If you have an Xbox Live gold membership like I do, every month they put up a new game that is completely free to gold members. At least they do on the 360 I don't know if they do it on the Xbox One. The point is, most of the time they are really good games. A couple of months ago, the game of the month was Sleeping Dogs a game by United Front Games and published by Square Enix. Which is weird because I really liked it and usually Square Enix games just make me feel uncomfortable.
In Sleeping Dogs you play as Wei Shen (seen ripped and sexy above), a man who is torn between two lives. He just got got back to his home in Hon-Kong after a few years living abroad in America. Wei gets up to his old tricks right away and the first time you get to play as him is during a drug deal that goes south and Wei ends up in jail. He bumps into his old friend Jackie in his cell and he starts telling Wei about how bad things have gotten since he left. Jackie is part of the gang the Sun On Yee under the command of Wei's other old friend Winston. A lot of rival gangs are out there after the Sun On Yee but at the moment their biggest problem is another faction of the Sun On Yee led by this asshole named Dogeyes. After all this catching up, Jackie informs Wei that he could probably get him in good with Winston when they are released. Wei is finally brought to speak to a detective. A man named Pendrew (I know it seems like a lot of people but stay with me it's not that bad). Pendrew interviews Wei alone and turns off all the cameras in the interrogation room to make sure there will be no witnesses. It turns out Wei is an undercover cop and his current assignment is to get in good with the Sun On Yee and destroy them from the inside.
Jackie introduces Wei to Winston who is at first hesitant to trust him. Winston asks about Wei's sister because they grew up together and he informs him that she recently overdosed and died. Dogeyes was the one who got her addicted to drugs in first place. They quickly bond over their hatred for Dogeyes and Wei is very good at what he does. During a few of his assignments for Winston Wei had to kill people, use guns and in one situation blow up a building. Naturally, his superiors in the police department were not happy with him and were beginning to question his loyalties.
Meanwhile, Winston no longer has any question of Wei's loyalty. Winston is getting married and all of the leaders of the different Sun On Yee families will be there including the big boss himself, Uncle Po. So all of the leaders of this gang are going to be in one place at the same time? I can't see this going wrong in any way. Of course a rival gang attacks and kills Winston and his wife in a really really sad scene. This is like the red wedding before the red wedding. Everyone gets shot except Wei of course because he is essentially Japanese Batman. Wei finds Uncle Po shot and bleeding and manages to get him to a hospital and saves his life. Pendrew gets sick of Wei's bullshit and has Jackie arrested to spite him. Uncle Po promotes Wei to a higher rank in the Sun On Yee as thanks for saving his life.
Wei manages to track down one of the shooters from the wedding and he tells him that Dogeyes was actually behind the shooting. We finally get the confrontation we have been waiting for. Wei against Dogeyes. Both of them now leading their own gangs. When Wei captures Dogeyes there isn't much of a fight. It's like he is beneath Wei now. He is nothing to him. Wei takes Dogeyes to Winston's mother to allow her to inflict whatever kind of justice she deems fit. He could have taken Dogeyes in to the police but that wouldn't really have been justice would it? Believe it or not there is still quite a bit left to this game's storyline, but this seems like a good end point doesn't it? And I should probably talk about the gameplay a little bit before I end this review.
When I first picked up this game I assumed it was just another Grand Theft Auto clone but it turned out to be so much more than that. It takes hours of gameplay to even unlock a gun. I have compared the fighting to the Arkham series of games but I'm not sure if that's accurate. In Arkham its basically button mashing and then you get attacked and you press a different button to counter. The fighting style in this game is button mashing early on, but then you learn new combos and grapples. I would say the fighting style is more like that of Yakuza then anything else.
Alright, this is supposed to be a review isn't it? Thus far I haven't offered any of my own opinions. Most gamers believe that gameplay is number one and story is secondary. I am the opposite; I can handle bad controls and gameplay but it has to have a good story. This is why I believe Assassin's Creed 2 is the worst game ever made. Some games are exceptions to the rule like any Mario game or Cloudberry Kingdom but for the most part I look for a good story in games. I was very happy to find Sleeping Dogs because it is not only one of the greatest organized crime stories I have ever heard but it is also one of the most fun games I have ever played. Square Enix has confirmed a sequel set in the "Sleeping Dogs universe".
