Gun combat is polished only requiring a few buttons to aim and fire. The melee weapons limit your attacks, but give more damage. Weapon combat consists of melee weapons like knives and crowbars to guns. Learning new moves opens a consistent stream of moves that can be used against enemies, even those with weapons. There are different enemy types requiring different strategies and the counter system is the most useful tool during combat. The combat system in Sleeping Dogs is excellent with melee martial arts taking the priority in the game. While there are different moves learned through completing main missions, the Face rating opens new clothes and vehicles for purchase.

These missions increase your 'Face' rating which is a personal level system. Smaller missions like going on dates with story characters unlock locations for these collectibles. There are also races that you can complete. You also have to locate multiple health shrines to increase your health as the game progresses. These are used to unlock new martial arts moves. There are also persistent side-missions like collecting the various jade statues in Hong Kong. Side-missions in Sleeping Dogs are small favors which usually require you to destroy cars, deliver goods, or framing rival gangs. Completing these missions will help level Shen to unlock new abilities like reduced gun recoil, taking less melee damage, and being able to slow down time when stealing a new vehicle. The main story missions consist of police cases and Triad missions. Sleeping Dogs focuses on the main story missions and the variety of side-missions as well as collecting briefcases and finding health shrines. His dual lives become more and more difficult and ultimately conflict with each other. As he works his way up, his missions become more in-depth and the conflict of his undercover status becomes strained as his dedication to the Triads stars to conflict with his police duties. Shen has to work both as a cop and Triad member completing missions that help the police in their case while working as an upcoming member of his gang completing escorts and pickups up.

He returns to Hong Kong to work deep undercover, making his way up from foot soldier to sub-boss in his gang. At the beginning of Sleeping Dogs, you learn about Wei Shen, a San Francisco cop who grew up in both Hong Kong and the United States.

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