Sleeping Dogs, once known as True Crime: Hong Kong, is a 2012 video game from United Front Games. You play as Wei Shen, an undercover cop who must bring down the Triad. He builds relationships with both cops and criminals to the point where you, the player, become conflicted on how you want the game to end. As well as a main quest, there are also side missions, cop quests and mini-games. Some of the mini games include cock fights and karaoke bars.

The games fighting system is very similar to Arkham Asylum, the Batman game. You press Y (Xbox) to counter and X (Xbox) to hit people. It sounds simple, but it gets tougher with more and more enemies. As the game progresses, you learn more moves which helps you overcome different enemies. I don’t feel like the fighting brings anything new to the gaming world, but it doesn’t detract from the game and isn’t too complicated to pick up.

There is no ability to customize the biological nature of your character (sex, weight, features) but you can pick through dozens of different clothes. The styles of clothes are very diverse, there are “common” clothes, like T-Shirts and pants, and then they have suits and such. There are also some pretty fun costumes that you unlock, most of which make great pop culture references. The vehicles in the game are pretty cool too. You can buy all sorts of cool, fast cars but they will surely punch Wei Shen where it counts, his wallet. You can also drive motorcycles, which is what I preferred, only because I enjoyed flying through awesome jumps and weaving in and out of traffic. The driving mechanics are pretty good, though it does take some time getting used to driving on the left side of the road.

All the different side quests are pretty interesting, some being tougher to complete than others. The mini-games are also fun, though the cock fights are tough and mostly based on luck, same can be said for gambling. I like the street races, but the motorcycle races drove me crazy. The fight clubs were a bit tough, so it’s pretty rewarding when you win. As far as the main story is concerned, it was probably one of the best stories in video game history, or at least this current generation. The beginning and middle are amazing, to the point where you can’t wait to pick up the controller and play some more. The ending could have been better, but I still enjoyed it.

There were some minor glitches throughout the game, but you can easily look past those because the game is just that entertaining. Most of the glitches have to do with a funky camera that looks up or starts moving for no reason. I also found that the fact that I’ve been done with the main story for a while, yet I still just enjoy driving around the city, occasionally doing side quests. I’m the kind of gamer that never does that.

Overall

+ An amazing open-world game with a compelling story

+ Great side quests that keep you playing long after the story is over.

+ Good fighting mechanics

- Minor glitches that sometimes stop the flow of gaming.