Sleeping Dogs

I guess this got a ton of positive reviews on Steam for a reason. This is basically the answer to the questions: "What if we did GTA but in Hong Kong? And also it has an actually interesting story with less navel gazing bullshit (I'm looking at your GTA 5)?"

The gameplay is basically GTA but the combat has a focus on brawling combat a la Yakuza. Combos and counters and beating the shit out of a bunch of guys at once. There's environmental combos where you smash people into trash cans or impale them on spikes which add an extra layer of fun. The shooting is closer to old GTA so not particularly good feeling but not the worst either. Driving is pretty solid GTA fare and I actually enjoyed it for the most part.

This time because I knew I'd get bored if I dove into the whole "Let's do everything in an open world game" schtick I stuck to the main story. And this really gave the game a great pacing. The story is about this dude Wei Shen a guy who was born in Hong Kong and then spent most of his life growing up in the US. He comes back and becomes an undercover cop working to infiltrate one of the triads the Sun On Yee. There's a colorful cast of characters especially within the Sun On Yee that you get exposed to as you slowly work your way up from a nobody to one of the top people in the gang. I absolutely loved how they humanized the gangsters as being something akin to a family. And how Wei Shen who initially joins basically for revenge against one of the members becomes deeply invested in helping out his brothers in the game. It really hits home how confusing his position is when the wedding of his boss gets hit by a rival gang and the boss and his new bride are murdered in front of him.

And it doesn't really let up. You're a one man wrecking crew rolling through the city fucking shit up and solving problems for everyone. In the end you're exposed as an undercover cop by your corrupt boss in the cops, your best friend is murdered, and you end by getting your revenge on both the gang boss who killed your friend and the cop boss who betrayed you.

So yeah huge recommend for anyone who likes a GTA style game. Especially for someone who wants to get immersed in a small slice of a different culture like Hong Kong's.