The road Sleeping Dogs took to store shelves is one that most developers would love to steer clear of. First announced as a reboot of the long dormant True Crime series by Activision, the title was quickly dropped by the publisher and assumed to be little more than vaporware shortly after. It wasn't until Square Enix stepped in that Sleeping Dogs proper was created and we began to see the title really start to take shape. Even then though, the odds of Sleeping Dogs doing what few titles that have been to gaming purgatory have done -- be a decent game, were firmly against it; just ask Duke Nukem Forever.

Here's a surprise -- it's actually pretty damn fun.

Sleeping Dogs doesn't reinvent the wheel of the open-world genre, but it doesn't really need to. It takes its time to craft a fun and easy to play action game that will grip you with its story. You've already played the majority of Sleeping Dogs in the countless other open-world games that you've played, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth checking out, especially for its surprisingly solid narrative.

"...it puts the internal struggle of its main character front and center..."

Perhaps saying that Sleeping Dogs takes directly from the pages of Grand Theft Auto is a bit harsh, as here you're not a ruthless nutjob who has no problem committing heinous crimes against anyone he comes across. Instead, Sleeping Dogs casts you in the role of Wei Shen, a San Francisco Police Officer sent on an undercover mission to infiltrate Hong Kong's most deadly gangs. This, in essence is where Sleeping Dogs becomes such a unique game -- it puts the internal struggle of its main character front and center as he must make choices as to how far he's willing to go to finish his assignment, and whether that means breaking his morals. The player never really gets the chance to make those decisions themselves, but it's an interesting tale to watch none-the-less.

Gameplay wise, Sleeping Dogs does play similar to most of the open-world games you've already played, It gives you access to a remarkably large city and gives you the freedom to tackle the game's missions how you want. As you probably already expected, there are plenty of side missions to keep you busy, but the game is a surprisingly short 20 hours long --  a far cry from a game like Grand Theft Auto V.

"...a rather interesting level system for players to experiment with."

That doesn't mean that Square Enix and United Front Games didn't try anything new with Sleeping Dogs, as the game employs a rather interesting level system for players to experiment with. Through completing missions, you'll gain experience points to use in three different categories; cop, triad and face. Cop and Triad are pretty self-explanatory and you'll get them by completing specific tasks in your missions, but the face field is what makes the entire system interesting. By doing small side jobs or roughing up criminals in the community, you'll start to gain their trust and become more of a face in their community just as you'll start to be feared if you do the opposite. A similar system was seen in Red Dead Redemption a few years ago, but Sleeping Dogs seems to use it a bit more fully somehow.

Presentation wise, Sleeping Dogs is more of a mixed bag -- the mix of Chinese and American voice acting is well done (save for a few goofy performances) but the game constantly suffers from visual issues that hamper its performance like a terrible draw distance, frame rate problems and just plain ugly textures. By far though, the worst problem with the game is the finicky camera that is insistent on centering itself at all times. This becomes an issue mainly when you're trying to drive around tight corners at top speeds and though you'll get used to it before the end of the game, you're sure to wreck a few times before then.

Even with its faults, Sleeping Dogs needs to be checked out. The majority of its content works well, and you'll rarely run out of things to do. It may show the age of the open-world genre clearly, but it's a fun diversion none the less.