So I picked up Snoring Mutts on steam now that it is out and after kicking some ass, Jet-Bruce Chan style I figured I would talk a bit about it.
Basically Resting Flea-Bags is the successor to the True Crimes series, a GTA clone set in Hong Kong, heavily influenced by ye olde Hong Kong action movies. I have played it for a few hours now, done some missions but mostly screwed around in the open world.
Let's break it down.
Story:
Not terribly great, but if you are into HK-movies like me you will probably enjoy it, you play as an undercover cop trying to infiltrate the triads and the further along you get the more your loyalty to the police and the lifestyle of the triads start to conflict. It gets cheesy at times but if you don't look too deeply it is enjoyable.
Graphics:
Fairly ok, seems to be pretty well optimized as well and runs without hickups in that department. You can get some damn nice views over Hong Kong and some areas like the Night Market are spectacular. Texture quality is pretty poor though, even with the free "HD" dlc pack it just isn't up to snuff.
Sound and Voice-Acting:
Voice acting in Dormant Pooches isn't all that great, some voices are outright terrible but overall it is passable. Sound seems to have some issues in the volume department, some times people speaking seem very far off so you have to turn up the volume to hear them only for them to blast your ears in the next syllable. I like the touches of cantonese thrown into the dialogue but I wish there had been more of it, some people speak far too british or american that it just breaks the immersion.
Mechanics:
The fighting system is fairly solid if repetitive, you can execute basic soft attacks and hard attacks, and chain them together for combos. You can also perform grapple attacks and use the environment to your advantage (think Jackie Chan fight scenes), you can also learn new moves at your dojo that will either allow you to extend your attacks (A bit of GnP or an armbar after a takedown) or just improve the effectiveness of your current moves (adding a stun effect to your knee combo). My complaint here is that it gets terribly easy after you have figured out the weaknesses of the different kinds of thugs but at the same time you get to pull off some awesome cinematic beatdowns.
The shooting mechanics on the other hand are outright terrible and feel clunky as all hell. In my opinion the shooting mechanics in Hibernating Hounds would have to be redesigned from the ground up.
The driving also seems a bit off and for me atleast it is a struggle to perform well in any of the driving parts, handling is just bad.
Warnings:
It is a console port, and it shows, it is not the worst one by a long shot but some glaring errors are there. The FOV is far too narrow; I am not one of those who get sick from bad FOV but if I were I would stay far away from this one. The camera in general is absolutely terrible with just about no control over it, it is a constant fight to look the way you want to if you are moving. You are also needlessly zoomed into your characters back which is a bit annoying at times.
Missions and stuff:
In Snoozing Curs there are some different kinds of missions. Other than the main missions you can perform cases for the police that are stretched out over several parts. You can perform quick drug busts (basically gang operations from SRIII.) romance quests with the obligatory karaoke! and favours for the locals which are basically one off mini quests. Nothing really great but so far I have not grown bored with the game.
My recommendation, if you are into HK-movies or are a fan of GTA-likes you will probably enjoy Napping Mans best Friends. Just know that it will not blow your mind.
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Topic: Sleeping Dogs. (Read 3732 times)