When Sleeping Dogs originally came out I didn't think much of it. Just another game trying to be Grand Theft Auto I thought and took a pass. Was I every wrong. I'd like to formally apologize to United Front Games and Square Enix for not giving them my 60 dollars on release date.
I downloaded the game with the "Games With Gold" promotion and Sleeping Dogs has been my favourite title that has come out of it so far. The first thing you realize is that the game is heavily focused on the Hong Kong setting and implements it flawlessly onto the Xbox 360. Everything about the city just feels alive and you never feel like you see the same person twice. The missions for the main storyline focus around the Hong Kong Triad who are fighting an internal war between the various Triad factions in the area. I wouldn't say the missions are insanely unique or various but there is enough variation and uniqueness to keep you captivated for the games length. I found myself constantly playing "one more mission" just to get to that next major plot twist in the story. There are side missions to complete for the Hong Kong Police as well, which don't seem to affect the story at all but are sometimes required to unlock the next Triad mission and of course there are the favours and "girlfriends" side missions as well to make the game fairly significant for all the completionists out there.
The things I didn't like in the game were the driving and parts of the movement and cover systems. Maybe it's because I play a lot of racing sim games but the arcade style driving just wasn't for me. I found it to be clunky and hard to handle at some points but for the most part driving is only a small fraction of Sleeping Dogs. Same can be said with the running and cover, I just found it to not be as precise as a GTA or Saints Row but it serves its purpose and is fairly easy to forget about once you get familiar with the controls and player movement.
I did this review because I felt like I owed it to the developers to at least let them know that Sleeping Dogs was an amazing accomplishment and I actually enjoyed the story more than I did Grand Theft Auto 5. If you didn't get this game with the Games With Gold Promo then I regret to inform you that you missed out on a good one.