Slightly more than one year ago, Activision made the decision to cancel its in-development True Crime: Hong Kong project. The reason for its fund losing decision was that the game probably wouldn’t achieve great sales margins. As a result it was axed alongside the ailing Guitar Hero brand.
Square Enix ended up stepping in, picking up the license for the United Front Games developed sandbox release. They have since changed its name due to rights issues, opting to refer to it as Sleeping Dogs. Now, their London Studios are collaborating on the project, which is expected to become available in the latter half of 2012.
What we have for you today is the game’s brand new story trailer, which provides an inside look at Wei Shen’s new life as an undercover cop inside of Hong Kong’s Sun Oh Yee triad. It’s his role to try to take down one of the most dangerous crime syndicates in the world, from the inside.
Before its cancellation, I was looking forward to checking out True Crime: Hong Kong, so I’m glad that Square Enix stepped in to save the day. Sleeping Dogs looks to have quite a bit of potential.
Developed by United Front Games in collaboration with Square Enix London Studios, Sleeping Dogs is a gritty open world cop drama set in the vibrant city of Hong Kong. Taking the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, players are tasked with taking down one of the world’s most fearsome criminal organizations from the inside – the Sun Oh Yee triad.
Offering players an island packed with action, every street corner, market stall, harbor dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat. Featuring one of the most intuitive and imaginative combat systems, Sleeping Dogs empowers players to perform an extensive set of martial arts moves, singlehandedly taking on numerous opponents. Players perform bone-crunching kicks and combos, vicious counters and a cinematic set of environmental takedowns making use of countless real-world items from circular saws to phone booths, incinerators to refrigerator doors.
Sleeping Dogs will be available in the second half of 2012 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PCs.
