We Suggest Games, You Play ‘Em: Sleeping Dogs

Ever had the case of a ‘gamer’s block’? You know, like the infamous ‘writer’s block’, only different. That depressing time when you feel like you’ve exhausted every major video game available on your console and just don’t know what game to play next? Well fear not, TechCity is here (Heroic music).

You’ve probably all delved into the Fifa’s, the Call of Duty’s, the Assassin’s Creed’s, the Batman’s (sounds pretty grammatically flawed, but you get it) and so on. But today, we encourage you to take a path generally less travelled. That path has one name, two words: Sleeping Dogs. The game’s storyline revolves around Wei Shen, a tough Hong Kong character who has just returned to his hometown in China after a lengthy stay in the US. At the beginning of the game, Shen is thrown in a cell after a drug deal goes bust and while there, encounters a childhood friend, Jackie. Jackie’s involved with a triad gang, although he’s pretty down the pecking order. Through him, Wei gets a foot into the world of the Chinese underground. Just a few playing minutes later, you find out that Shen is an undercover cop, sent to the crime underworld to do what undercover cops do. I wouldn’t want to be a spoiler or ruin any exciting moments from the game, so I’ll end the synopsis here.

However, it is interesting to note that the game adapts a Grand Theft Auto kind of style to its graphics animation. Really, it owes a huge debt of influence to the GTA series. You’re able to manoeuvre about the town on foot and in vehicles. BUT this game would give GTA a decent run for its money.

One of the attributes which captured my video gamer eyes was the hand to hand combat and moves (which kinda reminded me of True Crime) and indeed beyond that, the AWESOME STORYLINE. You’ve got so many twists to the story that every time the player thinks they have the story clocked, the game’s developer ‘United Front’ peels away another layer that both changes the gamer’s expectations and ups the dramatic stakes. It’s not completely original, but it’s effective nonetheless. The fact that all the characters in the game are very well written and superbly voiced doesn’t hurt, either. In short, United Front works hard to pull the player into the game’s narrative, and it’s easy to become invested in Wei’s story even before the action starts. It’s easily one of game’s strongest assets.

Easily a must have for you blokes (and females who like to play games <3). Still not convinced? Check out the posted video. We humans are naturally engineered to be more impressed by what we see after all.