Sleeping Dogs is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix. The game was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in August 2012. Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the story follows Wei Shen, a Hong Kong-American police officer and martial artist who goes undercover and infiltrates the Sun On Yee Triad organization. Gameplay focuses on Shen's martial arts moves, fighting, shooting and parkour abilities, and on gadgets that can be used for combat and exploration. Aside from the linear story, player can freely roam the game's open world environment and engage in both legal and criminal activities.
Sleeping Dogs development began in 2008. The game was announced in 2009 as part of the True Crime series but was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011, as a result of the project's delays and budget issues. Six months later, Square Enix purchased the publishing rights and retitled the game Sleeping Dogs. During development, United Front staff visited Hong Kong to conduct field research for the visual environments and sound. Square Enix London Studios worked with United Front for the development.
Sleeping Dogs received positive reviews from critics for its combat, protagonist, voice acting, experience system and depiction of the city, but its camera and some animations were criticized. The game had sold over 1.5 million units by September 2012. Several expansion packs were released as downloadable content in the six months following the game's debut. A remastered version, subtitled Definitive Edition, was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in October 2014.
Gameplay Sleeping Dogs is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Wei Shen, a Hong Kong-American police officer who goes undercover and ventures out on a raid to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. The initial missions of the game are a linear tutorial for controlling the character. After these missions, the player is allowed to explore the game's world and take part in side missions and other activities. Shen navigates the world by running, jumping, climbing over obstacles, swimming, and driving cars, boats and motorcycles. The heads-up display (HUD) interface features a mini-map that indicates targets, key locations (safe houses and contact points) and Shen's current position. The mini-map incorporates two meters: one shows Shen's health and the other his face. When the face meter fills, upgrades are unlocked such as health regeneration, improved combat abilities and reduced equipment costs. The HUD also displays the weapon carried and its ammunition count.
The game features the option to choose from Triad, Face and Police XPs. Triad XP is obtained through melee combat and violent actions such as "environmental kills". Triad XP awarded is directly proportional to the complexity of attacking moves, and gaining Triad XP unlocks improvements to Shen's melee combat skills such as increased damage, improved weapon durability, and unblockable attacks. Face XP, obtained in civilian side missions, fills Shen's face meter and unlocks cosmetic items such as clothes and vehicles. By reaching a higher Face level, the player can freely buy clothing and vehicles, and even have chosen vehicles delivered to them by a valet at any time and place. When the face meter is full, Shen gains health regeneration, increased attack damage and other benefits. Police XP is gained by minimizing civilian casualties and property damage in missions and by completing police side missions, and gaining Police XP unlocks improvements to Shen's firearm combat skills and abilities such as disarming opponents, hot-wiring or slim-jimming cars, retrieving weapon stashes from the trunks of police cars, increased weapon damage and ammunition capacity, and reduced police heat levels. The clothes, accessories, and vehicles purchased by Shen affect non-player characters' reactions toward him, and certain outfit combinations also affect statistics such as XP gain, damage inflicted, and police heat. The player may collect jade zodiac statuettes and return them to a dojo to unlock different martial arts combos.
Unlike most similar open-world games, Sleeping Dogs emphasizes melee combat over gunplay. Sleeping Dogs melee combat has been compared to that of Batman: Arkham Asylum: it allows the player to fight opponents coming from any direction with attack, grapple and counter moves and can be performed with or without weapons. These three basic commands are chained together with the character's movement to execute attacks. The player's face meter fills up faster when enemies are defeated with different moves in rapid succession or with environmental attacks, which are performed by dragging enemies to certain objects, which Shen uses to eliminate opponents. Melee weapons such as knives, tire irons, and frying pans are available, but they break with extended use. Gun combat in Sleeping Dogs combines a cover system with gun fu elements: if the player vaults from cover in a gunfight or manually disarms a gun-wielding enemy, time briefly slows down, and the effect can be prolonged further by chaining together successive headshots. Firearms are scarce in the game and the player can normally carry only one gun at a time: with the exception of handguns, weapons cannot be stored and must be discarded after running out of ammunition.
The player can perform "action hijacks" while driving vehicles: these cause Shen to leap from his vehicle to steal another in motion. In combat, Shen loses health as he takes damage: this can be mitigated by taking cover where available. If the health bar is depleted, the character will respawn at a hospital or a clinic. Health can also be restored by ordering food or drinks from various stalls and vending machines, which also provides a variety of buffs to Shen, such as health regeneration or improved damage.
If the player directs Shen to commit crimes, police response is indicated by a "heat" meter on the HUD. The meter displays the current wanted level; if it reaches 5, the police will aggressively pursue Shen. The meter recedes when Shen is hidden from the cops' line of sight. Police officers continue to search for Shen even if he leaves the wanted vicinity, and they will resume the chase if he is sighted. If Shen is arrested or killed by officers during missions, the player can restart from the last checkpoint.
Some areas in the world remain inaccessible until milestones in the story are achieved. Although the player must complete missions to unlock content and continue the story, they may wander the game's open world and participate in activities such as visiting a karaoke bar, carjacking, street racing and joining a fight club. There are several potential girlfriends for Shen: successfully dating them awards collectibles and bonus content. The completion of side missions rewards the player with new missions, vehicles, and outfits, among other things. As the game progresses, the player acquires various safe houses to save progress in, and at certain times is required to go there to progress further. Like other houses, the player can survey unlocked areas, change outfits, and a parking garage is accessible in which they can use unlocked vehicles.
The game has no multiplayer component, but online leaderboards are available for players to compare scores. Many activities that are not central to the story grant Stat Awards in three tiers: bronze, silver and gold. These unlock achievements and trophies.
Synopsis
Setting and characters Sleeping Dogs is set in a contemporary Hong Kong, which is split into four districts named after regions of the city. The game reveals the story of Wei Shen (Will Yun Lee), a former San Francisco Police Department officer who was transferred to the Hong Kong Police Department and assigned the task to infiltrate and destroy a Triad organization known as the Sun On Yee (based on the Sun Yee On). The main storyline features two sub-plots: Shen's balance between completing his police mission whilst committing crimes to prove himself to the Triads, and missions assigned by a Triad lieutenant, including the assassinations of Triad members loyal to other lieutenants.
Shen's mission is coordinated by Thomas Pendrew (Tom Wilkinson); Raymond Mak (Byron Mann) serves as Shen's handler, and the two regularly meet in secret to discuss Shen's progress, while Jane Teng (Kelly Hu) coordinates the main police strike force that responds to Shen's investigations. Shen infiltrates the Sun On Yee via his childhood friend Jackie Ma (Edison Chen), a low-level Triad member; he quickly gains the trust of Winston Chu (Parry Shen), one of the Triad's bosses, and Conroy Wu (Robin Shou), Winston's right-hand-man. Other prominent characters include David Wai-Lin "Uncle" Po (James Hong), the chairman of the Sun On Yee; Uncle's advisor Pockmark Cheuk (Byron Mann); and other Triad bosses – Sam "Dogeyes" Lin (Ron Yuan), Henry "Big Smile" Lee (Tzi Ma), "Broken Nose" Jiang (Elizabeth Sung), and Howard "Two Chin" Tsao (Conan Lee). Secondary characters include socialite Vivienne Lu (Lucy Liu). Shen's potential love interests include American tourist Amanda Cartwright (Emma Stone), electronics expert "Not Ping" (Celina Jade), and night club hostess Tiffany Kim (Yunjin Kim).
Plot Wei Shen, a petty criminal in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, joins an associate named Naz Singh to conduct a drug deal with Four Finger Wu, a member of the 18K. The deal is interrupted by a security guard, who Wu kills in panic, before he and Singh are arrested. In jail, Shen meets his childhood friend Jackie Ma, who offers to introduce Shen to the head of his gang upon release. Unbeknownst to Jackie, Shen is an undercover cop. His arrest was part of an operation by SP Thomas Pendrew and Inspector Raymond Mak to infiltrate Jackie's gang, the Water Street Boys, a branch of the Sun On Yee triad.
Shen joins the Water Street Boys with Jackie's help. Despite initial animosity from enforcer Conroy Wu, Shen quickly earns the trust of the leader Winston Chu, who assigns Shen and Jackie against the Jade Gang, a rival branch of the Sun On Yee led by Sam "Dogeyes" Lin. Shen has history with Dogeyes, as he is the ex-boyfriend of Shen's sister, Mimi, an addict who died of an overdose after their family moved to America. Meanwhile, Shen is tasked by Inspector Jane Teng of the Hong Kong Police Department to arrest a ketamine supplier named Popstar and his associates.
Popstar's arrest creates a bottleneck in ketamine supply, causing tensions among the Sun On Yee. The Water Street Boys begin suspecting that Shen is a cop, but he shifts suspicions to Ming, a ketamine dealer working for Winston. After Dogeyes' men shoot up Winston's mother's restaurant, the Water Street Boys burn down Dogeyes' waterfront sweatshop. Shen captures Siu Wah, manager of Dogeyes' operation, forcing him to work for Winston. Coming to treat Shen as his second-in-command, Winston introduces him to David Wa-Lin "Uncle" Po, the elderly chairman of the Sun On Yee. Privately, Winston tells Shen to take over as the leader of the Water Street Boys should anything happen to him. Mutual retaliatory attacks culminate in Winston and his fiancée, Peggy Li, being killed during a massacre at their wedding by men posing as the 18K. Uncle Po is critically wounded in the attack, but is saved by Shen, who is promoted to "Red Pole" of the Sun On Yee.