Sleeping Dogs is a open world crime drama video game, developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and published by Square Enix, to be released on August 14, 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[5] Sleeping Dogs will take place in Hong Kong and focuses on an undercover operation to infiltrate the Triads.
The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player a open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game. The player controls police officer Wei Shen as he goes undercover and infiltrate the Triad organization called Sun On Yee. On foot, the player character has the additional ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and perform basic hand to hand combat. Players are also capable of driving a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats and motorcycles.
The combat system heavily revolves around hand-to-hand fighting with strong influences from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City’s “Freeflow” combat system. The driving segments have been inspired by the Need for Speed series, with several developers having worked on previous Need for Speed titles. If the player is riding a motorcycle, Wei has the ability to jump onto a moving vehicle.
Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain content and parts of the city, they are not required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the ability to do activities. Side missions such as participating in street races can keep the player occupied for hours. There are also stores within the game that Wei Shen can purchase new clothing from, which give him various bonuses. As suits will increase Face, gang attire adds Triad Xp, the same applies to police uniforms: increasing Police Xp.
Sleeping Dogs will feature three different XP stats, Triad XP, Face XP, and Police XP. The more Triad XP a player has, the more brutal equipment and abilities he can access and unlock throughout the game. With more Face XP, the player has more respect, and is granted access to more important people. The more Police XP the player earn, the better police equipment and abilities you can access and unlock throughout the game.
Sleeping Dogs features online stats and leaderboards to compare scores with friends, however, there will be no multiplayer component to the game.
