yeah, I'm pretty bad at those as well, the timing seems really finicky on getting out of it.

[Gwardinen]

The date missions only unlock indicators for the minimap, right? Not the main map? If I'm meant to be seeing those collectibles on the main map something is jacked.

[Murdoc]

I'm a skeptic, but I've heard a couple people in the office talk about it, the GB guys, and now an entire thread here.

It doesn't sound like there's a single compelling reason to play this game other than "it doesn't suck, it's pretty alright, and GTA 5 isn't out right now". Not trying to be rude, just skeptical, what's the top three reasons I should give this a look?

[Sno]

The date missions only unlock indicators for the minimap, right? Not the main map? If I'm meant to be seeing those collectibles on the main map something is jacked.

You can toggle what the main map shows to see locations for the various collect-a-thon items.

Items you've collected are highlighted, while items you haven't collected are shown in gray. (Assuming you've completed the requisite dates.)

[Orv]

I'm a skeptic, but I've heard a couple people in the office talk about it, the GB guys, and now an entire thread here.

It doesn't sound like there's a single compelling reason to play this game other than "it doesn't suck, it's pretty alright, and GTA 5 isn't out right now". Not trying to be rude, just skeptical, what's the top three reasons I should give this a look?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27mT0IQCTjU

Also it actually has a decently approached mature story (rather than, "Oh my family and freedom!? Time to shoot dudes five minutes after I get off the boat!"), if rather cliche, the melee combat is decent, if a little finicky, the open world stuff is really good if eventually repetitive, and it looks gorgeous. If you want to play an undercover cop story with some decent in-between gameplay, go for it. It's a good game, but nothing essential.

[Murdoc]

Hm, I didn't think game looked all that good, maybe it's different fidelity when playing. The video honestly sold me more than anything, but I'll probably just wait for a steam sale.

[Sno]

I will say, i also quite enjoyed the story.

It has that ever-present issue of the dramatic weight not really meshing with the random horrible gameplay violence, but that's such an entrenched problem at this point, it's going to take a lot more to fix than a me-too design that is playing it fairly safe.

Yeah, but if you're not into GTA, you are probably not going to be into this game.

If you are into GTA even a tiny bit, this is a really, really good one of those.

It's kind of hard to make a convincing argument for it, because it really does come back around to it being a very derivative game, but it's just so well done. It feels like a GTA game in the way Darksiders feels like a Zelda game. Even though it can't escape its obvious conceptual origins, it kind of deserves to be regarded on its own merits.

[Murdoc]

Yeah my problem is I like GTA and so into GTA, I just wait for GTA to give me some GTA because the other ones are never as good. And since there doesn't seem to be anything that unique about this other than setting, I'll probably just wait.

The narrative dissonance in True Crime was the core reason I couldn't get around the previous versions. I'll accept the problems from GTA 4 more than a cop going around stealing and killing on mass while undercover. And frankly the dialog from the trailer made me laugh a bit...

"You're a cop!"

"No, you're a cop! I'm an undercover cop, it's different!"

Compelling. All joking aside, people say the story is handled nicely, so that's cool.

[Sno]

The thing that ultimately sets it apart is that it's very melee focused, and the melee system is really very excellent.

Whenever you end up with a gun, it's taken from you fairly soon after. (Restrictive carry limits and scarce ammo.)

There's also a little bit of shoot-dodging, a simple skill system, and a rather weird and stilted car-to-car combat mechanic.

[Orv]

Despite its development origins, this is not a new True Crime game. Judging it based on the True Crime series is a terrible disservice to the people who made Sleeping Dogs.

[Sno]

Despite its development origins, this is not a new True Crime game. Judging it based on the True Crime series is a terrible disservice to the people who made Sleeping Dogs.

My understanding is that it started out development as an original game and was only later picked up by Activision to be the third True Crime game. (With Activision later cancelling it and Eidos/Square coming to the rescue.)

[Joewintergreen]

I saw this at E3 and thought it looked pretty average, but the demo (!) and a friend's recommendation sold me and I bought it and beat it. I really really like this game. I love GTA, but honestly I kind of enjoy this more - after a while GTA, especially 4, just feels depressing to me. Also, the protagonist, unlike Niko Bellic, is not ridiculously clumsy. The vehicle handling can be weird at first, but you get used to it.

Also, you basically have to play it with a controller. The mouse control sucks. This bothered me less than I thought it would though.

[juv3nal]

Oh sweet! Thanks!

Another thing. When fighting the big guys that can't be grabbed and that grabs you and makes you wrestle yourself free, I'm only able to counter them about half the time. Is there something wrong with me?

The timing is more finicky on those. Also sometimes they'll do a move where the counter button is different (er on console anyways) than the button you use for every other type of dude.

[Plyem]

I just finished it playing last night and had a great time. I even did A LOT of the collection diversions which is very rare for me. The mini-map upgrades helped a lot with that I guess. I was expecting to go on more dates with the girls but maybe thats just because I was comparing it to GTA in my head. The game ran pretty good expect for this audio crackling & popping I had for the entire game. Couldn't get rid of it no matter what I did, hardly listened to any of the radio at all.

Oh, but I guess the Vivienne Lu songs Yellow Fever & Fly were recorded for the games maybe? Thats pretty cool. Now I really want to listen to a lot of chinese indie rock, rap & C-Pop

[toblix]

After delivering one million Knox vans, I'm starting to think there's no actual limit to the number of times I can complete this quest.

[toblix]

So, clothes. Any way of comparing stuff to what you're wearing? Any way to change clothes without having to drive home (or restart the game, which is quicker?)

[ThunderPeel2001]

Hmm. I LOVED GTAIV, and from this thread it sounds like I may also enjoy this? Given that "violent takedowns" excite me about as much Mortal Kombat "fatality" moves (which is to say, not at all), what is there here for me?

[Sno]

Hmm. I LOVED GTAIV, and from this thread it sounds like I may also enjoy this? Given that "violent takedowns" excite me about as much Mortal Kombat "fatality" moves (which is to say, not at all), what is there here for me?

A visually striking game in a distinctive city, a pretty okay story with some decent characterization and writing, and the excellent combat system you just said you don't care about. (Really though, it's great, you should care.)

You know, and then most of what you probably liked about GTAIV as well, because it is totally aping almost all of that. (I didn't like the driving model as much, though.)

What it doesn't have is GTAIV's MP and a ton of peripheral world-building. (There isn't, for example, an entire fake internet or a ton of radio talk shows.)

[toblix]

Since I'm deathly afraid of having to go chase achievements and collectibles after having finished the game, I always go straight for them and ignore the main story for as long as I can. Whenever there's something I can do that's not progressing the main story, I do that instead. So immediately after being introduced to the story and the characters and taking the first criminal baby steps I turn into this weird guy who's just a thug and a nobody but wears the most fine, expensive attires and spends hours driving back and forth across town in his incredibly expensive, incredibly powerful sports car that he paid for in cash, doing favours for all sorts of people, becoming a deadly kung fu master and expert marksman. Also, a weird bug caused me to get access to a swanky luxury apartment early on. So I do all this, and have all this expensive shit and all this money and then when I've done all that I return to the main story and am treated like just a thug and a nobody, which is weird.

I sort of wish they limited my progression more, so that I couldn't do this to myself.

[toblix]

Finished it, and thought it was pretty good. Anyone else think the driving felt a bit off? For some reason, fine-steering was unpossible because of a huge joystick deadzone, so either you're not turning at all, or you're turning too much. I didn't find a way of changing it in the options, so I ended up doing a lot of juddery steering. Also, drifting physics was awful. The car drives just fine around turns until that magical point where it decides «FUCK YEA DRIFTIN TIME BITCHCHHH» and suddenly rotates your car 180 degrees into a bus stop.

The main missions were pretty good and nicely paced. If the combat had been terrible I would've complained about too many kung fu fights, but thankfully the mano-a-mano is really good. If you're a good boy and collect enough jade statues, by the time you're fighting big groups you'll be a rapid-punching, swiftly-kicking death machine, throwing people over railings here, shoving them into ice crushers there.

All in all, a decent GTA clone that did a lot of things worse (driving, side missions, feeling of "depth" to the world) and a lot of things better (hand-to-hand combat, Hong Kong simulation, Chinese radio.)

Favourite "system-based game" parts:

• When racing, all the cars immediately runs over and kills the 3-2-1 lady.
  
• Standing in front of vendors, watching them awkwardly shuffle about, trying to pathfind their way back to their scripted spot.
  
• Performing serious, gritty jobs whilst driving a double-decker bus.
  
• Driving slowly down the pavement on my moped, watching pedestrians wildly switching between "almost killed panic" and "on my way to work" mode.