Sleeping Dogs, reprise

Didn't get around to writing anything big today, but I did finish Sleeping Dogs. Final review: pretty good, 8/10.

The story's pretty great, and I like the way the game portrays the conflict between Wei's police duty and his loyalty to the gang. The cops are doing "the right thing" but don't seem to care about Wei's emotional wellbeing so long as he gets the job done, but for all the terrible things he's required to do as part of his cover within the Sun On Yee, they have much more interest in his safety and his life. The lack of player control over the story makes the descent into violence and revenge at the end a bit less dramatic than it could have been, and some character relationships aren't given enough development before they hit their dramatic high points, but overall I found it pretty successful.

My primary complaint is the dating stuff - I know it was left over from an entire minigame that had to be cut, but what's there just feels off. Wei comes across as a bit of a creep (not to mention how easy the women are throughout the game, which is another conversation entirely), and it honestly hurt my perception of his character and how much I could empathise with him. I wanted him to be a good guy in a bad situation, but there's altogether too much sleaze in there for my liking.

The undercover cop angle did have an interesting effect on the way I played the game, though - killing civilians was a much bigger deal than it ever was in Grand Theft Auto, and when I completed the game and unlocked a gun in my (various) apartments the resultant cop-killing spree was an altogether more fraught affair than I'd expected.