The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization - named for the real life Sun Yee On. The player character has the ability to walk, run, hop, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts in combat. Players also steer a variety of vehicles including cars, boats, and motorcycles.
The combat system revolves around hand-to-hand fighting, same to Batman: Arkham Asylum/Batman: Arkham City's "Freeflow" combat system. The lid system allows the player to move between lid, fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific foe. Individual body parts can also be targeted. Regarding the driving segments, several developers had worked on previous Need for Speed titles. While driving, Wei can profit out and jump onto other moving vehicles.
Although storyline missions are valuable to progress through the game and unlock positive content and parts of the city, players can complete them at their leisure. When not attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the ability to participate in activities such as carjacking, joining a fight club, singing karaoke, visiting gambling dens betting on cockfights and participating in street races. There are also several potential girlfriends for Wei Shen to date. Successful completion of side missions offers the player rewards.
Sleeping Dogs features role-playing elements with three different experience point values: Triad XP, Face XP, and Police XP. Triad XP and Police XP measure Wei's devotion to the triad and police, respectively, while Face XP is a measure of his general reputation. Clothing, accessories and vehicles are available for purchase by Wei, and have an effect upon non-player characters' reactions. Sleeping Dogs tracks acquired skills in areas such as hand-to-hand combat, which improve through use in the game.
Although there is no multiplayer component, the game features online stats and leaderboards so players can compare scores.
