Who Let The Dogs Out? | Sleeping Dogs Review

<p>After a long day at work&comma; all I want to do is sit down and relax&&num;8230&semi; by breaking legs and setting gangster’s head’s on fire&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re able to do this extensively in the sprawling open world of Hong Kong&comma; but make no mistake&comma; this is no Grand Theft Auto rip off&period; <em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> provides an enthralling narrative experience that is able to involve combat with grace&comma; the likes of which have never been seen in gaming—until now&period; If you’re looking for a gritty&comma; realistic adventure where you’re welcome to get your violent fix&comma; <em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> is definitely worth your time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> is one of the most violent games we’ve seen in a long time—and I love it&period; The Kung Fu fighting makes for a realistic combat simulation that is thoroughly engrossing&period; You are able to take down inexperienced thugs with ease&comma; but come across a group of four or more&comma; and you could be in for some real trouble&period; Not to mention the special enemies in the game that spice up the combat&comma; providing some real difficulty and spontaneity to your fights&period; The combat manages to keep everything simple and easy to remember&comma; while maintaining a sense of challenge that adds a lot of diversity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The combat system in <em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> is one of the only times where I didn’t feel like I was pushed into unnecessary combat situations&period; Every encounter with an enemy felt real and natural&comma; and managed to keep away from the monotonous&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;enter this room&comma; kill everything&comma; walk out&comma; rinse repeat” scenario&period; You didn’t feel as though you had to fight someone because the game told you to&comma; you simply fought them because it was necessary for survival throughout the game&&num;8217&semi;s tightly woven narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn2-b&period;examiner&period;com&sol;sites&sol;default&sol;files&sol;styles&sol;image&lowbar;content&lowbar;width&sol;hash&sol;f3&sol;cc&sol;1342085591&lowbar;1727&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sleeping Dogs Screenshot 1" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story of Wei Shen—a former triad member now turned cop—is one of the most interesting narratives that I’ve enjoyed in a long time&period; The story is rich&comma; and explores every avenue of Wei’s mission&semi; his struggles and his endgame motives&period; There are some predictable story twists and some obvious setups&comma; but for the most part&comma; United Front has managed to create a unique story that will leave you itching to hear the next chapter&period; After each mission&comma; I couldn’t get to the next objective fast enough to hear the next bit of story&period; Not to mention the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal and immerses you into the narrative even more&period; Every character interaction and verbal confrontation felt real and natural&period; These believable characters lead you to further engage in the game&&num;8217&semi;s story missions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These missions provide a good amount of variety and you won’t have the same mission twice&period; They explore every part of the triad’s activities such as&comma; racing&comma; kidnapping&comma; raids&comma; boat chases and more&period; These story missions amount to a healthy 25&plus; hour single player experience&comma; but if you are a completionist&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a lot more for you&period; You’ll have a ton of fun running around taking on side missions&comma; cases&comma; and raising face level to unlock new abilities&comma; cars&comma; clothes and more&period; The collectables are interesting&comma; they serve purpose and are actually worth finding&period; This&comma; coupled with an achievable platinum trophy&comma; extends the length of the game to an easy 50&plus; hour experience for a completionist such as myself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;gameguru&period;in&sol;img&sol;sleeping-dogs-02&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sleeping Dogs Screenshot 2" width&equals;"440" height&equals;"320" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> doesn&&num;8217&semi;t disappoint with its engine either&period; It boasts a good amount of technical prowess&comma; with its vibrant lighting and realistic phsycis all adding to the game&&num;8217&semi;s authenticity&period; Hopping over a table will cause everything you touched to suddenly fly off&comma; adding a real cinematic flare to an already superbly told movie-like script&period; The lighting in the city and the hustle and bustle creates an accurate representation of Hong Kong&comma; and makes for arguably the most immersive game world to this day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; it would seem that United Front spent too much time developing these functions and left certain aspects of the presentation on the back burner&period; Even in cutscenes&comma; the graphics can be dodgy&period; The main characters are well rendered and all look great&comma; but environments and certain vehicles look a little inconsistent&period; Some may find the lack of realism in the game&&num;8217&semi;s jumping and driving sections to pull them out of the experience&comma; but it all serves the gameplay&period; It allows you to let loose and not be too concerned with your car getting destroyed in the heat of all the chaos&period; These elements actually make for good functions&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;ll be glad they&&num;8217&semi;re there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;image&period;gamespotcdn&period;net&sol;gamespot&sol;images&sol;2012&sol;144&sol;981376&lowbar;20120524&lowbar;640screen005&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sleeping Dogs Screenshot 3" width&equals;"576" height&equals;"324" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the end of the day&comma; this game will be compared to Grand Theft Auto in a lot of ways&comma; and in most of those ways&comma; <em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> exceeds and pushes the bar higher for open world sandbox games&period; The linearity of the main story&comma; combined with the fun upgrades&comma; side missions and collectables make for one of the best single player games that have come around in a long time&period; <em>Sleeping Dogs<&sol;em> should be picked by all fans of the sandbox genre&comma; and is a sure contender for Game of the Year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;feckis&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;02&sol;Sleeping&lowbar;dogs&lowbar;sc&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sleeping Dogs Screenshot 4" width&equals;"576" height&equals;"323" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;