Review of Square Enix’s new action game Sleeping Dogs

Recently we have been telling you all about Square Enix’s new game Sleeping Dogs – now it’s time for our review.

Sleeping Dogs is a gritty and visceral open-world cop drama set in the vibrant city of Hong Kong.

Developed by United Front Games in collaboration with the renowned Square Enix London Studios.

Sleeping Dogs catapults players into the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, tasked with taking down one of the world’s most fearsome criminal organisations from the inside… the Hong Kong Triads. As players explore the bustling and crowded Hong Kong island, through its neon-lit side streets and sprawling street markets, an incredible story unfolds of loyalty and betrayal, where Wei begins to question his own motives as he is sucked in deeper than he could ever imagine.

Offering players an island packed with action, every street corner, market stall, harbour dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat. Featuring one of the most intuitive and imaginative combat systems, Sleeping Dogs empowers players to perform an extensive set of martial arts moves, singlehandedly taking on numerous opponents. Players perform bone-crunching kicks and combos, vicious counters and a cinematic set of environmental takedowns making use of countless real-world items from circular saws to phone booths, incinerators to refrigerator doors.

Tasks in the game include colleting protection money, fighting various people, shoot-outs, car chases, and much more. I don’t want to give too much away but the game really makes use of the open-world feature. I liked that the game I was playing was different to the game being played either side of me. I chose to steal a car and drive around until I found something I wanted to do, whereas you could do pretty much anything within the confines of the game.

The graphics, music and gameplay were excellent – I really found myself immersed in the game, and be warned, there are some pretty graphic scenes – I even found myself wincing at one point – but I wont say what it was, I will let you find out for yourself.

You can use objects as weapons, for example, in one scene I was fighting a few guys, and I picked one up, put him under a suspended engine and dropped it on him. Not a pleasant way to go!

There are a few famous actors and actresses who have leant their voices to the game. These include Tom Wilkinson, Lucy Liu, Edison Chen, Emma Stone, Will Yun Lee, Robin Shou, Terence Yin, Ron Yuan, Irene Tsu, James Lew and Parry Shen. You can learn more about the voice talent here.

Final Thoughts

I really love this game – the graphics are excellent and the sounds and music really draw you into the gritty dark world the Wei lives in.

I also really liked that it wasn’t just a case of following one path during the game – yes there are certain things you have to do as part of the game, but there are a lot of side missions you can do if you want, or not!

Sleeping Dogs is a single player game, there is no multiplayer option, but to be honest it doesn’t really need one and you can keep playing the game once you have finished it and choose a different path.

There is a really good mix of a number of different elements included in the game, from shooting, hand-to-hand combat, driving (including cars, motorbikes and speed boats) and more, so there certainly something for everyone.

If you like action games, then I cannot recommend Sleeping Dogs enough, this is certainly my game of the year so far!

Sleeping Dogs is available now for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs.

For more information about Sleeping Dogs, visit http://www.sleepingdogs.net

Have you played it yet? Let us know what you think of it.