As said, you are an undercover cop in Hong Kong who is on a mission to destroy the mafia in the city. You are going to do this by interact with the top persons in the criminal scene. You will be introduced to the game, with missions that gets you into the story. Afterwards you are it's up to yourself, what you want to do. If you just want to roam around, doing streetraces, helping people, or maybe just make the cops get angry at you. Or you could continue with the missions, and help the mafia with different tasks, like killing people who knows to much, and such. Afterwards, you will be able to help the police by giving them informations about who does what, etc. You get the point, right?

Most of the time you don't use any weapons, and if you do use weapons, it is typically a handgun, as guns are very rare in Hong Kong, compared to the United States, where they are alot more common. But you don't miss the guns, as you have an amazing fighthing system, that no existing game is able to compete with.

The fighthing system, that the game is known for by the way, is really advanced. You can make tons of combos, do the most unbelievable moves, and most important, interact with the environment.
As it's hard to describe, we found some picture of this amazing and unique feature. The fighting is without doubt what makes you keep playing the game. You won't only fight against cops and thugs, but also in fight clubs and cockfights (like wrestling, just outdoor on a harbor or something).

Another exciting thing, is the racing, where you meet up at some place, and then race against people. Often this is very fun, even though it can be very frustrating, when you have to start over if you don't finish at first place.

The fact that you can buy new clothes and vehicles, is also quite cool. To unlock new products, you have to work on your Face Experience which you get by winning races, cockfights, helping people, and killing thugs.

Overall, the gameplay of Sleeping Dogs is really great and can be really time-consuming, unless you get completely annoyed by the broken AI. Most of the time it's fine, but then suddenly, cars will begin to turn around and drive into things, and people in the missions will just stop, waiting for you to complete a step you already completed, and you have to start the whole mission over.

Graphics

You already saw a bit of the graphics from the game, but let's get deeper into that part of the game.

So, the graphics in Sleeping Dogs are quite good and fitss great into the game, even though it at points can get very dark, making it hard to see anything. The characters look realistic and so do most of the environment. There is games with better graphics, but for sure alot more games with worse. 

The vehicles in the game, does also look realistic, and doesn't disappoint like in many other games.

For a game like Sleeping Dogs, it is important to have graphics that makes you feel more in the game, but not as important as the gameplay, and in this game it ended up with the right mix.

Advantages

• Open world
• Good graphics
• Amazing fighthing system
• Nice modelled vehicles

• Bugged AI
• Missions can be almost impossible to complete
• Dark graphics

Final Comment

After all Sleeping Dogs is a game for everyone who likes an open world action game, like GTA. Because in the end, Sleeping Dogs reminds alot of GTA, and if you already have enough in GTA, there is no reason to buy Sleeping Dogs, even though the physics might a be a bit better.

Sadly the bad AI ruins the game a bit if you want to play serious, but if you are just a casual gamer it can actually give a great laugh at points.

Rating: 7/10
Price: 25€
Release: Out now
Developer: United Front Games & Square Enix London Studios
Publisher: Square Enix & Namco Bandai Games
Game Link: www.sleepingdogs.net