Dating and cockfighting do not make for a gangster’s paradise
In addition to driving in illegal street races, slugging it out in impromptu fight clubs, and doing favors for (mostly) harmless individuals, the game lets you go out on dates and attend cockfights as part of its impressive sidequest portfolio. The latter two pursuits are, unfortunately, quite frivolous.
Dating is especially pointless. As you progress through the game, you’ll meet a few potential flings who give you their phone numbers. You can then call them up to schedule romantic encounters. After a date or two with each girl, they disappear from your phone and (for the most part) your life. If you’re lucky, you might see them again as part of the story, or you might get a snarky voicemail message. That’s it.
And if you’ve exhausted your contacts and need something to do, you could look for some gratuitous cockfights. Amazingly, the only white birds you’ll see in this digital John Woo tribute are the ones clawing at each other for your betting amusement. And it’s all pretty disturbing, just like the real-life practice. This cruel, coin-toss-like activity is not worth your time.
Story beats as predictable as a Hong Kong bus line’s schedule
While Sleeping Dogs’ storyline is replete with memorable personas, the narrative’s twists and turns are derivative, shallow, and foreseeable. About a third of the way through the game’s main campaign, I already had a good idea of how everything would go down at the end.
Wei’s choices are presented through an ever-blurring lens that shifts between duty to his fellow officers and fellow criminals. Even mission options are split along these lines. While this setup proved to be intriguing, Wei’s internal struggle never extended beyond superficial levels.
I can’t help but wonder if the title’s fascinating backdrop helped mask its simplistic plotline.
CONCLUSION
As much as I enjoyed Sleeping Dogs, the experience brings little innovation to the open-world crime-simulation genre. It’s another guy-does-missions-for-bosses-until-everything-goes-crazy endeavor. And you know what? I’m OK with that. I had a great time playing the game, and that’s what truly matters.
Like the celluloid explosion-and-exploitation fests that inspired it, Sleeping Dogs isn’t about defying convention. It’s about silly, stupendous entertainment.
Score: 85/100
Sleeping Dogs was released on August 14, 2012, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The publisher provided GamesBeat with an Xbox 360 copy of the game for the purpose of this review.