Kung Fu Review in a Tight Kimono with Plastic Nunchucks
The formula behind "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is well-known to anyone familiar with the "[Grand Theft Auto](/games?search=Grand Theft Auto)" series: it adds car chases to an open world and then multiplies it all by a gangster atmosphere. All games adhering to such a concept are commonly referred to as GTA clones. While this might sound like an unflattering diagnosis, there is nothing wrong with it anymore. "Clones" have long learned to stand out from the crowd by adding new components to the classic formula. In the case of "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)," these components include martial arts, parkour elements, and a strong Eastern spirit.
What are you doing, buddy, in shorts for a showdown?
Our protagonist, the Chinese counterpart of Volodya Sharapov, undercover cop Wei Shen, is a classic action hero — a tough guy with an expression on his face like he just found a cockroach in his noodles. As is customary, he carries out his mission not only for a badge on his uniform, he has scores to settle with the triads — his sister was killed by gangsters. But the undercover cop has enough on his plate besides revenge. Firstly, of course, he aims to climb the career ladder in the criminal world — to move from being a mere six to being among those close to the heads of the triads, so he can catch them all at once. Along the way, the nimble Shen manages to assist the police in several complicated investigations, participate in street races, clear alleyways and parks of bullies and drug dealers, and romance several ladies.
Just like the protagonist, all the other participants in the Hong Kong action are simple copies of action heroes. The cop who is assigned as Shen's handler is a boring bureaucrat and a self-made psychologist; the thug buddies are reckless scoundrels of varying degrees of corruption, the girl friends, and many others. All these characters are simple and understandable, yet sometimes surprise us as the leisurely narrative unfolds. For example, the boss, who always appeared to be a tough, unyielding guy, changes before our eyes as soon as he is confronted by his displeased superiors. While Shen drives him to the meeting, they converse for the first time — it turns out the boss is just scared. Scared that he is heading towards his own death. Scared, but still going, too afraid to disobey. Along the way, he tremblingly passes on to Shen, as a possible future successor, all his business — like, be tougher here, more gentle there, and if it's not too much trouble… keep an eye on my dear mother. It's quite touching, and one can't help but feel a bit sorry for the little rascal.
The gameplay in "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is incredibly diverse: dizzying chases give way to surveillance and collecting necessary evidence for the police; bone-crunching brawls and bloody shootouts are interspersed with trips to shops for more fashionable clothes; and parkour across the rooftops of Hong Kong mixes with karaoke singing and flirting with lovely ladies.
Since Hong Kong is too vast to traverse solely on foot, most of our in-game time will be spent behind the wheel of a car. The approach to acquiring vehicles in "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is classic — any car, whether it is in motion or parked by the roadside, can be commandeered by Inspector Shen for his far from gentle use.
Cars behave differently on the road, but for the most part, they drive equally terribly. Driving large vehicles, like buses, one does not escape the feeling that one is not driving a car at all but a massive log. And it's not just due to their "natural" slowness and unwieldiness. Smaller cars, as well as motorcycles, are only marginally more convenient. The situation is saved by sports cars, and it feels really cool to zip around on scooters.
The hardest thing about "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is driving on the left side of the road. Great Buddha, how could you allow this? Where did you overlook it? What kind of people drive on the left side of the road?
The physics of car crashes is tolerable — cars bounce off each other upon collision; however, the dimensions of the vehicles are not well accounted for. If you really try, you can catapult Shen out of the car through the windshield after hitting a significant obstacle at high speed. This looks quite funny — the cop flies, yelling and waving his arms.
Street races, which we will engage in repeatedly, are ridiculously arcadey. This might be a significant downside for some, but certainly not for me. As someone who despises complex driving, I took immense pleasure from these simple and stylish races. The chases are even more thrilling, largely thanks to the ability to shoot from the car while driving. Hit a tire, and the car sharply swerves, flips, spectacularly takes to the air, explodes, and shatters into pieces. If you're lucky, Shen will fly through flames and scattered corpses. Again — it looks stunning.
The music that soothes our eardrums during drives is varied and amusing — from silly Chinese pop and amusing Chinese rock to Western compositions known to everyone. At one point, I was escaping from the cops while "Ride of the Valkyries" played — it was quite funny.
Hand-to-hand combat is one of the core elements of gameplay in "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)," if not the main one. It's just that signature feature that sets it apart from the other "clones." Our protagonist can attack and counterattack, dodge knives and punches, strike quickly or hard, leap over opponents, and throw them over his shoulder. Initially, Shen has a modest arsenal of moves, but over time, he will learn new, more effective, and intricate combos. A small yet colorful borrowing from "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is special fatalities using surrounding objects — these can be garbage bins, telephone booths, air conditioners, meat hooks, and many more. Not only does it look impressive, but it's also quite useful — after such tortures, the opponent will not rise from the ground and won't pose any inconvenience. All combat moves are excellently choreographed, look organic, and are beautiful.
The enemies in hand-to-hand combat behave quite sensibly. At the very least, they do everything they can to avoid dying — they go into deep defense, attack cautiously, flank from behind, and even flee if our protagonist confidently defeats their buddies. They are divided into several classes, differing from each other in resilience to various techniques and behavior traits. The approach to defeating them is slightly different. Therefore, when Shen faces a mixed bag of different classes, one must take into account the unique characteristics of each — don’t grapple that one, keep this one away, and catch those on counterattacks.
All of this together looks simply stunning! Imagine — your protagonist is surrounded by a group of aggressively inclined opponents. The hero rushes into battle — one of the attackers immediate gets a pounding — a couple of blows to the face, then a knee to the stomach — he's temporarily incapacitated. At the same time, another scumbag is preparing to deliver a sneaky blow, flanking Shen from behind. But the hero, as if sensing this with his scalp, sidesteps, grabs his hand, twists it, and with a strong punch sends him to the ground, finishing him off with a kick to the head. The third scoundrel is armed with a knife, he swings, but the hero manages to strike first, grabs him by the collar, and smashes the enemy's head against the telephone booth. Swiftly picking up the discarded weapon from the ground, Shen turns it against the attackers. The knife in the cop's hand draws amusing shapes in the air — blood splatters fly in all directions, and two thugs collapse to the ground, writhing in pain. A blow strikes the hero from behind, the knife slips from his hands and flies away. One of the enemies grabs Shen, squeezing him tightly; he struggles to free his arm, lands several elbow strikes to the unfortunate fighter’s head, breaks free, and responds with a series of rapid punches, finishing with a satisfying kick to the head. The last fatality shows the final blow vividly, portraying every detail in slow motion.
Partially destructible environments add another vital touch to the picture. Garbage bags and furniture explode under the weight of falling bodies of the defeated enemies. Old newspapers, empty bottles, and household items fly in all directions.
But this vat of soy sauce has its small spoonful of tar. PC users are somewhat accustomed to this "spoonful of tar," but will never truly accept it. Oh yes, we are speaking about the controls, of course. Overall, it's not difficult to win in battles; this can be done using just two mouse buttons, but it completely undermines their potential beauty. To utilize some beautiful, and above all, effective combos, one must perform a complex tap dance on the keyboard. Although the developers deserve credit here — you can practice your "tap dance" not in combat but in a comfortable practice hall, where we will always have a handful of students assigned for their merciless beating.
Whether the "broken port" is to blame for the inadequate behavior of our police officer, I could not determine. The thing is, sometimes Shen starts to behave quite stupidly. At times he misses strikes he should be dodging, fails to deliver ones he should land, and sometimes stupidly butts heads with the wrong people. Quite often this leads to death. So, a gamepad is recommended for you, novice karatekas.
There are few guns in the gangster realm of Hong Kong, and armed criminals are rare. And for this, developers deserve thanks, as shooting is the most awkward, unrefined element of the gameplay. I may be overly critical due to a aiming bug that plagued me throughout; but even setting this aside, shootouts appear too clunky and simplistic. Hide behind cover + pop out + shoot — here's the recipe for success. The situation is somewhat mitigated by adding stylish features like slow-mo. The enemies in shootouts don't grasp simple concepts such as changing positions and flanking. I doubt Mr. John Woo would approve of such approaches.
Besides driving, brawling, and shooting, we will be entertained by parkour — racing through obstacles on rooftops and back alleys. Shen may not keep up with Ezio Auditore, but he runs and jumps quite energetically. The remaining game time will be dominated by the motto: "More mini-games, even more!!!" These assist in tasks such as installing bugs, hacking surveillance cameras, tracking calls, and karaoke singing. Singing, by the way, is quite amusing, while the others just don’t irritate.
By completing scattered tasks around the city, Wei earns money. This can be spent in numerous shops throughout Hong Kong on all sorts of trinkets: a new bed or an aquarium to furnish his apartment; new cars that will await their master at the parking lot, no matter how many times they crash; or clothes that not only change the protagonist's appearance but also provide boosts to some attributes.
For a handful of Hong Kong dollars, Shen can quickly grab a snack, getting chicken skewers or Chinese dumplings from street vendors. National "fast food" works wonders — for a while, the cop's health regenerates by itself. Additionally, after sipping some green tea, Shen becomes less susceptible to damage, and after visiting a "massage parlor," he increases his reputation. All of this slightly alleviates the heavy burden of being an agent.
Each completed mission not only adds a handful of shiny coins to Shen's piggy bank but also grants a bit of life experience. This experience is divided into two categories — gangster and cop. To earn police points, one needs to complete assignments given by cops, while also being very careful in their execution — not to damage public property, not to beat up or run over peaceful citizens. These rules must be followed even during criminal escapades. Anarchists, terrorists, and other misfits need not worry — being a good boy day in and day out is far from mandatory. During free time, you can freely run over/rob/destroy and, therefore, escape from pesky police. "Gangster" points must also be earned, but this time through actions that a decent person should not take pride in.
Earned points can be spent on acquiring various skills and boosting abilities, which can sometimes be very useful. For instance, do you want to learn how to steal cars silently? You will learn this by mastering one of the police (!) skills. Gangster skills may include stronger strikes and higher resilience to hits.
Also, Shen will be allowed to study a whole series of new moves and spectacular combos. However, this is a bit more complicated — you will have to return the trainer his jade figurines at a one-to-one rate. Shen will even learn how to do that iconic spinning kick made famous by the great Jean-Claude Van Damme!
Digital Hong Kong is beautiful and vast, though it shares nothing with its prototype. Passersby leisurely stroll along the streets, squealing as they dart aside when someone attempts to run them down. Running by, Shen pushes them out of the way, and they curse at him as he passes. NPCs tirelessly smoke, squatting in alleyways, roam the night markets, chat in apartment buildings day and night, and spend time at small cafés — in general, they diligently fulfill their decorative function. Although they dress in different outfits, the problem of the ubiquitous dominance of identical twins, triplets, and quadruplets on the streets remains unsolved. But is it even worth paying attention to? Hong Kong in "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is best appreciated as a whole, not dissecting its details, not scrutinizing too closely. The best view of the city is when you speed through it on a motorcycle… at night… in the rain.
The models of the main characters are also pleasant and well-designed — it's impossible to get lost among the proud Asian profiles. Remember the main downside of Chinese action movies — the dramatically exaggerated facial expressions of their heroes (the Jackie Chan school of acting)? In "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)," the opposite problem occurs — the computer characters often lack facial expressions. Emotions aren’t conveyed well, excuse the tautology. And that’s, in fact, my only criticism of them.
In conclusion, it must be acknowledged that "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" has its flaws, chief among which are the unrefined shooting mechanics and clunky controls. Additionally, the game comes with a decent list of bugs — from system crashes to all kinds of freezes/stuttering/stalling. But all these downsides are easily forgivable due to the multitude of more significant advantages — the marvelous combat mechanics, stunning chases and races, a simple yet solid story, remarkable graphics, and Hollywood-level special effects. You can spend five minutes shooting at targets in a shooting range for a subsequent explosive chase, or spend ten minutes riding on a log-bus only to partake in a brawl "wall-to-wall." Playing "[Sleeping Dogs](/games?search=Sleeping Dogs)" is fun, despite everything. GTA clone? Well, this clone turned out splendidly.
For the proofreading of the text, as is tradition, thanks to Surt.