Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edtion (Xbox One) Review!

Back at the tail end of 2012 Sleeping Dogs hit the Xbox 360 and to be perfectly honest blew me away with its interesting Hong Kong setting, fantastic voice acting and truly fun combat mechanics, but going back to the Xbox One version of the game do i still feel the same?

Well, the short answer is yes. Sleeping Dogs puts you in the shoes of undercover cop Wei Shen who returns to Hong Kong after years of working as a cop in the USA. Shen is tasked with going undercover with triad group the Sun On Yee and taking it down from the inside. However, the true brilliance of this story is in Shen's split loyalties as he becomes more attached to the group and starts to see the Honour vs Crime dynamic play out throughout the city. Think of it like a darker version of Rush Hour!

This shines so bright as a plus point due to the fantastic voice acting. United Front made a wise choice of hiring voice talent that is proficient in both English and Cantonese which gives the game a sense of realism that many titles like this do not have. The subtle switching between these languages again adds to the story and by the end of the main game you really feel attached to each character, especially Shen and his group of misfit friends.

Combat and character progression is also a leading light for the game, with the melee combat drawing heavily from Batman Arkham's Attack, Counter and Grapple system but Sleeping Dogs adds in classic Kung Fu style and moves which make the game feel like you're in a modern Kung Fu flick. The environmental kills are a big highlight here too with most of them being absolutely brutal! Shen also levels up through a variety of means, each mission has a Cop rating and a triad rating based on the actions you take throughout the mission. Generally speaking head-shots and violence will add to the triad score but causing public damage and hurting civilians will lower the Cop score. Thankfully every mission in the game can be replayed for those looking to get the best possible upgrades as quick as possible.

Side quests are fantastic in this game too. the world is much smaller than typical GTA fare but Hong Kong is much more densely populated with smart NPC's and a bounty of side missions, favours and events to take part in. There's races that are frankly good enough to be there own racing game, Cockfighting, Martial Arts Tournaments, Drug Busts, Lock Boxes, etc. Crucially all of these side aspects, even the health shrines, are given the benefit of a story beat. for example, taking one of the female characters on a date unlock a fully voiced mission that rewards you with the mini-map now displaying the whereabouts of one of the collectibles. For an achievement hunter out there this is a god send and pushes the player to actively seek out the collectibles organically as they are doing something else instead of waiting till the post game to hunt them all down.

The definitive edition also includes the short story expansions Nightmare in North-point and Year of the Snake. Both of these expansions are pretty fun and goofy bits of content that don't stray too far from the main games formula but are still a ton of fun and certainly worth giving a go once the main game is complete as they are full of spoilers if you haven't!

If there is any downsides to Sleeping Dogs is that in 2018 it does begin to show its age a little bit. The models and textures are a little muddy and its lack of any multiplayer can put people off but as a standalone single player game that you can pick up for around £12 at this point, i think there is more than enough content.

Overall Sleeping Dogs was a great game on Xbox 360 and it is slightly improved on Xbox One. Its fluid combat, fast driving, interesting setting and extremely engaging story easily outweigh the slightly dated graphics in my opinion.

If you haven't played it and like Kung Fu movies, GTA or generally great and well written stories, you could do alot worse than Sleeping Dogs: Definitive edition