Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition review

You may have missed out on Sleeping Dogs the first time, which would be a shame. It combined an attractive open-world of Hong Kong with an engrossing story, top voice acting and a refreshing focus on great hand-to-hand combat instead of gunplay. Fortunately this Definitive Edition takes Sleeping Dogs and improves it considerably, though probably not enough to warrant another play-through for those already familiar with it.

Here's a refresher course to get you up to speed with the basics: You play Wei Shen, a Chinese-American undercover cop who's trying to get up close and personal with a dangerous Triad gang. Hong Kong is your oyster, and as far as game worlds go it's fairly cramped and fits in with the theme. Wei can get around on foot quite easily by running, climbing and jumping over obstacles, while there are cars, boats and motorcycles at your disposal, too.

A game about a guy trying to juggle alternate lives as a cop and a gangster allows an interesting role-playing mechanic to be introduced, where you get experience points in three different categories: Triad, Face and Police. Triad XP is awarded when involved in melee combat and using the environment against your enemy (examples include throwing bodies into dumpsters and smashing faces through windows). Face XP is gained during optional side missions with civilians, and can be used for clothes and vehicles. Meanwhile Police XP is obtained by keeping damage to a minimum when you're working for the good guys.

The different skill trees allow Wei to be upgraded in various ways, and give him the ability to do useful things such as break into cars without setting off the alarms or disarming opponents who are wielding weapons. It's all simple and easy to get used to, but it's a nice touch to have the cop and gangster abilities separated.

In terms of innovation there's not much to be seen here that you haven't encountered in various other open-world games, but where Sleeping Dogs shines above its rivals is in the area of melee combat. Wei Shen is pretty useful with his fists and his feet, as you'll realise very early on, and this leads to some extremely entertaining moments where you'll be kicking ass in progressively more spectacular ways.

You can perform combination attacks, counters or drag enemies around and throw them into objects. Opponents will surround you similar to the way they do in Assassin's Creed or the Batman games, and then it's up to you to dispatch them how you see fit. Sometimes the bad guys bring knives and crowbars to the fight, but with a bit of good timing you can disarm them before using the weapon to your advantage. The fluidity of the fighting is great fun and you also search the city for rare Jade Statues that can be used to learn new moves. You'll always be improving in one way or another.

Guns are around in Sleeping Dogs but unfortunately they aren't nearly as fun to use as your own fists. Aiming can feel a little bit laboured and having a shootout with ten enemies while you take cover quickly grows tiresome. Thankfully it isn't a massive issue as these moments are quite rare, and before long you can get back to the kung fu.

The world is also filled with street races to take part in, cock fights to bet on and a karaoke bar to visit and show off your vocals. Wei Shen can also try his luck with potential girlfriends, and being successful with them earns you bonus collectables. Again, it isn't ground-breaking, but you can't argue with the entertainment factor.

Those are the fundamental aspects of the original Sleeping Dogs, and it's pretty much as you were for this Definitive Edition. However there are improvements away from the main game, notably in the visuals, which makes rain and puddles look dramatically better and sees the introduction of fog. The game as a whole does look really quite lovely. There are many more NPCs lining the streets as well, which definitely helps this version of Hong Kong seem a bit more like the real thing.

Character faces have also been reworked and their lip movements are now in sync with the voice acting, draw distances are greater and many will be happy to hear there are new breakable objects in environments for you to have fun with. It's definitely an upgrade on what came before, however it doesn't quite justify the price tag for those who have already completed Wei Shen's adventure.

If you're new to Sleeping Dogs and want to see what all the fuss is about, this is your perfect opportunity to do so. The original didn't break new ground or do much different to what dozens of open-world titles have done for over a decade now, but it was extremely well put together with melee combat as its biggest strength. Those of you who have already been kicking ass in Hong Kong might want to steer clear, however, as better visuals and a few more civilians don't really warrant going through it all over again.