10 Shameless Video Game Rip-Offs (That Were Actually Great)
2. Sleeping Dogs
After the Grand Theft Auto franchise became a veritable pop-culture phenomenon following its transition to 3D, it seemed like every major publisher rushed to produce their own flagrant ripoff.
The quality of said ripoffs was all over the map, of course, though perhaps the most robust and entertaining of the lot was the Square Enix-published open-world action game Sleeping Dogs.
Released in 2012, barely a year before Grand Theft Auto V, Sleeping Dogs may have lacked the polish of your typical Rockstar joint, but stood tall above most other me-too GTA clones thanks to its distinct style and personality.
It was lauded for its impressively fluid combat system, visually stunning and expansive open-world, unique Hong Kong setting, and clear love of classic martial arts cinema.
If you've played a GTA game you know what to expect here, but Sleeping Dogs deserves credit for carving out its own appreciable niche in a wildly overcrowded genre, even if it sadly never got a sequel.