The experience points are, in turn, used to unlock new, unique abilities. Sleeping Dogs’ blurred lines come to the fore as soon as you’re introduced to the game’s unique leveling system, which allots Shen experience points in three specific areas: Cop, Triad and Face. But as Shen gets sucked further and further into the Triad underworld he initially wants to unravel, his motives – and which side he’ll end up falling in line with – become increasingly blurred.
Rather, Shen is a calculated and complicated figure, an undercover cop with plenty of experience in both the United States and Hong Kong who returns to his native land in order to help get the city’s thriving criminal enterprises under control. Unlike recent titans of the genre - Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and Saints Row: The Third - your character, Wei Shen, doesn’t have roguish, violent tendencies just because he’s a criminal looking to make a few bucks. See, Sleeping Dogs isn’t your typical Grand Theft Auto clone. It’s that story, coupled with rock-solid mechanics and a task-heavy world that sets Sleeping Dogs apart from its competition.
But at the end of my nearly 20-hour experience, none of that mattered to me as much as the story did.
Sure, Sleeping Dogs’ melee combat and gunplay provide plenty of thrills, the driving is extraordinarily fun in all of its arcadey glory, and there’s a whole lot to do in the version of Hong Kong Canadian developer United Front Games created. Playing Sleeping Dogs kept me on the edge of my seat, but not for the reasons you might expect.