Developer : Square Enix
Release date : August 14, 2012
Synopsis :
Sleeping Dogs is an open world and martial arts action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix’s European subsidiary. It was originally released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows in 2012. Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the single player story follows martial artist and undercover police officer Wei Shen who infiltrates the Sun On Yee Triad organization. Gameplay focuses on Wei Shen’s martial arts moves, fighting, shooting and parkour abilities, and on gadgets that can be used for combat and exploration. Players must complete missions to unlock content and continue the story, but they may instead freely roam the game’s open world environment and engage in both legal and criminal activities. The latter may incite a police response, the intensity of which is controlled by a “heat” system. Actions such as fighting, driving and racing grant Shen statistical rewards and earn the player achievements.
Sleeping Dogs’ difficult and prolonged development began in 2008. The game was announced in 2009 as part of the True Crime series but was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011, as a result of the project’s delays and budget issues. Six months later, Square Enix purchased the publishing rights and renamed the game Sleeping Dogs, without the True Crime license, but considered a spiritual successor. During development, United Front staff visited Hong Kong to conduct field research for the visual environments and sound.
Upon its release in 2012, the game received positive reviews for its combat, voice acting, protagonist, experience system and depiction of the city; but its camera and some animations were criticized. Within one year, the game had sold over 1.5 million copies. New outfits, missions and add-ons, as well as three expansion packs, were released as downloadable content in the six months following the game’s debut. A remastered version, subtitled Definitive Edition, was released in October 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It features improved gameplay, setting and audio-visual quality based on community feedback. The macOS version of Definitive Edition was released on March 31, 2016, by Feral Interactive. The game’s success spawned a spin-off multiplayer game titled Triad Wars, which was canceled in 2015. In 2017, a live action film adaptation was also announced, with Donnie Yen set to star as Shen.
Petty criminal Wei Shen is arrested in Aberdeen, Hong Kong after a drug deal goes wrong. In jail, Shen meets an old friend, Jackie Ma, who offers to introduce Shen to the members of a gang once they are released. It is soon revealed that Shen is an undercover cop whose arrest was part of a police operation, headed by Superintendent Thomas Pendrew and Inspector Raymond Mak, to infiltrate the Water Street branch of a Triad organization, the “Sun On Yee”. Shen joins the gang and is sent on various jobs and assignments by their leader, Winston Chu, against a rival Triad branch known as the Jade Gang led by Sam “Dogeyes” Lin.
Shen is assigned to arrest Popstar, a drug supplier for the Triad. After Popstar’s arrest, the Water Street branch suspect that Shen is a cop, though he manages to make Winston relent. To prove he’s not a cop, the Water Street boys send Shen to kill Siu Wah, one of Dogeyes’ drug dealers, but Shen instead brings him in alive. Officially gaining Winston’s trust, he lets Shen take over his position if something happens to him. Retaliatory attacks on each other’s properties culminate in the killing of Winston and his fiancée at their wedding by men posing as members of the rival 18K Triad. The leader of the Sun On Yee, David Wa-Lin “Uncle” Po, is also critically wounded in the attack but is saved by Shen.
As a reward, Shen is promoted to “Red Pole” of the Sun On Yee, and he also takes over Winston’s position in the Water Street branch. He then hunts down Winston’s killer who reveals that Dogeyes was the instigator of the attack. Shen captures Dogeyes who is killed by Winston’s mother. Po later dies in the hospital.
As a branch leader, Shen becomes embroiled in a power struggle over the leadership of Sun On Yee, siding with “Broken Nose” Jiang against another branch leader, Henry “Big Smile” Lee. After Po’s funeral, during which they are attacked by 18K members, Lee reluctantly agrees to an election that will decide the leader of the Sun On Yee, but promises retaliation if he does not win. Shen refuses Pendrew’s order to get off the case out of fear of Lee taking over. Lee then orders attacks against other Sun On Yee branches in an attempt to eliminate the competition and intimidate them into voting for him, including kidnapping Jackie and handing him to the 18K as a way to get rid of Shen.
Just before the election, Shen receives a text message from Jackie to meet him, but he finds Jackie hanged and disemboweled on a pipe in an alleyway. He is knocked out and wakes up, greeted by Liu Shen Tong, a feared Triad enforcer who knows Shen is a cop.
Shen is tortured, but manages to escape and proceeds to assault Lee’s compound, eventually reaching Lee, who reveals to Shen that Pendrew sold him out. The two fight and Shen kills Lee, ending the long and violent civil war and allowing Jiang to become the chairwoman of the Sun On Yee.
With the deaths of many senior ranking gang members, Shen is commended on his work but is informed by Mak that Pendrew has been promoted to Interpol and is out of his reach. Shen receives video evidence from Jiang that Pendrew killed Uncle Po by injecting lethal chemicals in his IV. After leaking the footage, Shen is able to incriminate Pendrew and returns to work on the police force. Jiang watches Shen from afar and orders the remaining Sun On Yee members to leave him alone, due to his loyalty to her.
Source : Wikipedia
