This is a great game. Unique in the fact that it's based in Hong Kong and is a Chinese themed game. They did it very well from the soundtrack: (love 24Herbs now), the style, Cantonese language, and even the actors were mostly Asian/Chinese. These subtle nuances for an under-represented community shows the effort and authenticity they put into this. Onto the review.
Graphics: The graphics are pretty good for sandbox- 3rd person action game. I didn't notice any frame-rate drops or jagged edges in my playthrough. It's a last-gen game but it holds up very well today as a free-roam action game. The city, cars, people, made you feel like you're in Hong Kong, so definite points for immersion.
Gameplay: Overall solid gameplay. It has a beat-em-up feel to it like Yakuza where you get to use environmental attacks to your advantage. The string of martial arts combos that you pick up and learn along the way are also very nice. I like the leveling up system which really makes your character feel like you're progressing and able to do more things. This adds to the replayability factor with different side quests, karaoke bars to visit, jade statues to collect, etc.
I don't like the camera too much though. When you're fighting, driving, etc. the camera always moves around on its own to go behind you and when you're driving/reversing, it literally will turn you around and mess with your FOV (field of vision) sometimes. I wish there were an option to toggle that off. I think it was a nice touch to add that in Hong Kong, there aren't much access to guns, so most of the weaponry you'll rely on are your fists and feet, knives, umbrella, to even a fish in some cases. In the event you do find a gun, the Max Payne slow-mo effects are decently done. It'd be nice if it wasn't just activated when you leapt out of cover though, but that's more of a stylistic thing.
Story: It's a pretty well done (albeit cliché) story of an undercover HK cop named, Wei Shen who finds himself thrown into the HK Triad's underworld while balancing his duties as a cop. His job is to integrate himself with the gang and inform on them whilst not getting "made" or found out to be a rat. Throughout the story he makes friends, rekindles with old ones, rises up in the Triad ranks to become a Red Pole (Lead enforcer or captain for the Triad). They did a good job throwing homage to real life Triad counterparts: the Sun Ye On and the 14K Triad by naming the game's triads the Sun On Ye (the group you're affiliated with) and the 18K (your main rivals). For the good half of the game you're spending time infighting with other factions of the Sun On Ye instead of actually fighting your 18K rivals. In fact, the storyline doesn't really focus on the 18K much at all, which was a bit of a downer. There were a lot of storyline elements they could've taken to include the rivalry with the 18K that could've culminated into a bitter turf war between them, but alas no such thing. Overall while the story was good, I do wish there were more options for Wei to determine whether he wanted to blow his cover and stay a cop or completely forego his sworn duties and become a full-fledged member of the Sun On Ye. If they had an option where you could choose towards the end, that would've been amazing.
Final thoughts: This game is good. A lot of people describe it as the "Chinese GTA" and since GTA pretty much solidified the sandbox, free-roam genre, I can see where they're coming from. Almost all sandbox games are iterations of GTA at some point, but Sleeping Dogs is much more than just that. It's an opportunity for a Western audience to experience a game with Eastern themed culture in a stylistic and authentic way that most people have no idea about. I really think it's a game that people should at least give a try. It might be something you enjoy and can learn from.
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