This is a great game...

User Rating: 8.5 | Sleeping Dogs PC
Initial Review: Honestly, playing Sleeping Dogs frustrates me, not that the game isn't fun -- the game is addictive and you'll never run out of things to do... The deal breaker, really is with the broken mouse control in the PC version of Sleeping Dogs. The mouse is so bad, you'll be better off not using your mouse at all. "I want my money back!" That's what you'd be constantly reminded of when you play the game. So how does a broken mouse implementation translate into the game? Well for starters, you can't move effective in the game, and you definitely can't explore the beautiful streets of Hong Kong. The good news is our protagonist, Wei Shen, though handicapped, won't die that easily when caught in a cross fires. Oops, that's not exactly good news, is it?

Moving around is not the only problem with Sleeping Dogs, hand-to-hand combat is another. Firstly, there's a lag in the combat especially when you're fighting a large number of thugs (gangsters). The combat is not as "free-flowing" and crisp as the Batman Arkham Series. Sometimes when you hit the left mouse button, it doesn't do anything -- you'll just stand there like a dummy, not until you shuffle your feet for a bit (by hitting the 'w' 's' 'a' 'd' keys). And to ensure that you would be able to block the melee attacks, the safest way is to click the right mouse button repeatedly (and also to turn your body quickly to face your attackers). Second, though the game allows player to learn a wide varieties of new melee attacks, the only place where those move could be executed beautifully is on the sparring mat at the "dojo". It's really a pity. It'd be interesting if the developers could release a video featuring those fancy moves (as played on a PC) in one of those drug busts.

I would imagine that Sleeping Dogs would fare much better on the Consoles, though for some reason, I'm not seeing that here on Gamespot. I would have given this game (the PC version) an 8.5 but since it's broken and crippled, I'm only giving it a 7.0.

Update 1: The latest patch fixes the mouse problem -- the camera is now fixed, and the control seems a little more responsive too... There are still other minor problems with the control though that could be changed or fine tuned, but those won't interfere with the gameplay. So it's all good now.

Update 2: I've also noticed that countering now is a bit different. In order to effectively counter the melee attacks, you click on the right mouse button and then immediately follow it up with the attack sequences.