Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is the remastered re-release of United Front Games' open-world Hong Kong crime drama, bundled with every piece of previously released downloadable content. All 24 DLC packs are integrated directly into the game, including the substantial story-extending episode Year of the Snake and the horror-themed Nightmare in North Point side adventure, and the base game has been rebuilt with technical, visual and audio improvements across the board.

The central story carries over intact. Wei Shen, a highly skilled undercover officer, is sent into the ranks of the Sun On Yee Triad in Hong Kong, and your job is to prove yourself worthy as you climb the criminal organisation from the bottom up while staying within the police side of the assignment. The tonal balance between mature crime drama and Hong Kong cinema action — martial arts, gunfights, vehicle pursuits — is one of the things the original release was praised for and one of the things this version is most careful to preserve.

The Hong Kong sandbox remains the game's strongest asset. The city's exotic locations and busy streets hide the Triads at their most powerful, and the optional content layered on top of the main story — illegal street races, cockfight betting, karaoke, side cases for the police half of Wei's life — gives the open world genuine variety. The Definitive Edition is the version most players reach for when revisiting the game, and the DLC integration in particular makes the experience considerably more substantial than the original 2012 release.