Sleeping Dogs is an open-world action adventure game set in the wonderful Hong Kong. Originally developed as an entry into the True Crime series, it has now become more of a spiritual successor since the initial plans were scrapped. It features a classic undercover cop story, mixed with GTA-esque gameplay and martial arts. It's a great combination of mature storytelling and over the top fun.

Positives:
+ Fantastic setting for an open-world game. Hong Kong is vibrant, exotic and full of interesting locations. I have never been to China and don't know whether the locations are similar to real life but I liked what I saw here.
+ Great acting performances by the main cast. There are some big names featured in this game and they deliver their scenes well.
+ Martial Arts combat is satisfying and fun. All moves feel powerful and fights can get bloody. There are many different combos and execution styles that contribute to the brutality aspect.
+ Large number of side content ranging from races, cop jobs, triad tasks and much more. Definitive Edition features all released DLC added to the main game's world (The two bigger packs "Nightmare in North Point" and "Year of the Snake" are started through the main menu).
+ Many clothing options and dozens of cars you can purchase and play with.
+ Good selection of music and well made radio stations.
+ All DLC and expansion packs are included in this one purchase (not all of them are super great but it's good to have all content available for one cheap price).

Negatives:

It's good to point out that I've only played the original version of Sleeping Dogs on the Xbox 360. I don't really know whether the bugs I experienced here were present in the original Sleeping Dogs for PC or if they are Definitive Edition exclusive.

- One of the biggest issues I've had was the sound engine breaking randomly. A few times it started repeating the same sounds (it was gunfire sounds that continued to play during cutscenes and gameplay) and the only way to fix this was a game restart. It also happened with police siren sounds repeating endlessly and car engine sounds disappearing.
- Sometimes interactable NPCs would refuse to speak to me while doing an "afraid" animation. This happened after getting out of a Taxi and I could only resolve it by reloading a save.

Overall:
Sleeping Dogs is a great open-world gangster game and one of the few ones set in Asia. Its Gritty undercover story and solid gameplay make it a must play for any fan of this genre. Combine that with all DLC packs and you have 40 hours of entertainment. You can grab it on sale for about $3... what are YOU waiting for?

A man who never eats pork bun is NEVER a whole man!
A man who never plays sleeping dogs is NEVER a whole man!

A man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!

!CAUTION! !CAUTION! you may not like the game.

- I have a bittersweet taste of this game probably because I started very late. But seriously this game has some of the worst player control and camera settings, specially when hordes of thugs surround you and gave you a very bad type of parry mechanics. Mini games and puzzles in this game is irritating.

-And other than that the story is decent given that this game has cancelled several time in its development process but still made its way to release date. Reminds me a lot like GTA 4, but comparing it with ther GTA games would not be fair. Its not just a GTA set in Hong Kong. Its a whole another game. Take time and enjoy the bustling city of Hong Kong,

Very entertaining both on the gameplay and story aspect, it kept me entertained for a long time and it runs perfectly on the steam deck.
I think it's better to enjoy the story by going blind, so i won't talk about it.
I love how the open world is dense, alive and compact, with a lot of details and hidden stuff to discover.
The game is focused on hand to hand fighting with satisfying and decently complex combat system, getting even better with upgrades, it's a little similar to bully, while being much more complex.
Dlc costume add even more variety to the combat, i love the alternative combos that some costumes have, the developers put a lot of passion on the combat.
And on top of that, the gun gameplay is decent with a good variety of weapons, specially when taking account the dlc costumes.
Driving on this game is mediocre, it isn't as fun compared to gta 5, being too arcade and ''on rails'', but it wasn't too much of a problem considering there isn't nearly as much driving compared to gta games, and the soundtrack is good.
The missions are very thought out with some decent amount of variety, focusing on melee combat and some gun combat towards the end of the game, it rarely gets too repetitive, aside from ''catch the guy by running across the rooftops''.
Cop jobs are cool and add variety to the gameplay loop, but are too short, i wish it was longer and more thought out.
To 100% the game, it gets very repetitive, but i had fun most of the time, side missions are interesting, but are also repetitive.
Strongly recommend to play once, and it's a shame that we won't ever have a sequel.

I completed it on PS4 and playing it again on Steam. Both the story and the combat is what made me wanna play this game again. This reminds me of Yakuza which is the reason I played it.

They do be sleeping tho 🗿

can we get a sequel now? Plz thx :)

if u love old school undercover cop movies, GTA style of game this is game u need to try. for a 10 years old game i think game still holds up. controls are quite easy to master, graphics are ok for an older game, maybe only minus is driving but is acceptable,
if u want to try it game is often on sale for a very cheap

Game good