I won’t get into the long and storied history behind this game, aside from saying that it’s a miracle that it exists in the first place.

As another entry in the open world crime genre, Sleeping Dogs takes more influence from films like The Departed and Infernal Affairs than Heat or Goodfellas, and puts a significant focus on the depth of its many mechanics, perhaps at the expense of the breadth of content you might find in other games like it.

The result is a game that tells a unique story with excellent characters, combat in the vein of Rocksteady’s brilliant Batman: Arkham games, and the style of Hong Kong action flicks peppered throughout its every inch of game space: kung-fu battles, bullet-time out of car windows, high-speed chase scenes, ice chippers as weapons, and swinging salmon at gangsters.

Sleeping Dogs is a brutal yet exceedingly enjoyable ride through the underbelly of Hong Kong, but unfortunately, it’s a pretty short ride.

The game details Wei Shen, an undercover cop returning to his hometown after moving to San Francisco years before. His mission is to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad and, using his connections from living in the neighborhood before, rise through their ranks and take down the Dragon Head, effectively destroying the Sun On Yee.

Like many other recent games have been trying to do, all of Wei’s acquaintances in Sleeping Dogs (including the dudes trying to kill him at every opportunity) have some level of moral greyness. It tells one of the better crime drama stories in gaming in quite some time, and raises interesting questions while still being a blast to actually experience.

The gameplay involves fluid transitions between kung-fu based fist fights, gun battles, free-running with simple parkour and car chases, and each system is used just the right amount throughout the main campaign. The balance between the systems is what makes each story mission enjoyable.

Fist fights follow in the Batman: Arkham City style of basic attacks and counters, but the kung-fu system adds another layer of variety with the grapples, heavy attacks, combos, and environmental attacks, which are often gut-wrenchingly brutal in their deadly efficiency.

Gunplay is fairly standard excluding the bullet-time that goes into effect whenever Wei leaps over cover or shoots out the tires of a car in a chase scene. As usual, along with the cinematic flair slowing down the action has, it’s also fairly functional in that it gives the player a moment to line up their next shot.

It all works toward the goal of emulating Hong Kong action cinema in a game space, and the result is stunning.

Speaking of stunning, this game looks simply amazing. I was playing on a fairly high-end PC (which is absolutely the way to go if you have the option, as there was a day one HD texture pack and the game runs like butter on a good rig) and the true accomplishment of the game’s visuals is the fantastic lighting.

The ambient weather system means that no day in Sleeping Dogs looks exactly like the last. The result is a city that feels alive not just because of the people that inhabit it, but the nature surrounding it.

On par with the visual presentation is the aural. The soundtrack is, in a word, perfect for an open world game like this.

From the karaoke choices (yes, there’s a karaoke mini-game and it’s as hilarious as you’re imagining it is) to each radio stations set list to the original soundtrack for chase scenes or dramatic moments, it’s all reflective of the tone of the game and the city it takes place in.

Similarly, the voice acting humanizes the genuinely evil characters just as well as the soundtrack characterizes the city. Will Yun Lee and Edison Chen (as Wei and Jackie Ma, his old friend who helps him get into the Triad, respectively) have a real brotherly chemistry, and it’s a joy watching the characters develop alongside each other, and tragic knowing that it’s all an act from Wei.

Rockstar is going to have some tough competition whenever Grand Theft Auto V finally releases. Sleeping Dogs is just a more satisfying game to play on most levels than the last GTA game, and while the depth of mechanics is less Rockstar’s focus than breadth of content, I personally prefer a great, small game over a huge, mediocre-playing one. I look forward to hopefully seeing more of Wei Shen’s exploits, or at the very least, more of Hong Kong.