Sleeping Dogs - Xbox 360

A bit Hong Kong action flick spliced with Grand Theft Auto? Go on, then.

Playing as undercover cop Wei Shen, your mission in Sleeping Dogs is to infiltrate the dangerous gangs of Hong Kong and learn important information about their activities, before reporting back to domestic and international intelligence forces.

He’s a bit of a loose cannon though - Shen has a history of bad behaviour, and blames the Triads for “what happened to his family.” Quite what that is will be revealed as you progress, but you can imagine it's not pretty.

Hong Kong is a bustling, active open world full of twisting back alleys, DVD shops, noodle bars and brothels. And a hell of a lot of neon in most districts. Traipsing through the claustrophobic streets of Kowloon is a rather authentic experience. You can explore the game world at your leisure, or distract yourself on a number of different side quests in between tackling main campaign objectives. Whatever you do, though, prepare for some confrontation at every turn.

The combat system is very similar to Batman: Arkham City. Punches and kicks are transformed automatically into kung-fu style vaults of powerful flair, while timing the presses of a reversal button will allow Shen to knock away oncoming foes with ease. Stylish moves and other critical-damage manoeuvres will sound an almighty thud, and the presentation clicks like some kind of Korean beat’em up film.

The interesting part is in the environmental damage that comes into play - grab an enemy and find a glowing red object to perform some rather brilliant finishers. Smashing heads in vents, chucking bodies in bins, slamming grills on bodies, ramming dudes into electric boxes and lobbing victims into nearby seas... there’s a vast range of ass-kickery that Shen can deal.

Gunplay is a core part of combat, too, and aiming whilst vaulting over cover kicks in a slow-motion mode that allows you to take out baddies in bullet time.

This could well be the sleeper hit of 2012... more