Sleeping Dogs is a 2012 action-adventure open-world title developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix. Upon its release, it was praised for its unique Hong Kong setting, a location rarely covered by video games. This made many players believe Sleeping Dogs could be a long-lasting franchise, but that’s something we’ve yet to see come to fruition. It was initially released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, but a Definitive Edition would eventually be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Sleeping Dogs Premise
Sleeping Dogs brings Hong Kong to life in a way never before seen in a video game, with the highs and the lows of the city depicted without discrimination. On the surface, the game looks like just another open-world title. You shoot enemies, steal cars, and avoid the police from a third-person perspective. It’s a formula well-known to fans of the genre at this point.
What sets Sleeping Dogs apart is its focus on melee combat. The game’s protagonist, Wei Shen, is considered a martial arts expert, and it takes that and makes it a crucial part of the gameplay. The result is melee combat that resembles the Batman: Arkham games, merged with the traditional gunplay open-world action-adventure games are usually known for.
Another unique feature of the game is how it handles experience. Rather than one XP bar, Sleeping Dogs has three – Triad, Face, and Police XP. These encourage you to play the game in different ways, to gain XP in the different areas. For example, you earn Triad XP by partaking in melee combat or completing violent actions. Face XP is usually earned in civilian side missions, making it easier for you to buy vehicles or clothing. Meanwhile, Police XP is found by reducing civilian deaths and completing police side missions. Each XP tree has its unique rewards, meaning to experience everything you’ve got to diversify your play.
To unlock everything in Sleeping Dogs, you have to complete missions in the main campaign. You take this linear campaign mission by mission, slowly unlocking new parts of the map for you to explore. It’s completely optional, but you lose a lot by not engaging with it.
Sleeping Dogs Main Characters
Sleeping Dogs takes the opportunity to introduce an exciting cast of characters, each with their own complex motivations throughout the story.
It’s a wide-reaching narrative with plenty of different characters featured, but here are the main ones you need to know before playing Sleeping Dogs:
- Wei Shen: Wei Shen is the protagonist of the game, an SDU officer who goes undercover for the Hong Kong Police in a plot to infiltrate the criminal Triads. Throughout the game, his influence within the underworld grows, putting him in more danger than ever.
- Thomas Pendrew: Thomas Pendrew is one of the two main antagonists of the game, serving as a superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Department. At first, he starts out as a friend, but as the game progresses it becomes clear that there’s more to Thomas Pendrew than meets the eye.
- Big Smile Lee: Big Smile Lee is the other antagonist of the game, working as a Sun On Yee Red Pole criminal. He is the one you’re primarily tasked with stopping throughout the story, taking Wei Shen to his limits.
Sleeping Dogs Titles in the Series
When Sleeping Dogs was initially announced in 2009, it was revealed to be part of the True Crime series and was to be published by Activision. However, 2011 saw the project canceled until Square Enix bought it.
Once the game was eventually released, many felt it had the makings of the next-best open-world franchise, with Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto at the peak of their powers. It had everything going for it, from a unique setting to a captivating story. However, only an online spin-off ever transpired (which was shut down within a few months of release), with a sequel and film adaptation both canceled in the space of a few years.
To this day, Sleeping Dogs remains the only title still playable in a franchise that never had the opportunity to really realize its potential.
- Sleeping Dogs (2012)
- Triad Wars (2015)
Sleeping Dogs Cheat Codes
Sadly, you’re not going to find any cheat codes for Sleeping Dogs. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to get ahead in the game. The first is by using exploits for a free advantage. Here are some of the most broken exploits in Sleeping Dogs:
Easy Money
After you unlock the cockfights, head to the arena. Find the fight that doesn’t have a betting cap, and save your game prior to talking to the NPC. Place your bet for the maximum amount of money possible. If you don’t win, reload your save and try again. If you repeat this over and over again, you’ll swiftly amass a gigantic fortune.
Easy Hacking
Start all of your phone hacks with the numbers 9, 8, 7, and 6. If you have any yellow numbers, move this to a new slot, and replace the red numbers with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0, before repeating this process. You’ll have more than enough attempts to complete the hack in time.
Easy Killstreak / Rogue Cop Rewards
Die on purpose so that you spawn in a hospital. When you head outside, there should be a police officer. Steal his gun, and head back inside the hospital, where there is a file cabinet near the entrance. Go and hide behind it. Police officers will continue to enter one by one, and you can kill them on their way in. Repeat this for long enough to earn the Killstreak and Rogue Cop rewards easily.
Invincibility
Get arrested by the police, where’ll you spawn in the jail yard. Steal a vehicle and drive away, looking for a long vehicle in the process. We’re talking about a police van or a truck, to ensure you can hang from its side. Once you’ve found one, jump out of your car and onto the side of the longer vehicle. You’ll now be hanging from its side, where you’ll be prompted to climb onto the top. Ignore the prompts, and continue to hang until you’re sent tumbling onto the street.
For an unknown reason, bullets won’t harm you after this, rendering you essentially invincible. However, you may have to repeat this if you reload your save.
Mods
If you’re a PC player and exploits aren’t you’re thing, you can use mods to enhance your Sleeping Dogs experience instead.
You can find mods for the game over at Nexus Mods, where there are plenty of downloads that allow you to cheat and get ahead in the game. Alternatively, there are also some texture packs available that change the way it looks. While this doesn’t give you any form of advantage, it’s still fun to experience!
Sleeping Dogs Cheat Code FAQs
How Do I Cheat Money in Sleeping Dogs?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to actually cheat money in Sleeping Dogs, however, you can use our easy money exploit above to make a lot of money, fast.
It’s not instant, sure, but it’s the next best thing.
Why Are There No Sleeping Dogs Cheat Codes?
The developer has never given a reason as to why Sleeping Dogs doesn’t feature cheat codes. Other open-world series of the time such as Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto had a comprehensive selection of cheats, so it’s unfortunate that United Front Games never took the same approach.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Square Enix.