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United Front Games’ Sleeping Dogs had a long and troubled development cycle before release. When Sleeping Dogs was first pitched to publisher Activision it was called Black Lotus. Activision thought it should be an extension of an existing franchise and decided to call it True Crime: Hong Kong. The game then ran into a number of delays and was eventually canceled in 2011. United Front laid off 120 employees and appeared to be heading toward closure. At this point, most games and studios don’t get a second chance at life, but for whatever reason, Activision decided to release the publishing rights of True Crime: Hong Kong, and Square Enix swooped in to save the project. The game was renamed Sleeping Dogs and development continued with another 60-plus employees being added to the team.

In this episode of Replay, we show off the opening moments of play in Sleeping Dogs’ Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4. This brief look gives a good snapshot of why this game is special and why you should play it if you haven’t already. We dedicate the entire episode to this one game, and are joined by two guests that fit the theme perfectly.