Sleeping Dogs

[AndyKurosaki]

So, I genuinely wasn't expecting much from this game, what with it's troubled history. 17 hours later, and it's one of the best games of 2012. A lot of reviews claim "it's nearly as good as GTA!", which to be honest isn't far off the mark. The combat's a bit like Batman AA (one button to punch, another to counter), you can hit people with a fish or shove them face first into a fan blade. There's Collectables to find, though for once (a) they improve your stats instead of doing nothing, and ( once you complete specific side missions, they all appear on your map so you can collect them at your lesuire. Every open world game could do with "borrowing" that idea.

So yeah, it's a brilliant game. And it's high sales are a big middle finger to Activision. Which is always a good thing.

[wholehole]

I've played a couple of hours this evening and I'm enjoying it a bunch. It borrows alot from other games but that's not a bad thing when it uses them so well (similar to Darksiders in that respect). The combat feels a bit woolly at first compared to the uber-tight Batman scraps, but once you get used to it and start using the environment to your advantage you'll be having too much fun to notice. Everything else you'd expect from an open-world game is here and works as expected, although it does do one thing even Saints Row didn't do: high-speed car-jacking .

The PC version looks absolutely gorgeous especially with the high-res texture pack, plus it's cheap, so I'd heartily recommend picking it up for that format if you have the means to run it.

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah, it's well worth hunting down the Statue collectables so you can pick up more awesome moves. Even though some appeared on my map, I couldn't figure out how to find them. Then later I'd be doing a mission and I'd find it.

It certainly does borrow a few elements from other games, but doing so has paid off in my opinion.

[hinn888]

I tried a lil demo back in May and thought it was pretty good, thought i pre-order it too coz it was cheap.

Bloody glad i did, this game is my GOTY so far.

[Hendo]

I wasn't expecting much but I saw a bit of the GiantBomb quick look and it looks really impressive.

[retroed]

I had zero interest in this, and then I tried the demo just now to see what the fuss was about. Now I really want it.

I'm not a huge open-world fan though, tend to go off track and end up losing interest. Is Sleeping Dogs fairly mission based, and linear if wanted?

[DANGERMAN]

same as you Ed, give me too much choice and I don't end up doing anything, which is why there's only a handful of open world games I like. I am liking this though, I think because if you aren't doing either a story mission or one of the handful of side missions, then there's not a lot else to do. And for the side missions it's not a case of driving around until you stumble across or trigger something, they're on your map and help you level up.

The main guy (Wei?) is pretty good, likeable and bad-ass enough for both sides he plays. The combat is the best thing about the game so far I think, it's not as good as Batman, and it suffers similar problems with the counter system getting in the way of just unleashing on someone, but it's better than any other open world games system I can think of. Like Wholehole said though, there's something not quite right about it

I've spent a lot of time tonight doing some side missions, bar the weird gun battle game thing they've been a bit samey, the police ones anyway. For the police ones it usually involves driving to a certain point, getting in to a fight, hacking a camera, then driving back home. It's not boring yet but I think I've done enough that I should focus on the main story for a while.

[retroed]

That's good to hear, thanks Ben. I've played the demo through three times now, and am currently watching the GB Quick Look. I think I'm going to pick it up tomorrow.

[wholehole]

I'm sure I heard someone else mention this somewhere...

In real life I get in the car and drive on the left instinctively, don't even think about it. But in this, as soon as I get behind the wheel I'm straight over on the right hand side of the road and smashing into oncoming traffic just through sheer habit from playing games like GTA and Saints Row. It's so weird that I have two completely different habits for something that my brain should logically class as the same. I literally have to force myself to drive on the left in-game and it feels strange doing so.

Anyone else finding this whilst playing, or am I just completely nuts?

[illdog]

Anyone else finding this whilst playing, or am I just completely nuts?

[DANGERMAN]

They mentioned it on the bombcast, and I had it a bit. Within a couple of minutes I got used to it but it is odd

[Sly Reflex]

I drive on the left in games too. It's a hard habit to break.

[AndyKurosaki]

I drive on the pavements at 90 mile an hour ramming every fucker in my way, if that helps ;-)

[wholehole]

Anyone else finding this whilst playing, or am I just completely nuts?

Yeeeeeah... Posting at 4AM doesn't lead to constructive posts, just brainfarts

[DANGERMAN]

I have but I haven't worn it yet. I have had to do the leap to a different car thing a few times now, it's a ballache when you're in one of the faster cars or a bike and they're just tootling along not wanting to be hijacked.

I've lost track a little of what side quests are still going, like the race scene one, you do one race then it forgets about it completely for an hour or so. The levelling up works fairly well, it doesn't feel too slow, although I'm a couple of levels higher on the cop level than the gangster one. Anyway, can't worry about that now, I've got a wedding to attend

[AndyKurosaki]

Heh, I didn't even know about that costume. I've been rocking the 'black suit and tie" look for the majority of my playthrough.

[wholehole]

I'm of the orange trackpants and vest persuasion myself. I plan on changing my clothes to reflect my rise in notoriety through the gang. Plus I only have a level 2 face at the moment so I'm a bit limited to what I can buy.

[hinn888]

Completed this today and i have to say i enjoyed it immensley, sad its over though, im going for the 100% so i dont have to part with it yet.

Wont be the first for the 1000G though, bloody TGK.

[AndyKurosaki]

I've had a few crashes sometimes, I've got stuck into fences I've leaped over, or a bike's gotten stuck in a wall.

[hinn888]

There are some glitches where you keep getting stuck or someone wont get in a car, just keep mashing the buttons and it always works

Currently got all the collectables now, just trying to get all cars and clothes.

Seems to be rather hard getting triad to level 10 too.