Review: Sleeping Dogs

Howdy howdy folks!

At a whim, I bought this title without knowing a single thing about this game, not viewing any of the gameplay or even knowing the protagonists' name. But once again, my gut made the right call.
A game definitely deserving your time, Sleeping Dogs made a splash within the gaming community as the gaming year is slowly brought to a close. 
Set in modern day China, you play as Wei Shen (Voiced by Will Yun Lee), recently returning home from America. As an undercover cop, he works inside a large triad gang known as the Sun On Yee, the largest criminal gang in Hong Kong. While some of his childhood friends help him into the gang along the way, his fellow police officers begin to become overly worried that Wei's allegiance may be lacking.
What many veteran gamers will notice is the gameplay and the controls; quite simular to the classic game Grand Theft Auto, only some of the controls have been switched around. What really makes this game stand out is the developing and emotional storyline. Despite not being a sequel, you can grow to care about the characters and their issues.
Gameplay is where the game does drop the ball if only slightly. While the controls can be slightly annoying (Since near everything is controlled by A: free running, jumping, opening doors ect ect) it's the combat in-game that can be repetitive. While the game does focus mostly on fighting, the first hour or so of gameplay can tend to drag. The mission types tend to be the same stylings; drive to a specific area, fight a bunch of goons and either drive back or talk to an ally.
And while this can be a bit of a drag, the terrific voice acting does bring it all back in a neat little bow. Featuring some well known Asian actors such as Lucy Liu, Kelly Hu, Tzi Ma and James Hong, the voice acting helps create the mood of hard life on the street as well as develop the character.
While the game has no Multiplayer, what makes a great feature is the Leaderboards while in game. These tasks can be completed by simply playing the game in a specific time limit or even driving from A to B longest without hitting an obsticle.

Sleeping Dogs, while still flawed like any other game, brings a unique experience for the player and with great story telling, graphics right down to the weathering system and featuring an actor with little voice acting work bring such a terrific performance, "True Crime: Hong Kong" is worth the time of any gamer wanting to kill many, many hours.

Out of 10, I give Sleeping Dogs an 7/10

Good Points
+ Graphics are phenomenal
+ Developing characters and deep, meaningful storyline
+ Many, many side stories
+ Fighter + Gun game = Awesome

Bad Points
- Gameplay missions slightly repetitive
- Offered nothing unique
- Controls are a bit ridiculous

Sleeping Dogs is out now (Sep 27th for Japan) for $80