This is the first game I have played that the Steam Labs recommended to me based on my gameplay history. I couldn't tell you how I came to acquire this game, most likely through a Square Enix bundle. I knew nothing of the game prior, but reading the description and checking reviews I decided it was probably worth taking a chance on. I'm glad that I did and give the Steam Labs a thumbs up for the first good recommendation.

This is going to be a difficult game to review. It's impossible for me to talk about this game without talking about Grand Theft Auto Five, which isn't really fair to Sleeping Dogs. From the moment I had the freedom to move around the open world map, my expectations were already set because of how familiar it felt. I believe if I introduced this game blindly to somebody who had played GTA 4 or 5 but had no idea what this game was or about any GTA sequels or spinoffs that I could easily pass it off as a new GTA game. But it quickly became apparent just how much polish SD was lacking in comparison to GTA. AI is terrible. Traffic lights don't always work. Most story characters don't stand out. There are plenty of bugs and glitches. There is var less variety across the board in the likes of guns, vehicles, characters, radio stations, areas to explore, etc. I could go on and on about what SD is lacking, but I don't want to do that. Instead I'll tell you what it has which had me hooked, what kept me coming back, what made me wish to complete as much optional content as possible because of how enjoyable it was.

The more I played, the more I realised just how un-GTA like the game actually was, despite how similarly both games felt to each other. For starters guns are a rare commodity, typically restricted to a handful of story missions. There are tons of mini-games such as drug busts, safe cracking or camera hacking, You are rewarded for exploring the map, with incentives such as increased maximum health for every 10 shrines you fine, new attacks to use in combat for each hidden statue you find, and tons of optional non-story related missions that will award you with exp which will aid with unlocking new skills. Optional missions will grant the appearance of collectables on your minimap so there is incentive to complete the non-story missions. And honestly? The missions are fun. Most of them are short bursts of gameplay, lasting no more than 5-10 minutes and to me that was a good thing. I didn't feel daunted by having to take on tasks because I knew it would be nice and fast. This applies to everything from street races to police missions to random obscure tasks for wackjob npcs. There are also gameplay mechanics unique(ish) to SD, such as the ability to jump from your vehicle to hijack another vehicle. When you drive you can also push a button to cause your vehicle to ram to the left or right which is fantastic for street races or if you are being chased by police. As mentioned there are also unlockable skills which you can pick and choose between. If you complete all the content you will eventually unlock every ability. There are some annoyances. A few missions will have you chasing npcs around the world, but they have a fixed speed that is always faster than you. Cars are inconsistent during openworld races and was occasionally frustrating. Sometimes the game wouldn't know how to handle certain events that happened because it didn't go perfectly to script, such as a fleeing enemy npc after a shootout already being killed will cause the game to think you left the area, or a car being knocked into a different highway entrance during an optional police event in which vehicles need to be damaged enough to stop running before reaching the finish line. The car didn't know to reverse and it was impossible for it to reach the destination along the path it was now taking so my entire game crashed instead. Thankfully these things didn't happen enough to dampen my experience.

The story isn't as grand as GTA, but it's still fine for what it is. It's predictable, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the characters are a lot of fun, but others are so generic that I often found myself not remembering who they were and how they were relevant to what was happening. The main character is a ♥♥♥♥, but it's up to you to determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing. To me it was a bad thing, but it had no bearing on my enjoyment of the story or the gameplay. The game also falls victim to the common open world trope of "big massive story plot" followed by free roaming adventure and lack of urgency. It broke my immersion to go from *major plot point* to completing a random mission for a random npc rather than having story npcs texting or calling to discuss what had happened.

All in all, this was a really fun experience and it saddens me that I couldn't help but compare my experience I had with it to my experience in GTA. There is plenty to differentiate the two from each other though and I would be very happy to see a sequel at some point, but given the game came out several years ago I assume it's unlikely to happen. This is a hidden gem and is well worth a play

This is the first game I have played that the Steam Labs recommended to me based on my gameplay history. I couldn't tell you how I came to acquire this game, most likely through a Square Enix bundle. I knew nothing of the game prior, but reading the description and checking reviews I decided it was probably worth taking a chance on. I'm glad that I did and give the Steam Labs a thumbs up for the first good recommendation. This is going to be a difficult game to review. It's impossible for me to talk about this game without talking about Grand Theft Auto Five, which isn't really fair to Sleeping Dogs. From the moment I had the freedom to move around the open world map, my expectations were already set because of how familiar it felt. I believe if I introduced this game blindly to somebody who had played GTA 4 or 5 but had no idea what this game was or about any GTA sequels or spinoffs that I could easily pass it off as a new GTA game. But it quickly became apparent just how much polish SD was lacking in comparison to GTA. AI is terrible. Traffic lights don't always work. Most story characters don't stand out. There are plenty of bugs and glitches. There is var less variety across the board in the likes of guns, vehicles, characters, radio stations, areas to explore, etc. I could go on and on about what SD is lacking, but I don't want to do that. Instead I'll tell you what it has which had me hooked, what kept me coming back, what made me wish to complete as much optional content as possible because of how enjoyable it was. The more I played, the more I realised just how un-GTA like the game actually was, despite how similarly both games felt to each other. For starters guns are a rare commodity, typically restricted to a handful of story missions. There are tons of mini-games such as drug busts, safe cracking or camera hacking, You are rewarded for exploring the map, with incentives such as increased maximum health for every 10 shrines you fine, new attacks to use in combat for each hidden statue you find, and tons of optional non-story related missions that will award you with exp which will aid with unlocking new skills. Optional missions will grant the appearance of collectables on your minimap so there is incentive to complete the non-story missions. And honestly? The missions are fun. Most of them are short bursts of gameplay, lasting no more than 5-10 minutes and to me that was a good thing. I didn't feel daunted by having to take on tasks because I knew it would be nice and fast. This applies to everything from street races to police missions to random obscure tasks for wackjob npcs. There are also gameplay mechanics unique(ish) to SD, such as the ability to jump from your vehicle to hijack another vehicle. When you drive you can also push a button to cause your vehicle to ram to the left or right which is fantastic for street races or if you are being chased by police. As mentioned there are also unlockable skills which you can pick and choose between. If you complete all the content you will eventually unlock every ability. There are some annoyances. A few missions will have you chasing npcs around the world, but they have a fixed speed that is always faster than you. Cars are inconsistent during openworld races and was occasionally frustrating. Sometimes the game wouldn't know how to handle certain events that happened because it didn't go perfectly to script, such as a fleeing enemy npc after a shootout already being killed will cause the game to think you left the area, or a car being knocked into a different highway entrance during an optional police event in which vehicles need to be damaged enough to stop running before reaching the finish line. The car didn't know to reverse and it was impossible for it to reach the destination along the path it was now taking so my entire game crashed instead. Thankfully these things didn't happen enough to dampen my experience. The story isn't as grand as GTA, but it's still fine for what it is. It's predictable, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the characters are a lot of fun, but others are so generic that I often found myself not remembering who they were and how they were relevant to what was happening. The main character is a dick, but it's up to you to determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing. To me it was a bad thing, but it had no bearing on my enjoyment of the story or the gameplay. The game also falls victim to the common open world trope of "big massive story plot" followed by free roaming adventure and lack of urgency. It broke my immersion to go from *major plot point* to completing a random mission for a random npc rather than having story npcs texting or calling to discuss what had happened. All in all, this was a really fun experience and it saddens me that I couldn't help but compare my experience I had with it to my experience in GTA. There is plenty to differentiate the two from each other though and I would be very happy to see a sequel at some point, but given the game came out several years ago I assume it's unlikely to happen. This is a hidden gem and is well worth a play