Traid Wars – Beta Preview
When United Front Games announced they were working on a new game in the Sleeping Dogs universe I immediately got excited. I love Sleeping Dogs. I own it on PS3, PS4 and PC and have purchased all of the DLC over the years. The mix of great story, chop socky action and a gorgeous open world made it one of my favourite games from the last few years. But when I found out that the new game, Triad Wars, was going to be a free to play online only game my heart almost burst. How could it be that this great single player experience was being converted into a multiplayer game? I could have put serious money on the fact that this was going to be a stinker, but you know what? I might have just lost that cash because from my time with the beta Triad Wars is going to be a lot of fun.
The game started with me having to select which Triad I was going to join (being a Sleeping Dogs fan I chose the Sun On Yee) and the look of my character. From here it was basic tutorial time but what surprised me the most is that the excellent combat from Sleeping Dogs has made the transition intact. Move and countermove was the focus of the combat and it was exactly the same as I remembered. In no time at all I was throwing gangsters into vending machines and jump kicking policemen with moves that Jet Li would be proud of.
Once the tutorial was complete I moved into my base. From here some of the free to play elements come to the fore. The base is the focal point of my attempt to become a Red Pole, aka General, in the Sun on Yee. It was here I could build various criminal rackets. Cock fighting, money laundering, counterfeit goods and stolen electronics were just some of the options to raise money for my burgeoning criminal empire. Each racket produced a certain amount of money every 10 minutes of which I had to manually collect. As I upgraded these rackets they produced more money and I could wait longer before I had to withdraw the earnings.
To upgrade these facilities I was forced to improve my main character and raise his “Face” meter. This basically tells the world how much of a badass I was. To improve this meter I was forced to raid other gangster’s hideouts and take them down. Each of these raids have a time limit before the cops arrive so it was wise for me to move in, take out all of the goons and move on quickly. I could gain a little extra time for these raids by completing intel missions before I started. These missions involved little tasks like delivering a package or taking down a group of thugs and upon completion awarded me extra time to raid enemy strongholds.
Perhaps the biggest worry I have for Triad Wars is that there isn’t much more to it. Of course this could change upon full release and quite often these sort of online games have significant amounts of content come to them post release. At this time however building my base and raiding rival strongholds was pretty much the extent of the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, it is a lot of fun as the combat mechanics are great but I can see it getting old quickly without further variety.
At this stage Triad Wars perhaps isn’t the sequel that Sleeping Dogs fans like myself were looking for but it will certainly fill the gap until the real thing comes along. Great for short bursts of gameplay Triad Wars is worth the download for fans of the original and newcomers alike. I just hope that a bit more content comes along otherwise Triad Wars runs the risk of being forgotten rather quickly after the initial fun has been had.
Check out some gameplay footage below to see if Triad Wars is for you.
Matt Hewson
