WHAT?
Sleeping Dogs, Crime Action with the Open World
WHERE?
Hong Kong, China
“Do not wake a sleeping dog – this is such a British proverb. There is probably a similar saying in China! And why there are several dogs, and not one … Well, our game is full of dark personalities, and (I will tell you in secret) it is better not to touch any of them, ”so Shingleton, a producer from Square Enix, explained to us, the name of his new project. Sleeping Dogs, that is, “Sleeping Dogs”, this is what the game is now called, which you knew under the name True Crime.
The dog is gone
History with her birth, death and resurrection is a rather rare case. The original True Crime, as well as its sequel, is normal GTA clones of the second echelon: not as large-scale as GTA itself, and not deliberately idiotic, as, for example, Saints Row. Something in the middle ..
Thanks to the powerful support of the publisher, True Crime still managed to find its audience, but two years ago they decided to transfer the series to the Premier League. The same name for the authorship of Canadians United Front Games It was positioned as an action blockbuster with an open world, an advanced combat system, the original mechanics of chasing, and most importantly-with a strong plot about a police officer and an even more powerful setting. The game was unfolding in the war -triad Hong Kong. And then the project was closed.
[[Bullet]] Girl driving, and Shen in the passenger seat?! No, just in Hong Kong a car with a right steering wheel.
Activision Blizzard At the beginning of last year she conducted a radical revision. The series then fell under the reduction Guitar Hero And just True Crime. For developers, this was probably a big shock. Lose a project worth several million, when there is no cover https://giant-wins-casino.co.uk/ behind your back Call of Duty or World of Warcraft , – It is not easy to recover from such a thing (which, however, is a normal situation for a cruel game business).
But United Front was lucky. Their project was selected by another powerful publisher, the Japanese giant Square Enix (which, as it turned out recently, things are going well – largely thanks to the latter Final Fantasy And Deus Ex: Human Revolution ). It is unlikely that the cost of this transaction will someday be disclosed-we only managed to find out that Activision did not even try to sell the project nearing the finale, simply closing it. Square scouts still found the right people and agreed to buy. So the London division of the company received a practically completed game at its disposal.
Ethnic feature
According to representatives of United Front, they never wanted to call their brainchild True Crime. It was just that the concept seemed to the Activision bosses suitable to enter it into the finished series – and so it was an absolutely self -sufficient project, born of a desire to make a real Hong Kong action movie, and not a sequel by order.
So, the scene is invariably. This is Hong Kong. It is important to understand that in front of us is not just a set of scenery. Today, the setting of the game seems to be its main advantage, and believe me, there is something to be proud of. The conditional Asian city or at least the Chinese quarter is part of the mandatory program of modern action, but few are treating the transfer of national color with all responsibility. The latest example is Shanghai from Deus Ex, where you can guess only by hieroglyphs on the posters that you are now in Asia.
[[Bullet]] fight in the port. At the same time, two scum received a foot in the face. This is all Sleeping Dogs.
Sleeping Dogs designers approached the design of the city differently. This is a real Hong Kong – not adapted to the Western player, but the one that he actually is. Dirty night market, cheap eates, port, pier, narrow streets – atmospheric, level of study of the scene can be compared with what we saw in GTA 4 or Mafia. The Asian eye cut here is not only among the traditional Boss Triad and its henchind, but in general all. The developers rely on authenticity and are not afraid to frighten the pampered viewer with characters of non -European appearance. The main character is also an Asian.
His name is Vai Shen. He serves in the Hong Kong police, but, apparently, he was once a real gopnik. Cool disposition, tattoo on the entire pumped back – it seems to beg that he is introduced into the gang, especially if you consider that the long -time friend of Shena just works for triads. Here, a traditional story is immediately outlined about how an honest cop becomes a criminal, but it seems that everything is not so simple. The developers are in no hurry to reveal secrets – according to the scraps of information, we can conclude that the family died in one of the gangster showdowns and he will not be under any conditions to cooperate with gangsters.
A person bites a dog
Using the acquaintance with the mentioned bandit, Shen is introduced into the group. One of the first missions leads the hero to a meat shop, which is refueling to a terrible Chinese Chinese woman of a middle -aged. Tesak, she deftly cuts meat carcasses, and if necessary, then tattooed militants. On the instructions of this lady, Shen sets off in search of a small rogue from a warring group and finds him on the back of the market (right behind the tent with counterfeit mobile phones).
[[Bullet]] Girls, grandfathers, grandmothers, and indeed almost all the characters in the game – with a dragon tattoo. In front of you, by the way, is a friend of Childhood Shena, who will bring the hero to the gang.
Here we are finally demonstrated by the gameplay episode – chase. The cowardly bastard takes to flight, barely seeing our hero; We rush after. The staged episode in the spirit begins Assassin’s Creed : Shen runs through the narrow streets, sprinkling with elbows of random passers -by, climbs over the cornices and cleverly jumps from the roof to the roof; There is no debt pursued in debt, choosing winding ways of departure and managing to push passers -by so that they overlap us the way. Finally, we drive him to the roof. The fugitive has no choice but to give Shena a fight.
Sleeping Dogs fights – another reason to wait for the game. Since the Beat `Em UP genre has invisibly mutated into slasers, so sometimes I want to give someone from the turntable from the heart, without tearing my heads and not releasing the intestines. In Sleeping Dogs, anyone who misses the good Weso Makhach will find an outlet.
In appearance, fights are most reminiscent of some Streets of Rage For Mega Drive. The hero beats enemies to everything that turns up by the arm, performs captures and hooks, and most importantly – he can always hit his face in the face. Needless to say, they can hit you with your foot with your foot, and here one very optional and therefore even more pleasant feature of Sleeping Dogs – knockdown makes itself felt. Every time the enemy still succeeds in getting on you, the screen flashes very expressively and a dull ringing is heard-even if insignificant damage is inflicted on health, you will definitely want to take revenge for such an insult!
[[Bullet]] In the style of the last Just Couse, you can jump from one car to another on the move.
And there are plenty of ways to revenge. Finishing is another important feature of combat mechanics. Contextually determined techniques have recently been excellently implemented in Batman: Arkham City , where it was possible to accidentally crack the enemy with his head against the wall or catch a chair thrown by someone and throw him back. In Sleeping Dogs, contextual movements are the cornerstone of the combat system. In absolutely every fight, you are mandatory to stuff some bandit with your head in the fan or at least throw off from the roof. On the one hand, all this looks somewhat cumbersome: in order to throw the opponent on the bare wires, Shen can methodically drag him through the entire level for a minute, which seriously harms the rhythm of contractions. On the other hand, this is a truly new type of combat mechanics, when you constantly use the elements of the environment, every second breaking these elements with the heads of enemies. Score the car door or trunk door, crush the window shutters, drown in the toilet, throw it off the bridge, hit the bin tank with a lid, and then throw the body into the same tank – this is a tiny bit of what you can do with the unfortunate bandits.
Roosty fights
Fights are an integral part of the missions in which the enemy must be taken alive, and in a deadly battle, Shen may take up firearms. Shootings are carried out according to the most traditional scheme – short dashes from shelter to shelter.
There are two nuances here. Firstly, Shen deftly jumps over obstacles and rapidly moves around the battlefield-the pace of contractions is much higher than in GEARS of WAR. Secondly, here you can turn on rapid and without unnecessary preludes just shoot everyone. Where there are not enough tactics, United Front includes pyrotechnics. The quintessence of this approach is a staged pursuit in which Shen rushes on a motorcycle, continuously shooting from a machine gun and occasionally bending to evade the next car that he had blown up.
[Bullet]] It is forbidden for us to talk about shootings, but you can guess that this screenshop can be guessed in the game.
Finally, a few words about the open world. At the presentation, they reluctantly showed free movement around the city, personally did not allow us to take a virtual Hong Kong at all – but in vain. In the breaks between missions you will not have to miss here.
In the spirit of the former True Crime, you can pump skills by visiting various establishments. In the demo version, Shen, having a bite in a local eatery, immediately received a temporary bonus for accuracy and in such a seasoned state went on the next task.
In addition to bonuses, in the city you will find a lot of other ways to entertain yourself – for example, cock fights. How exactly they will be issued and whether the players can personally control the “fighter” is still unknown. Moreover, as Shingleton admitted, the publisher still doubts whether it is possible to leave this mini-game in the final version. The point is by no means in the balance sheet or painstaking debugging of mechanics – just cruel treatment of animals can adversely affect the game rating. Shot bandits, passers -by shot down to death – who cares when one cockerel can roll the other?
The general impression of the presentation left the most positive. We are following this game from the very first announcement, but right now it really attracted our attention – Square Enix has well worked on the brainchild of United Front. In such cases, they usually say that the developers make a serious face, but this time the game itself became more serious. Correct models of characters, sensible rollers, skillfully conveyed atmosphere of the city – True Crime became older. This is really a Hong Kong action movie, only a few in a different sense of the word. There are no shootings played on the notes in the style of John Wu, but there is a real Hong Kong.