Sleeping Dogs (video game)
Sleeping Dogs takes place in Hong Kong and focuses on an undercover operation to infiltrate the Triads.
The game was originally in development as an original IP, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was reannounced as Sleeping Dogs in 2012 as Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization (a reference to real-life Triad gang Sun Yee On). On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts skills in combat. Players are also capable of driving a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats and motorcycles.The combat system heavily revolves around hand-to-hand fighting with strong influences from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City's "Freeflow" combat system. The cover system allows the player to deftly move between cover, to fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific enemy. Individual body parts can also be targeted. The driving segments were inspired by the Need for Speed series, with several developers having worked on previous Need for Speed titles. While driving, Wei can get out and jump onto other moving vehicles.
Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain content and parts of the city, they are not required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the ability to participate in activities such as carjacking, joining a fight club, doing karaoke, visiting gambling dens betting on cockfights and participating street races. There are also several potential girlfriends for Wei Shen to date. Successful completion of side missions offers the player rewards.
Sleeping Dogs features role-playing elements with three different experience point values: Triad XP, Face XP, and Police XP. Triad XP and Police XP measure Wei's devotion to the triad and police, respectively, while Face XP is a measure of his general reputation. Clothing, accessories and vehicles are available for purchase by Wei, and have an effect on non-player characters' reactions. Sleeping Dogs tracks acquired skills in areas such as hand-to-hand combat, which improve through use in the game.Although there is no multiplayer component, the game features online stats and leaderboards so players can compare scores.
Plot
The game starts in a Shipping Harbor in Hong Kong as Wei Shen (Will Yun Lee), along with Naz, met with a drug buyer, while the Hong Kong police are keeping surveillance on them, until the buyer killed a security guard and the police intervened, with Wei arrested. While in prison, Wei meets his old friend, Jackie Mah (Edison Chen), who is now a member of the Triad called the "Sun On Yee" and offered Wei to hook up with the gang after he leaves. Wei met with Police Inspector Pendrew (Tom Wilkinson) in the interrogation room, aware of Wei as an undercover officer and assigned Raymond Mak (Byron Mann) as his handler, with Wei confirmed he's in the Triad.
Development
Initial version
On August 6, 2010, it was announced that the game would be delayed until 2011 to give more development time. According to Activision CEO, Eric Hirshberg, who’s assured that the August delay of True Crime: Hong Kong had greatly "paid off." "The additional development time invested in this game has really paid off. We wanted to make the gameplay mechanic's for the fighting and shooting as sophisticated as the driving, which is something that’s very hard to achieve in the open-world genre," said Hirshberg.
On February 9, 2011, Activision decided to cancel the game, in order to focus on online games that have a higher margin. The game was declared cancelled for being "just not good enough" to compete in the open world genre. Even with its most optimistic projections, said the firm, it couldn't see True Crime reaching the top of the open-world genre. Activision didn't expect True Crime to generate enough profit and stopped development. United Front Games announced their disappointment on their website: "We are sorry we did not get a chance to complete this project with Activision, but we understand why. We are both committed to doing quality games and nothing less. Maybe we will have a chance to work together in the future, but in the meantime we are setting our creative sights on a different horizon." The game's executive producer Stephen Van Der Mescht told Computer and Video Games that True Crime: Hong Kong was playable from start to finish and "virtually complete" in terms of content before Activision canned it. Despite Activision's low expectations, Van Der Mescht said the game "stood apart" from the competition.
On June 22, 2011, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg explained the reason for the decision, stating that the game’s development budget and delays were, in a sense, also a contributing factor in its cancellation. "The market changed dramatically since the game was first greenlit", Hirshberg said. "Back then, it was possible for more titles with such a large scope as True Crime: Hong Kong to find sizeable audiences". However, according to the CEO, competition has become stiffer and now only the top games end up being successes. Hirshberg didn't foresee True Crime: Hong Kong becoming a blockbuster on the scale of a Grand Theft Auto, and without blockbuster potential, it didn't make sense to compete.
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