Depending on how you complete your mission plays a huge part on how much experience you gain from the police and triad. Playing as Wei Shen the player completes various missions from both sides of the law. It is considered United Front's signature game before their closure in 2016. It was picked up a year later by Square Enix, who allowed United Front to resume development (with help by Square Enix London) and published the game later that year.

The game is known for its troubled and prolonged development from its original publisher ( Activision), beginning in 2008 as 'Black Lotus', then re-worked years later as a spiritual successor to the True Crime series (as both 'True Crime' and 'True Crime: Hong Kong') before being cancelled in 2011. Players who pre-ordered the retail Definitive Edition version received a limited-edition artbook. The game later received an updated re-release for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, with technical enhancements and all non-booster DLC included, on Octo(as Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition). It later received numerous paid downloadable content, including expansion packs, new outfits (often with bonus weaponry and abilities), new vehicles, and boosters to give players an early advantage. Along with the standard gunfights and vehicle driving of other open-world games (such as the Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row series), a great focus of the game is on martial arts combat and free-running sequences.

Set in the streets of a fictional version of contemporary Hong Kong Island, players control Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer sent to infiltrate the ranks of a notorious Triad organization known as the 'Sun On Yee'. Sleeping Dogs (known in Japan as SLEEPING DOGS: Hong Kong Secret Police) is a crime-themed open-world third-person action-adventure game developed by United Front (in conjunction with Square Enix London) and published by Square Enix for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on August 14, 2012.

Sleeping dog red envelope locations