Sleeping Dogs was my surprise hit of the last generation, and as such, remains one of my favourite games on the Xbox 360. I enjoyed everything about it, the setting, style, controls and story line were all great, and while it came under the 'GTA clone' umbrella, it had enough of it's own ideas to break away from direct comparisons.
Now, I don't necessarily agree with this wave of re-issue games we are being bombarded with. Especially games which have only been released in the last few years anyway. It just seems like a quick cash in for game developers rather than coming up with great new franchises. That being said, I was keen to see just how different Sleeping Dogs looked (it was a decent looking game first time around), and I hadn't played any of the DLC before which would be interesting.
Right off the bat it is clear to see that this is essentially the same game with a very slight graphical updated. Don't expect to be blown away with the visuals. Bar some new textures and slight tweaks here and there, it isn't the jump I would have liked to see from the 'Definitive' version of the game. Just to be clear, we are talking about a game that is 2 years old, so it doesn't look dated or anything like that, the graphics are fine, but not to the level expected now we are on a new round of consoles.
I don't really want to go too deeply into the main game, with it being a re-release it has been covered plenty of times already – you are undercover cop Wei Shen in Hong Kong trying to infiltrate and bring down the Triad gang Sun On Yee. You'll be playing for both sides of the card to maintain cover but also satisfy the Police, and take a journey delving into Wei's past and personal life. It really is a great plot and one which should be seen through. As expected in these type of games there are side missions and activities to complete if you want to get side tracked for a bit.
The DLC which is included is 'Nightmare in North Point' and 'Year of the Snake', for some reason 'Zodiac Tournament' has been omitted. Both included DLC stories only last a few hours with Year of the Snake offering a stronger story and concept for me. Nightmare sees a zombie invasion led by 'Smiley Cat' who was killed prior to the events of the main story and is seeking revenge. Jiangshi (Chinese zombies/vampires) which provides a different look on the well visited genre. They act nothing like the western equivalent and take a while to get used to. You'll spend most of your time going from one area to the next while beating off enemies until your final confrontation with Smiley Cat – it's all fairly straightforward. Year of the Snake focuses on Shen after the events of the main game as a patrol officer adding the ability to taser and handcuff enemies. You'll be trying to foil a cultists groups plot to blow everything up. There is much more variance in missions available here, and the ability to see Shen working as an actual cop is a nice change of pace.
The games combat system is still top notch – think Batman Arkham games and you won't be far off. It is a much tighter hand to hand system that other games of this ilk, and with simple controls it is a joy to watch the martial art inspired fighting develop before you. Along with the controls for combat, the gun play is also of a high standard, along with the controls for vehicles. I have found in the past that vehicle play in open world games can be a bit loose and flimsy but it does the job well here, and I regularly found myself handbrake turning around the streets of Hong Kong with ease.
If you haven't played this game before, I implore you to do so, an interesting story coupled with solid controls make it one of the top in it's class. However, if you have played through before there isn't much here to bring you back. The graphical updates are generally fairly minimal, and with only and extra 4 hours or so with the DLC stories there isn't much bang for your buck. If I was rating this for the first time and was playing on the 360 again this would easily get full marks. As it is I need to knock a mark off purely due to the fact you can get the same game for much cheaper on older consoles and get essentially the same experience. Which brings me back around to the issue at hand, are all these remakes necessary??
**Thank you to XCN (Xbox Community Network) for the oppurtunity to review this game**