Making things further distinct is the voice cast, which is both predominantly Asian and absolutely stacked. All told, Wei proves to be a compelling morally grey character - not an outright criminal like most Rockstar protagonists, but also not exactly the hero we see in many other games. The core conflict of Wei struggling to balance conflicting loyalties - and, through that, discover his own identity - is genuinely fascinating. While we’ve seen similar stories in Hong Kong films like Infernal Affairs, from which United Front openly drew inspiration, it still feels novel in the gaming space, especially in the open-world genre. Structurally, the game is divided between missions for both the police and Triad, with Wei finding himself torn between the opposing worlds.
While many GTA-likes - including, even, Rockstar’s own Red Dead series - are all about straight-up criminals, Sleeping Dogs follows an undercover cop named Wei Shen as he infiltrates the Triad in contemporary Hong Kong. But a big part of what distinguishes Sleeping Dogs, even 10 years later, is how it approaches that sandbox framework.
In fact, it even started out as an entry in Activision’s GTA-esque True Crime series before moving over to Square Enix. Like a lot of games, Sleeping Dogs is heavily inspired by Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, particularly with its open-world crime-centric premise. Simply put, it deserved better, and here’s why. In several ways, it holds up remarkably well, even among the litany of other open-world games since. Because after replaying Sleeping Dogs over the past week or so, I’ve come to appreciate it even more than I did the first time around. But it was a real gem, and it’s a damn shame that we never got a proper sequel and, worse still, that United Front sadly ended up shuttering a few years later. Sure, it might have been one of many Western titles that Square Enix considered a commercial disappointment due to, by its own admission, “exceedingly high” expectations.
Amid all of this Square Enix news and Sleeping Dogs‘ 10th anniversary on August 14th, I’ve found myself reflecting on the game.
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