Let Sleeping Dogs lie (without a sequel) 
It's definitely one of the best Grand Theft Auto-ish games
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Funny man has jokes.
This game shaped my pork-bun-centric view of masculinity
It's on my list of games that I can't stop randomly thinking about (along with Prey, Mirror's Edge, and Mercenaries).
Those are all great and unique games that I randomly think back to also. Of you haven't played them I'd also highly recommend Control and Horizon zero dawn. Those two are high up on my list.
Unique games that really tried something new and interesting deserved to be randomly thought about! Those games are all pretty rad !
Sleeping Dogs was gem buried among a million derivative GTA clones, it just stayed good in every aspect. The gameplay and the art direction were always solid at their worst, and the story really worked its way into my head. It never lionized the gangs too much but didn't pretend like it was good vs evil either, especially with Jackie's storyline
Exactly. The cops aren't the heros, and Wei barely even wants to side with them at times. The gangs were made up of realistic, flawed people living in poverty. People who wanted protection from worse evils, or justice for their families. The gangs are still shown to be ultimately destructive, but there are so many moments in the story where the player and Wei are both driven by the same emotions driving the gang members. I'd say there is one moment in the story where I was mentally fully on a revenge quest over a gang killing.
I also love the game's portrayal of police corruption. Nobody is a hero. Wei is one of the morally best people of the game, but he's still a corrupt cop who took the job so he could extrajudicially kill someone fucking up his community.
It got a prequel
It was a fucking free to play MMO
I still would have played it if I knew about it
Chinese Grand Theft Auto doesn't get a sequel and I still don't like it.
Do you like Hong Kong crime movies much? That's probably a big part of liking/disliking this game.
I don't dislike the game.
I'm saying I hate the fact that it never got a sequel.
My bad - I misread your comment!
It's fine. 👍
It's been sitting in my Steam library for years now. I only played a few hours, but I'll give it another go. Thanks for the suggestion.
"combat that makes Arkham look incomplete"
Yeah...
Still waitin' for my damn Robot Alchemic Drive sequel.
That game brought a lot of life to a rather stale genre (especially at the time). Doing that sort of Hard-boiled Shanghai action movie stuff was a lot of fun. Yes Wei Shen is a cop blah blah blah, but it was just a great high-octane sort of beat ‘em up meets GTA clone.
I mean Wei Shen being a cop works pretty well for the story imo.
SPOILERS
It's implied that Wei is barely even a cop, and just did all of this so he could kill Dog Eyes. I like the way the game positions the police as villains in the story. Most of the Sun On Yee are portrayed to be good to morally ambiguous, while the cops are shown to be more questionable than the Sun On Yee. Whenever Pendrew starts moving in on the Sun On Yee, Wei is shown to side with his people to hide shit. He's a cop, but he's shown to have entirely his own motives that are entirely extrajudicial, Wei is the least corrupt cop but he's shown to still be corrupt as fuck. Dog Eyes being hung on a meat hook is a worthy ending for such a piece of shit and Wei has every right to do it. But it's objectively an abuse of Wei's police power. I like their portrayal of police corruption, whether it was intentional or not
Very much in agreement with you! Wei Shen is really a great character to show the criminality of both sides of the law. Games also does a good job (especially for a mid 2000s action game) of showing that the very idea of “undercover” is a deeply flawed concept. Wei Shen couldn’t really change the Yun On Yee from the inside as much as any well meaning coo can do on the flip side.
It didn't need them, but I kept wishing there were flying vehicles so I could get a birds-eye view of the city
A helicopter would have made for some badass fights too. Imagine Wei jumping between helicopters and throwing people into the blades and shit.
Fantastic game, one of my favorites of the 2010s.
The soundtrack is amazing as well. So many ear worms.
Still haven't started the DLCs, such a great game