1UP COVER STORY
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012
Sleeping Dogs Moves In On GTA’s Turf
Cover Story: Four reasons why United Front’s open-world game already tops the last GTA.
O
ver the past decade, open-world sandbox games have been all the rage. And why not? This style of game presents players with impressively modeled recreations of some of the most important settings in history within the context of a video game. When executed properly, these authentic playgrounds add an extra layer of believability to any story. We’ve done everything imaginable through an open-world lens, from traipsing across Renaissance Italy in Assassin’s Creed II to high-speed cop chases in Grand Theft Auto IV. Now developer United Front Games aims to provide an equally ambitious and complementary experience to those examples with their latest game — one that matches a foreign locale with fast car chases and urban drama. In Sleeping Dogs, players experience Hong Kong and get a behind-the-scenes look at the gritty world of the Chinese underground, experiencing a tale inspired by hit movies Infernal Affairs and The Departed.
Can it really best the top dogs in the genre? I think so. Despite Rockstar’s landmark work, its GTA titles tend to combine cool ideas (see the bank heist in GTA IV, which former 1UP editor Thierry Nguyen often describes as Heat: The Video Game) with janky execution (see driving, hand-to-hand combat, and targeting). Sleeping Dogs aims to improve on the GTA formula, and the effort shows. It was clear to me during a recent hands-on demo that the the developers passionately focused on creating a game with fluid combat, great driving and handling for cars and bikes, and an engaging story that doesn’t sit entirely at odds with gameplay. Remember Mr. Bellic’s ridiculous attempt to get out of the killing people business in GTA IV by… well, killing people? GTAIV hit its fourth birthday this past April, and a sequel is due by the time it turns five. But before you get excited for Grand Theft Auto V, a game no one has seen neither hide nor hair of since its debut trailer last fall, consider Sleeping Dogs.
