Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs is an open-world adventure game where players become undercover police officers infiltrating a highly dangerous criminal organization. Gaining the organization's trust and rising through the ranks, players will face numerous bloody crimes. Can you remain aloof and avoid suspicion while escaping these acts of violence? As the story progresses, players will find themselves caught between the police and the underworld; can you maintain your loyalty? The choice is yours. The game also allows players to drive various vehicles across urban and marine environments, engaging in gunfights and hand-to-hand combat, enjoying a thrilling gaming atmosphere.

Gameplay of Sleeping Dogs:

This game follows an undercover cop named Wei Shen, and your goal is to infiltrate and take down various arms of the infamous Triad. You start the game as a relatively poor and underappreciated police officer who is looking for new ways to climb the ranks of the force. Your breakthrough arrives when a high-ranking official asks you to shed your badge and become a gang member. As the game progresses, you are going to follow an extremely complex storyline that involves many different characters and organizations. By the end of the primary storyline, you are going to realize that there is a major conspiracy taking place throughout Hong Kong.

In Sleeping Dogs, you can either search the town freely, follow the primary campaign, or carry out cop missions. This digital remake of Hong Kong is extremely expansive, and you can easily lose yourself for hours looking at all of the sites, heading into shops, making purchases, and interacting with the countless citizens that you are going to come into contact with. You can even purchase various apartments throughout the city and then outfit those homes with any items that you acquire.

In the primary campaign, you will be given orders by various members of the Triad. Those missions are extremely varied, and only a few seem to have overlapping themes. The missions include objectives such as kidnapping rival gang members, assassinating troublesome officials, and carrying out heists. During each mission, you are going to receive or lose points depending on all of the actions that you carry out. If you harm citizens or commit any other crimes, then you will be awarded Triad points and deducted police officer points.

To earn police officer points, you must complete cop missions. The cop missions are essentially side quests that help you build your reputation as a police officer while earning extra money and items. Even though many of the police officer missions are action-packed, they tend to be extremely repetitive. You are usually sent to arrest certain individuals or collect information that can be used to build cases against various criminals. That being said, there are some entertaining tasks as well, and that includes objectives such as saving hostages and thwarting terrorists.

Sleeping Dogs also includes side quests that earn you face points, and those points allow you to upgrade an entirely different skill tree. You earn face points by interacting with different citizens of Hong Kong who have tasks for you. Those side quests are very unique, and they include everything from street races to filming action movies for friends. With your face points, you can earn money and unlock new vehicles and other items.

With the Triad points, you will primarily upgrade all of your melee skills, and that tree is very important because many of the missions throughout the main storyline don’t involve any weapons. As you build your police points, you can unlock different logistical skills that will make your life easier. That includes skills such as being able to quickly steal vehicles or take weapons from the trunks of police cars. While you can still beat the game by only focusing on one skill tree, gaining all three types of points will make the missions much easier.

Features of Sleeping Dogs:

A Gripping Storyline: The plot dives deep into Wei Shen’s personal struggles as he balances loyalty to his police duties and his growing bond with the Sun On Yee triad. The narrative is filled with twists, emotional depth, and moral ambiguity. This engaging storyline keeps players invested in the protagonist’s journey.

Martial Arts-Based Combat System: The combat system is fluid and rewarding, with players able to unlock powerful new moves by collecting jade statues. The variety of fighting styles keeps battles fresh and engaging. The martial arts-based system allows for dynamic and strategic combat.

Open-World Exploration: Hong Kong serves as more than a backdrop – it’s a character in itself. Players can experience its diverse neighborhoods, interact with NPCs, and enjoy side activities that add layers to the game world. The open-world design provides endless opportunities for exploration and discovery.

Side Activities and Mini-Games: From karaoke to street racing and gambling, Sleeping Dogs offers a wealth of side activities that provide a break from the main story while offering rewards and entertainment. These activities add depth to the game world and allow players to experience different aspects of the culture.

Customization and Progression: Players can upgrade Wei Shen’s abilities through Triad, Cop, and Face experience points, unlocking new combat moves, driving perks, and passive benefits. Outfits, vehicles, and even combat styles can be customized to fit different playstyles, providing a high degree of personalization.

Useful Tips of Sleeping Dogs:

Throw that knife: Knives and other wield-able items can be thrown. Some enemies may require a strike or two to lower their health but most thrown weapons will result in an instant kill. Completionists should aim to get at least ten thrown weapon kills in order to earn all trophies or achievements. Tire irons can be found in the trunk of most cars and can also be wielded and thrown.

Need for Speed: It’s better to hold off on racing until the mid to late game when you have more cash. Each vehicle class (D, C, B & A) have multiple cars that can be purchased and the speed difference between cars in the same class is significant enough that the fastest car in a particular class will easily outrun the competition.

Chop them cars: The single best way to earn money in Sleeping Dogs is to call Tran on your cell phone. Collecting cars for his black market chop shop will eventually begin to net you anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000+ per car (usually luxury or sports cars). Be sure not to damage them — as the more damage they take, the less money you will receive for them.

Good luck: Gambling is another quick way to earn some cash, just be sure to save before you start dropping large amounts of cash.  Cock fighting on the docks will allow you to bet $100,000 a match.  Earning 1 million dollars goes towards helping achieve 100% completion. Keep in mind that’s 1 million profit; if you lose $500,000 and make 1 million you’ll still have to earn another $500,00 to get credit for earning a million in terms of completion and Gold medal standing in events. I have no science to back me up but it seems that the darker colored rooster wins more than the white one. The amount of wins a certain bird has does not seem to have much impact on which rooster will actually win.

Where the hell is it: If you’re searching for Drug Busts, Security Cameras or Lock Boxes and find that you should be right on top of them according to the map but cannot see them, it’s likely they are actually beneath you. Many of these require the use of a boat. Some map markers will indicate that water access is required, but others will not. Numerous tunnel entrances are accessible only by water and hold Drug Busts, Security Camera’s and Lock Boxes. Because these tunnels run underneath the city from the ocean, the map markers can give the illusion that they are actually above the surface. Lock boxes can also be found along the exterior beaches of Hong Kong.

Player Comments of Sleeping Dogs:

I ain´t gonna sugarcoat it... open worlds games from the early 2010s era have not aged quite good in my opinion. Sadly I feel the same about the open world of Sleeping Dogs. Even after saying this, It is so sad that this franchise never got the chance to flourish.It was never meant to be a GTA killer, but I do think that with only this game, they showed this franchise could have been the closest any saga has ever been to attract similar audiences as GTA. Saldy, this is the one and only game.The whole story and narrative surrounding this game is not only awesome, but has so much more potential for telling new stories... an undercover cop, familiar with organised crime, who has to balance his loyalties and discover treasons, betrayals, loyalties, unexpected aliances and even friendships along his job. In this specific title I think is what shines the most, and coudl in 2026 be the one reason to remember this game.The combat on itself is servicable in terms of 3D person shooters, and not a batman arkham in melee combat, but still really satisfactory and vibrant throughout the entirety of the game. Driving on itself feels nice too, and like I said, these have their flaws for modern eyes, but it was quite solid for its release date.I think this game could have opened to an actual fully functional IP, similar to the Mafia series. Old fashioned stories, buy one-time product, and a solid experience overall if you like the concept and this kind of games. Its just so sad that it never got a sequel, because in all the things that it did right there was so much more potential for future games to improve in minor ways to make it something INCREDIBLE. But this is a piece of history, a gem of its time that went underapriciated and could have been so much more.

What was once shelved and left for dead by Activision is given new life and what would have been the third in the True Crime series is now Sleeping Dogs, exceeding expectations of just about everyone but Square Enix, the new publisher.Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure(sandbox) game that takes place in China where you play as undercover cop Wei Shen, tasked with infiltrating the Triads. The game has been compared to other games in the genre, most notably, GTA. While similar in gameplay, Sleeping Dogs is no clone. It has an interesting story that should keep you enthralled, coming up in the underworld of a criminal organization, racing across the streets of Hong Kong, shooting it out with rival gang members all while undercover for the HKPD. The gameplay is what you would expect of a game of this scale and caliber. The game will give you plenty to do and will leave you wanting more. Unfortunately, the DLC doesn't quite fill that need.You can play with either Keyboard and Mouse or plug in a controller. I tried both input methods and found both options to be enjoyable. Thankfully, that means the choice up to your preference.

Sleeping Dogs was a game I bought in Steam's 2013 Autumn Sales, after being curious about this game for a long time and being aware that looking up YouTube footage might have spoiled the story for me, this sale was a good opportunity for me to just gamble on this one.And it was jackpot for me. Having played Just Cause 2, GTA 1 to 4, Saints Row 3, L.A. Noire and countless other free roaming games, I was completely overwhelmed by how convincing Hong Kong was portrayed in Sleeping Dogs. Hong Kong, which in this review refers to the map in Sleeping Dogs, is a graphically pleasing platform that carries the player through a gritty storyline revolving around Chinese gangsters. Even though the city is small compared to most of the aforementioned free roaming city games, there is a healthy amount of detail put in every square foot of Hong Kong, making the city feel as big as it would have felt in real life. The city dynamics are downright convincing, you will encounter a large amount of variation among the residents, each with their own reason for being on the street. This, and the amounts of interaction provided for the player, is something that at the time of writing is not appreciated enough in the industry.Sleeping Dogs features oriental themed music to reinforce that atmosphere. The genre of the background music as well as the radio stations vary from hip-hop to classic, all with Chinese roots. Luckily, a great majority of the used vocabulary is English, although you may encounter a Chinese swearword here and there. This is translated in the subtitles and may seem a bit forced, if not out of place. Personally I find it understandable considering a full English or Chinese transcript would've alienated the player from the casting in this context, or otherwise not being able to follow the story at all.

Conclusion:

The streets of Hong Kong are full of danger, and trust is hard to find. Sleeping Dogs is an action-packed game that puts you in the role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop living a risky double life. With intense fights, thrilling car chases, and a vibrant city to explore, it pulls you into a world where every choice matters. Each step you take could lead to triumph—or disaster. Can you balance loyalty and duty while staying alive? Step into the action and find out.