Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
Big Trouble in the Big City
$29.99 Developer United Front Games, unitedfrontgames.com Requirements OS X 10.10.5, 2GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 1GB graphics card “I wish I could live your life. Just for one day,” laments the clerk as Wei Shen speeds out of the parking garage near his apartment in a sleek white coupe. The clerk doesn’t know the danger, though: Wei is an undercover detective tasked with infiltrating the Sun On Yee, Hong Kong’s most powerful and dangerous triad.
Sleeping Dogs is a third-person shooter that takes place in a lovingly realized Hong Kong, its colonial history on full display. You can prowl the wharves in Aberdeen and street vendors hawk pork buns and fish skewers in Cantonese and English, tinged with a variety of accents: Chinese, Indian, American, Thai. Hong Kong’s multiculturalism sets the stage for Wei’s own inner struggle: as an undercover cop and a Chinese-American immigrant, Wei’s divided loyalties drive Sleeping Dogs forward.
This digital Hong Kong is bustling with activity – side quests abound. Wei’s status grants access to new neighborhoods and allows him to persuade, bully, and bribe suspicious guards and rival triad lieutenants. Gangsters and cops alike seek him out by name to enforce territory and resolve disputes.
Speaking of combat, Sleeping Dogs’ fascination with kung-fu films pays dividends every time Wei squares off against a group of thugs or a squad of beat cops. Wei has an arsenal of strikes, counters, and grapples that can be chained together in acrobatic combos.
Wei’s reputation precedes him even in combat: one shattered tibia is sometimes enough to convince foes that discretion is the better part of valor. Fighting is simple to grasp, but with multiple enemy and weapon types and various upgradeable skill trees, options abound.
In a genre that typically focuses on guns, Sleeping Dogs’ rhythmic parries and efficient takedowns are both stylish and refreshing.
Sleeping Dogs inherits the open-world genre’s most common niggles – a finicky camera, repetitive missions, re-used art, some loose driving and shooting – but these rough edges tend to be smoothed out by the variety and expansiveness of the game itself. Even the most routine street race or drug busts guide Wei toward new and interesting areas.
the bottom line. Smartly written, judiciously paced, and never as crude as its genre contemporaries, Sleeping Dogs combines visual flair, entertaining combat, and a vibrant city in one of the Mac’s best open-world games.