1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10
3. Sleeping Dogs |360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10
What would happen if you mixed Yakuza with Grand Theft Auto, plus a dash of True Crime as garnishing? Yeah, this right here. Sleeping Dogs. Indeed, despite its name this is actually not a game about narcoleptic canines. Nope, rather it's about an undercover cop named Wei Shen, on assignment in Hong Kong to infiltrate the Sun On Yee triad. That is, when he's not busy gulping down pork buns and singing karaoke.
You play the part of Wei Shen, living his Hong Kong cop life. You start the game out with a crappy apartment and crappy clothes and a joke of a motorcycle. By the end of the game you'll own million yuan apartments, fancy Italian suits, and cars that cost a fortune just to insure. Getting from those humble beginnings to the extravagant end's gonna take quite a bit of effort from the player though. You'll have to learn to navigate a labyrinthine city, how to brawl like a tiger, and above all else; never ever blow your cover.
Sleeping Dog's greatest strength is its variety of gameplay. This game is a jack of many trades and a master of some. First and foremost, the combat engine is excellent and as you unlock more and more moves you'll go from white belt punching bag to cocaine addled Bruce Lee. When fists aren't enough, Wei Shen's not afraid to bust some caps, and the third person shooting is on par. Getting from point A to B involves copious driving, and thankfully the handling is arcade style, making it easy to burn up the streets. (You can even hijack a car FROM another car and that's always exciting.) Sometimes a car won't do it though, and Wei has to use his own feet. No problem, Sleeping Dogs has a very solid parkour engine and makes chasing down escaping punks a vigorously entertaining affair. There's also surveillance mini games, racing, hacking, singing, dating, rooster fighting, gambling, and whatever else I'm forgetting. There are all kinds of optional side missions and most are worth doing. If you're bored playing Sleeping Dogs, it's your own darn fault.
The core of the experience though, focuses on Wei infiltrating the triads. There are 30 primary missions in which he does this, with great variety as to how they occur. Rest assured you are going to beat the bloody snot bubbles out of a lot of overly tattooed punks, wreck a lot of cars, and splatter plenty of brains via bullet time. Sleeping Dogs is a very, very violent game. For being an undercover cop, Wei Shen doesn't mind breaking the law and murdering the hell out of... well, anyone who gets in his way. Sometimes quite gruesomely thanks to "environment kills". If there's anything nearby that can be used to execute someone, Wei can use it. And yes, there are table saws lying around sometimes. Doing extremely violent things literally intimidates the thugs you're fighting, and gives you temporary stat boosts. So it pays for the player to be as ruthless as possible.
Graphically speaking, Sleeping Dogs is often gorgeous. Hong Kong sprawls as a convincing urban wasteland, with a few areas offering natural beauty as well. Driving through the city at night while it rains, with neon signs reflecting off the road, is thoroughly convincing. Stop moving and start looking a little more closely though, and you can see some questionable art assets and murky textures. This is a game that looks great as long as you're just cruising on through. Aurally Sleeping Dogs gets the job done. Top notch voice acting and the bone crunching sound effects are done well. The radio stations available to you in automobiles leave a lot to be desired though.
If I have one big complaint about Sleeping Dogs however, it's the actual story. The plot just never took hold of me, nor did I ever really care about Wei Shen's problems. Whereas in Yakuza 1 & 2, I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen to Kazuma Kiryu, Sleeping Dog's Wei Shen just felt more like an angry hollow avatar. And while the plot does have some twists and turns, it's told in a haphazard way with not enough character development for anyone involved. Sleeping Dog's story line just gets the job done and little more, a real let down for a crime drama epic of its size. After completing the game, I still didn't fully understand Wei's true motivations or alliances.
But maybe that's not the point. Maybe the point of Sleeping Dogs is just to be a crazy rogue cop gettin' rich in a Hong Kong's crime stained underbelly. And if that is the point, than Sleeping Dogs makes that point with the power of a dim mak punch. With so much to offer the player in excitement, laughs, collectibles, side missions, and sheer unbridled catharsis, Sleeping Dogs keeps its players wide awake.