It’s A Crime That There’s No Sleeping Dogs 2 Yet

Sleeping Dogs, an open-world action-adventure from 2012, currently rests at 80 Metascore on aggregate review platform Metacritic. That, in my humble opinion, is a lot less than what this underrated gem genuinely deserves, having done it back in the old days long before it was cool.

Even more so, why there’s not a sequel of this game spurting from the constant ignorance of the IP from the folks up high is beyond me. If you’re among those who happened to sleep on the icon that the title at hand is, read on up ahead to discover my love (and everyone else’s) for Sleeping Dogs and how the lack of its successor is a serious crime all the way from Japan.  

What’s The Hype Around Sleeping Dogs Anyway? 

Sleeping Dogs came out on August 12, 2012, for the big three platforms of the time—Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Although a Definitive Edition with refined visuals, DLC inclusion, and improved gameplay came out 2 years later in 2014, I happened to pick up the original version of the game as soon as it was released. 

Even at that time, the visuals were far from coming across as downright unimpressive. Instead, Hong Kong — the accurately designed city in which the game is set — looks and feels fairly immersive, loaded to the brim with smart AI that knows what to do and when and what to say instead of just roaming around town lifelessly employing typical NPC behavior. 

Player bumps into an NPC on a call-> NPC gets annoyed-> NPC picks up the phone to check it’s condition (Sleeping Dogs, 2012)
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So it’s not just the stellar environment of Sleeping Dogs that makes it so attractive and addictive in the same vein, there are more aspects of the open-world title that the developer United Front Games has dealt with meticulously. Look’s look into these ahead.

Wen Shei’s Martial Arts Supremacy

Many onlookers disregard Sleeping Dogs, calling it just another GTA clone, where in reality, it’s so much more, and then some. Starting with the combat of the game, it bears mentioning that Wen Shei — the protagonist — is an undercover cop, so right off the bat, you’re not dealing with a regular criminal here whom the developers show off as someone with a kind heart and a logical brain.

Wen Shei means serious business, but at the start, he starts off with his default set of hand-to-hand combat skills, though as you make headway in the story, you start picking up more fighting styles, namely Muay Thai, Drunken Master, and others. It’s all really versatile really, as Wen pulls off a variety of environmental attacks with a mix of ranged combat thanks to firearm availability in between. 

Story-Rich Gameplay

This is an aspect where Sleeping Dog truly shifts gears and takes flight like no other game trying to imitate what the Grand Theft Auto franchise has carved for itself. The title in question sports impeccable gameplay, great visuals, a highly detailed environment where you, the player, always keep coming back for more, so you just think that’s all that this free-roam sim can offer.

But what if I told you none of that matters as much as the storyline of Sleeping Dogs? It’s true, and it’s all the more reason for you to try the title out if you haven’t already. 

I just finished Sleeping Dogs. That ending, that story, god, what a great game.
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From multiple betrayals and sacrifices to twists that you can never see coming, Sleeping Dogs rests as a rollercoaster of emotions with its carefully mapped-out plotline; it’s only rarely getting surpassed by the games of its time that belong to the same genre, I’ll tell you that.

And how can I talk about the game and not mention this guy right here? The heart of the community and a fan-favorite among the masses—the pork bun-selling NPC. 

A man who never plays Sleeping Dogs is never a whole man,” once said a wise old monk. 

Why There’s No Sleeping Dogs 2 Coming

As misfortune may have it, the developer studio behind Sleeping Dogs shut down 9 years later following its inception back in 2016. While still unknown why that really happened, it’s said that Sleeping Dogs couldn’t get a sequel because of financial issues for the publisher Square Enix, with 2013 being the year that Sleeping Dogs 2 got canned—a year when a number of top-tier releases came out, including GTA 5, The Last of Us, and more. 

Yes, the successor was in active development when the axe from Square Enix came down cutting hard and fast. And according to a report by Vice, it was a whole lot “bigger and better” than the first title. These are some real tears that I’m having at the moment, no joke.   

What A Sleeping Dogs Sequel Could Bring To The Table

Competition, first and foremost. It’s not just me who thinks that the Sleeping Dogs IP is another perfect (yet sad) case of “what-could-have-been,” as the gaming community considers it an absolute tragedy that the franchise didn’t turn into a trilogy or something even broader in scope. Let franchise alone, I only long for a faithful sequel at this point, one that is in the same vein as the greatness of the first game.   

Sleeping Dogs never got the love it deserves.
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A modern-day Sleeping Dogs could easily give the likes of the GTA franchise a run for its money in the not-so-distant future, though it is worth considering on the flip side that Rockstar could be planning something humongous with GTA 6, its upcoming iteration in the world-famous Grand Theft Auto series. 

Talk about fantastic combat in an open-world game, coupled with photorealistic visuals, improved driving because this particular mechanic could use some improvement in the first game, and, of course, another well-developed storyline that would leave us in the same state as the original didA. Well, a man can dream, right? What do you think?