I thought this was a nice example of expectations != development costs.
The first half also implies they're interested in making sequels via the "We achieved our primary goal of both reinvigorating existing IP and creating new IPs."
Tomb Raider Reboot, Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs were all bad games, personally I'd rather if they put the money on older IPs like LoK or something else.
I actually just finished Sleeping Dogs (100%! Yay!) and wrote my thoughts down about it in a PM but here's as good as anywhere to post them and maybe get a discussion going:
[RE: It's a beautiful game]
I agree that it's beautiful, and I love that it uses the melee combat, and the melee combat was quite deep... I never even used half the moves.
I do think it's unfortunate when the game starts using guns. There are a few neat missions involving guns, but mostly cover + pop and shoot isn't really the makings for an interesting game. It's very very hard to have fun just shooting stuff in the world too because the cops overpower you very quickly and you just get shot to death. The game can actually spawn cops in unfair locations too, so it's impossible to turtle up in a fortress and kill waves of cops.
[RE: Implausibility of a cop pulling half the shit Wei does]
Honestly I think if the environmental kills didn't exist and you couldn't run people over and they re-labeled all the melee kills as KOs, the first 2/3rds or 3/4s of the game would basically be realistic. I do agree that no matter how undercover someone is, they couldn't justify just doing freelance crime and killing people and stealing shit and blowing shit up just because nebulously it causes them to rise through the criminal ranks.
I noticed in the ending
when they have Officer Teng questioning whether or not Wei, now back as a uniformed police officer, is secretly still on the dark side.
I don't feel like the game's story supported that angle well enough. We never see a moment where Wei is actually fully criminal and forgets his loyalties. Something like The Departed, obviously not a fair comparison for a video game, is substantially better at really showing people in the situation being genuinely confused by their double life.
Especially since all the documents and reports suggest that Wei was a total fucking psychopath in San Francisco and was aggressively brutal and terrible. And then the voices you hear as you're having trouble sleeping. I wish the main story had had a more gradual ramp of Wei losing control rather than the Niko Bellic "I'm a nice guy *shoots a bunch of people that are never mentioned in story scenes*" stuff.
One other story issue--the main bad guy comes pretty much out of nowhere, and by the time they introduce him they're spending too much time on the 18k so it's kind of confusing. And when they kidnap Wei and torture him (to make him miss the election vote? to make him admit he's a cop?) they thinly justify it with "There's always been rumours that you were a cop." Really, they couldn't have had someone catch him in the act? Or some sort of evidence of it?
I did like the tragedy of Jackie. When he gets out of jail and says that Teng offered to flip him as a CI and get him out of the life, the conversation he has with Wei about how he doesn't think the life is worth it anymore... I kind of wanted Wei to tell him the truth at that moment. Wish they had made more of that rather than just having him show up on meat hooks.
I didn't much like the epilogue "lol the main cop is corrupt" thing. Seemed a bit shoehorned, especially since they then arrest him and throw him in jail. If they had more scenes with him and made it more gradual it'd be good. Or if we had hints on the Triad side that Triads regularly worked with cops when it was convenient to take out rivals.
I really like the look of the game. I love the driving, feels great, all the vehicles do... besides the camera when you're backing up which is kind of unfortunate. I wish there were more random events to do in the world or that they were paced better. I had mostly exhausted everything in the world when I got to the end of the game except I still had about 10 car robberies left so I did all of those in a row, which is a bummer.
My biggest disappointment is with the relationship quests. Either they had no idea how to do those properly, or they excised content from the game. Why bring in a bunch of AAA-list voice actresses to voice characters in one mission? Emma Stone in particular is introduced early and I really thought she'd end up being a Triad trying to figure out if Wei was a cop.
Why have girlfriends yell at you because you went on very non-intimate dates with other girls? Why can you only go on one date with each?
Finally: Triad implies three. Who is the third crime family?
Favourite missions: Fucking up Two-Chin's Feng Shui with the creepy guy in the beat up car. That was so hilarious and very appropriate. Although I think the shooting gameplay is weak, both the hospital and restaurant shootouts were tense. I loved throwing scar-smile guy into an ice chipper to end the game. I liked the side quests where you "helped" stranded people and then they mugged you, so predictable. I liked most of the dates. I liked the story with the Sensei, but I wish it had more closure. I liked the side quest where you help the mad scientist track his drug packages through the sewers.
I liked helping Winston's Mom get revenge, and I loved that she fed the soup of the one guy to the other guy before killing him.