Why you need to pay attention to Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs is the upcoming AAA title from Square Enix and has been flying under the radar a bit. We have a look at why you need to pay attention.

 

[Read our full review of Sleeping Dogs: A fistful of entertainment]

Sleeping Dogs has been pushing out trailers and sneak previews for the last few months and I for one looked at it and failed to get excited. I’m not sure what it was originally, maybe the cover art or one of the initial trailers, it just didn’t grab me. You may be in the same boat as me here, maybe you haven’t even heard of Sleeping Dogs. Well if that’s the case it’s time you listen up…

Sleeping Dogs looks to be a well polished and immersive game that will take you down into the under belly of Hong Kong. It has its fair share of martial arts, gun fighting and triad gang lords but the big thing for me is the culmination of all the various elements within one package backed with some solid gameplay. I managed to get a chance to play a bit of Sleeping Dogs last night at a Megarom press event and I was seriously impressed.

At first the game looks and feels a lot like a Grand Theft Auto – you run around an open world city can hijack cars or bikes and generally cause a bit of mayhem. That in itself looks like it would be a decent game, however when you add in a dark and twisted storyline you start getting something entirely different. Sleeping Dogs has a very strong story that provides a truly immersive narrative that pulls together the range of gameplay styles. Have a look at this live action video that will give you a feeling for the story and the direction the game has taken:

From a gameplay perspective you will find that Sleeping Dogs has implemented a very natural feeling combat system, not unlike the system used in the recent Batman games based around timing and counter measures. The fighting feels fluid even when facing multiple opponents (which seems to happen often), add to that the ability to use the environment to create some spectacularly gory finishing moves (we dropped an engine block on one guys head) and you have a really fun way to dispatch enemies and an around solid combat experience. Another major part of the gameplay is the driving. Sleeping Dogs makes driving a core element of the game be it just getting from point A to B or partaking in specific drag races and duels with other triad members. You fire weapons while driving and can even leap in slow motion from one vehicle to the other. The driving system is dynamic and exciting – we are looking forward to seeing more of this.

Have a look at this gameplay video to get a sense of what I am talking about:

All in all, I have changed my perspective on this game and am starting to get excited. This could just be one of the biggest hits this year, so make sure it is well and firmly positioned on your radar as we gear up to it’s release in the next few months.

[Read our full review of Sleeping Dogs: A fistful of entertainment]