PaigeFTW: ‘Triad Wars’ promises Hong Kong homecoming
I never was one for open-world sandbox games. I enjoyed the mayhem of “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” but I preferred structure in the form of a straitlaced RPG, from point A to B to C, with minimal diversions. And for years, Vice City was where I stopped.
That was, at least, until I visited Hong Kong in “Sleeping Dogs.”
It’s been called the “Asian Grand Theft Auto,” and it is, more or less. It’s mission-based, free-roaming crime-oriented chaos, with a heavy emphasis on melee combat and RPG-style collecting and customization.
But what sets it apart is, again, Hong Kong.
Street vendors hawk pork buns from carts on the street. Guns are a rarity because of Hong Kong’s strict arms laws, so thugs fight with butcher knives and crowbars. Drivers yell insults in Cantonese when you cut them off. Here, in this vibrant city, undercover cop Wei Shen is tasked with taking down crime triad Sun On Yee — but Wei grew up with these gangsters, and he’s not as different as he would like to believe.
There’s a brilliant Kotaku article that captures the cultural depth of “Sleeping Dogs,” of the Americanized Wei struggling to reconnect with his Asian roots. Wei is both familiar and a rarity: an Asian-American protagonist in a mainstream American video game.
So I’ve been dying for a sequel, obviously — and the game did well enough to warrant a Definitive Edition release for PS4 last year, which gives me hope.
This is how I stumbled upon “Triad Wars.”
It’s a PC prequel (of sorts) to the events in “Sleeping Dogs,” presenting an interesting sort of multiplayer-esque experience where players are part of the triads, establishing the sprawling criminal empires that Wei will later stop.
It’s in closed beta right now, but it’s set for release later this year — and it will be at E3 next week. If I can’t have a sequel, I’ll take a return trip to this Hong Kong however I can.
