Sleeping Dogs

[garbon]

Hmm...in the first few minutes got:

Mission failed. You fell in the water.

I take no responsibility for gameplay mechanics.

Or my poor dexterity.


So my 2 cents after about an hour of play -

Naturally easy to compare to GTA though I'd say it feels more gritty and has less of the cartoonishness of GTA, the karaoke bit notwithstanding (The Clash!).

Seems to be several skill trees that you can level up in based on the type of experience you get. Most missions give you triad and/or cop experience - with some special missions giving you just face experience.  Mono will be happy to note that one way to make sure you get the full amount of cop experience in each mission is to obey traffic laws (i.e. don't hit cars, property or innocents).

I like that garages in the game keep a record of every vehicle that you own - so even if you leave your motor bike alongside the road, you can always pick it back up at the garage. Nice compared to the mostly useless garages in GTA.

Combat seems fun and two enemies will attack you at the same time - so you are frequently alternating between beating one guy down and countering the other.  Like that you can use the environment in combat. One of my early kills involved smashing a guy into a fish tank and then later watching a guy get sliced up by the fan I held his head down on.

Oddly though, I've barely encountered any weapon wielding foes at this point. A few guys with knives but that's about it - which is odd because one of the early level ups is to be able to grab guns from foes without an extended struggle.  Haven't had use for it as of yet.

Can't say much about the story yet as I'm not that far in - but largely seems to be about balancing cop duties and triad duties (like the various experience sets).

[garbon]

Oh one thing I don't like though is how many times there are events where you have to quickly press the correct button within a split-second. Had to play a couple times over when this cop was trying to arrest me as I'd barely even noticed the quick pop-up to press x to break his hold.

[Syt]

Oh one thing I don't like though is how many times there are events where you have to quickly press the correct button within a split-second. Had to play a couple times over when this cop was trying to arrest me as I'd barely even noticed the quick pop-up to press x to break his hold.

God, how I hate quick time events. It's when developers want to show a cool sequence that's not possible in the "normal" gameplay mechanics but want to make it interactive, nevertheless, instead of just showing a cutscene.

[garbon]

I think I'd be okay with them if I knew they were coming but there was no warning.  Drug dealer said to me: Cops are coming, be cool don't move.  Then my character started running but cop cut him and started to put on cuffs. I was supposed to be prepared that I'd need to press x which seemed odd especially given the advice I'd been given by the drug dealer.

[sbr]

Yep quick time events are horrid.

[Syt]

It's the reason I never finished Dragon's Lair - the whole game is one long qte.

[Jacob]

So far garbon, what do you think of the different characters?

Who have you met? Winston, Jackie, Amanda, Raymond, Mrs. Chu?

Any predictions on what's going to happen?

[garbon]

Sure I can speak to that. So far I think the characters all seem pretty well formed as far as being coherent/distinct.

I've met Winston, Jackie, Amanda and Raymond.

Winston - strikes me as a hardass gang leader though I wonder with the fools around him how he's lasted so long
Jackie - naive childhood friend, wonder how he has survived given that he likes to pick fights but is kinda scrawny
Amanda - hmm, my bias but not a fan. So far just blonde American who doesn't seem to know better (letting a random stranger in a foreign country drive you around?!)
Raymond - ooh, I think he might irritate me as much as he irritates Wei. Totally the rule minder.

So far seems to be Wei trying to worm his way into the triads and up the ladder. Thinking as I sort of stated above that there's going to be a big issue for him in remembering his a cop and not just giving in to criminal methods - as although he is saying he is fine, his recurring nightmares seem to suggest that he will be faced with the choice of going vigilante style on those that harmed his family.

[garbon]

Only character who strikes me oddly is the cop woman - as I'm not entirely sure it is the best plan to be undercover but also participating in general cop tasks.  On one hand only me as the undercover could go around beating up members of the gangs - but I don't understand how I'm not seen. Like when I beat up some guys near where playboy is encamped so as to hack the surveillance camera.  No one in the gangs noticed that?

[Jacob]

Only character who strikes me oddly is the cop woman - as I'm not entirely sure it is the best plan to be undercover but also participating in general cop tasks.  On one hand only me as the undercover could go around beating up members of the gangs - but I don't understand how I'm not seen. Like when I beat up some guys near where playboy is encamped so as to hack the surveillance camera.  No one in the gangs noticed that?

Short answer: no. No one remembers, just like people quickly forget how you (may have) killed hundreds of innocents with your crazy driving and insane shooting.

[garbon]

Yeah that's true as in that is equally the same.

[The Brain]

Are all characters thinly disguised Languish posters?

[garbon]

Oh finally got a gun the other day. Fun.

[Scipio]

Broke down, got it.  Pretty damn good.  SquareEnix has really been doing well with these rpg/actioners, what with this and Deus Ex.

[Jacob]

Are all characters thinly disguised Languish posters?

Some of them are fat.