4. Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs was received relatively well upon release, being noted for its varied gameplay and impressive graphics, but really, was it all that great? Perhaps had it been released prior to the glut of GTA clones that have flooded our market in the last few years, but when we've already got Saints Row, Just Cause and so on, do we really need another rote sandbox game? Originally pitched as the third title in the True Crime series - admittedly one of the better GTA clones - Sleeping Dogs was altered during developmental stages to become its own property, though clearly still retains a lot of the original influence, dealing with Hong Kong gang warfare. The problem lies primarily with the engine and the gameplay; it's all just so boring and tired. The combat, the
awful driving mechanics, the mission structure, the dull mini-games are all "been there, done that"; the game doesn't have a single piece of invention within itself, and is happy to just repeat the formula that previous games have better executed. There's nothing here that is pulled off with any passion or originality; it is a purely by-the-numbers affair that's also got an uneven tone, at once asking us to consider our actions before having us perform an insanely violent kill on a perp the next second.