Hey hey folks, and welcome to my critique of Sleeping Dogs. Just a friendly reminder that if you haven’t completed the game, there will be spoilers in this video. If you wish to avoid them, please pause, and go play the game before returning. For everyone else, let’s continue.
At multiple times during Sleeping Dogs, Wei Shen will be called in to have a meeting with his handler Raymond. Raymond is sympathetic to Wei’s double life, having to be part of the Sun On Yee Triad as well as respect the law as an undercover police officer. Wei does not return any sympathy or respect in these scenes. They are annoyances, interrupting his work, that is ultimately more important than someone in the police force making sure he’s ok. I understand the purpose of these scenes. We as the player are meant to sympathise with Wei. We want to get back to the enjoyment of playing the game. Beating up rival triad members, driving around town, engaging in shootouts and becoming further embroiled in triad drama. Despite this, I always felt that the heightened drama and tension of these exchanges felt unearned, especially because it felt that Wei was always in the right, and there were never any consequences for telling Raymond to go pound sand. After all, the cops are the good guys. Raymond may be an annoyance, but he would never do anything to put Wei in any more danger, and his threats to shut down the undercover operation hold little weight because despite being pulled further into the triad lifestyle, Wei is getting results.
A couple years ago I played Driver: San Francisco for an impressions video, and I remarked how enjoyable it was playing an open world game as a police officer. Not just because the missions were about helping people rather than causing violence, but it gave a reason to try and limit the carnage I might otherwise engage in seeing these games give players the tools to do so. Not that you can’t go on rampages in Sleeping Dogs, but being a cop puts a check on the damage I might otherwise be causing. In GTA IV for instance, I remember finding it amusing to walk up to random pedestrians and start punching them. I wanted to provoke a fight and see how it would escalate. In Sleeping Dogs there are lockboxes scattered throughout the world, and most of them are guarded by groups of triad members or other street gangs. This is a game sanctioned way to blow off some steam and engage in the melee combat system. Even near the end of the game, I would be driving or walking around when the glint of a lockbox would catch my eye, or I would notice the red goon markers on my minimap. I would take time out from heading towards the next mission to attack a few enemies and acquire some more cash that I had no use for. Beating people up in public is not following the letter of the law. That’s called assault. Seeing as the people I was beating up were bad people themselves, and I was undercover, the game gave me justification to wail away to my heart’s content. That’s the spirit.
And maybe that’s why the world of Sleeping Dogs feels so alive to me. I think I had more fun driving around Hong Kong than any other open world space. It might be the small things, like how following the GPS will take Wei through side alleys. This is his home, he knows the shortcuts. It might be the vendors who buff your stats whenever you buy food from them, or the people always having conversations outside your apartment. There’s a sense of ownership of the space by beating up the thugs. I’m making the city a better place. Visiting the shrines and looting the lockboxes is just a reward for my due diligence as a citizen. This is outside the mission structure. During the missions, all bets are off. I’ve hit pedestrians, crashed countless times, and generally behaved like the triad maniac Wei is posing himself as. While these actions will lower the cop experience and increase triad experience, what’s interesting is that the missions have no bearing whatsoever on face experience. The time between missions when I’m engaged in races or just helping random strangers, that increases notoriety and causes people around town to recognize Wei, as well as leading to greater rewards from the clothing and vehicle vendors. Just like we’re stuck between being a cop and rising through the triad, there are two Hong Kongs. One inside the missions, and one outside, and never the two shall meet.
There are also two Weis. Does Wei ever reconcile the two versions of himself? At the end of the game, speaking to Officer Teng, she questions which Hong Kong feels like home to Wei, the side of law and order or the side of chaos and violence. To me this suggests that Wei’s heart was never really on the side of the police. The police are just a way for Wei to get his revenge on the Sun on Yee. It makes the drama with Raymond make sense. Wei excuses his own methods and behavior because it’s all in service of the greater good, taking down the triad. The problem is he feels most at home in the triad. The player certainly does. It’s much more enjoyable to race cars, beat up thugs, and get into shootouts rather than follow the law. Especially when the player doesn’t have to. Sure there’s a penalty during missions for such reckless behaviour, but the cop missions then reward similar mayhem. Since it’s an open world game, there is no long standing consequence for going on a rampage or changing Wei’s behavior. That after the credits, the game loads Wei back in his swanky apartment with a golden gun and gives you free reign to do whatever you like in this virtual space tells me that Officer Teng’s concerns are justified. It would be one thing to say that the chaotic side of Wei is all the fault of the player. We’re the influence pulling this character in the direction of the dark side, but we have no control over Wei’s attitude in the cutscenes. Wei relishes his freedom in the triad, and resents the police when they try and correct his behaviour. Even though Wei is a police officer, in the end, he might not be that different from any of the Grand Theft Auto protagonists. He just has a better excuse.
Thanks for watching. What are your thoughts on Wei’s internal conflict. Do you think that there was actually a war going on inside him for his loyalty to the police or to the triad, or do you think he was firmly on one side or the other the whole time? Let me know in the comments. If you’d like to help the channel and show me some love, please like the video, share it on your favourite social media sites, and subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you’re all having, a wonderful day.
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