Sleeping Dogs is the ultimate ‘jack of all trades’ when it comes to video games – a shining example of a title that tries to do just about everything and manages to (mostly) pull it all off. Car chases? Check. Incredible hand-to-hand combat with environmental kills? Check. John Woo-style gunplay, set pieces and a killer soundtrack? Check. Compelling story? Check. You get the idea…

While Sleeping Dogs wasn’t the huge seller that Square Enix wanted it to be, it’s a game that’s still inspiring games to this day. The upcoming Raid-like fighting game Acts of Blood lists Sleeping Dogs as one of its major inspirations, and it’s clear to see why.

Many games have proven that executing just one of Sleeping Dogs’ elements well enough can achieve classic status, but to blend so many different kinds of gameplay mechanics into one compelling package is no mean feat. So, why was it just so good? And why, even after all these years, do we still not have a sequel? With talks of a potential Sleeping Dogs movie on the way now that a script has finally been completed, what better time to revisit why United Front’s 2012 diamond-in-the-rough remains an absolute classic.

Sorry, Akrham, Sleeping Dogs remains the hand-to-hand king

At the center of Sleeping Dogs was a simple and compelling combat system. Along with hard-hitting punches and kicks, heavily inspired by Jeet Kun Do, main character Wei Shen had an array of counters, which when timed perfectly, led to devastating takedowns.

Yes, it was Arkham combat, giving Wei Shen the aggressiveness of Batman but with a Kung Fu twist, but what set Sleeping Dogs apart from the likes of the Arkham series was just how interactive the environments were. You could throw enemies off railings and rooftops one minute, then slam them face first into an air conditioning unit the next.

The game did a fantastic job at progression, too – encouraging you to visit a dojo to learn more martial arts. It was subtle but important mechanics to ‘ground’ Shen and remind the player he wasn’t some invincible cop, but learned and struggled like the rest of us. No game has come close to Sleeping Dogs in terms of capturing the energy, and brutality, of hand-to-hand combat.

Gunplay was equally as rewarding, with slow-motion slides across tables encouraged as you battled your way through intricately designed combat spaces. a ‘Max Payne’ inspired bullet-time helped make firefights feel incredible cinematic, with the obligatory ragdoll physics in full flow should you shoot one of the many explosive items liberally littered

The story was simple but brilliantly executed

A narrative following an undercover cop trying top infiltrate the Triads in Hong Kong is nothing new. The cliche was already eye-rolling decades ago in the martial arts films the game is so clearly inspired by. But the quality of the acting, especially from Shen voice actor Will Yun Lee, was exceptional. While you were encouraged to venture off the beaten track and take on side-quests, you never felt pulled away from the main story – and some activities rewarded you with a side of Shen not many would ever see.

One of the standout memories during my first playthrough was going to a karaoke bar and singing Air Supply’s ‘I’m all out of Love’. The vulnerability of these moments gave us a glimpse into Shen, a man who for the sake of his mission, was forced to squirrel every ounce of himself away.

Later in the game when Shen is compromised and brutally tortured, these quieter moments helped add a sense of urgency and desperation – making you really feel and connect with the character, rooting for him to escape. When I did manage to escape, I cheered at the TV.

Car chases that would make Michael Bay blush

Getting around Hong Kong wasn’t as refined as some other open world games, but it was still a lot of fun. Some of the most enjoyable combat took place in cars, where it was clear the devs were ripping as much as they could from the John Woo wheelhouse.

A strategically-placed bullet to a tyre would cause a car to comically flip and jolt into the air in glorious slow-mo. When on a motorbike, you could even ‘car jack’ by leaping off the bike onto the roof of the car, then sliding into the seat via the window, and you can leap out of the window of that car onto another like a thrilling high-stakes reboot of frogger.

Every car chase felt like a spectacle, and matched the hand-to-hand combat’s energy. Remember, Sleeping Dogs wasn’t the first to try and blend this all together. The True Crime Series, both Streets of LA and New York, attempted to do the same but didn’t manage to pull it off – although I would argue their ambition stretched slightly beyond what the PS2 could do.

Sleeping Dogs remains a true gaming classic, and while hopes of a sequel are bleak, the upcoming movie could once again shine a light on this brilliant game. Unfortunately, the original game released during Square Enix’s penny-pinching era, a rough period where the company’s western developers were hit with exaggerated sales targets for almost every project.

While Sleeping Dogs is now a cult classic, it really did deserve more. While a lot of its open world contemporaries have not aged well, United Front’s 2012 masterpiece is a fine wine that only gets better – and somehow more unique – as it continues to age. Now it’s on Simu Liu to not mess the movie up.