Wikia

The Year of the Snake Pack is a DLC for Sleeping Dogs.

DescriptionEdit

Set immediately after the new game, players will encounter “a vicious end-of-the-world cult hell-bent on cleansing the city of its evils.” Players will get new outfits, new weapons including tear gas guns and electroshock pistols and will “enter a race against the clock to bring the cultists to justice before Judgment Day.”

Wei Shen’s story continues in Year of the Snake as he rejoins the ranks of the Hong Kong Police Department in a series of new missions set immediately after the main game. A vicious end-of-the-world cult is taking root in the back streets of Hong Kong… the Cult of the Snake. Hell-bent on cleansing the city of its evils, they cannot be negotiated with as they pursue a path to their righteous salvation. With an arsenal of weapons, including teargas guns and electroshock pistols, new outfits and abilities, Wei must enter a race against the clock to bring the cultists to justice before Judgment Day.

After all that Triad business in Sleeping Dogs, it's weird to see Wei Shen busted down to the comparatively menial role of a street cop, walking the beat on the streets of Hong Kong, writing tickets, dealing with petty squabbles, waving in traffic. The Sun On Yee seems like a distant memory in the Year of the Snake DLC, but it's not long before Shen is springing back into action to foil a not-so-intricate terrorist plot, involving a bizarre cult that believes the world will end when the Chinese New Year rolls around.

Of course, the Chinese New Year has been and gone, meaning we're in the Year of the Snake right now and the world keeps on spinning unabated. But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun chasing down some fanatical cultists and bringing them to justice, right?! And Year of the Snake is good fun, placing some new toys into Sleeping Dogs' sandbox for Wei Shen to play with. These come as a logical part of Shen's standard-issue HKPD tools, so include the electroshock pistol (a taser) for subduing suspects and the teargas grenade launcher for dispersing crowds.

Shen's latest adventure kicks off as he's writing a ticket and spots a suspicious member of the Cult of the Snake up to no good. Giving chase, you'll need to apprehend and arrest the suspect, taking him back to HQ for questioning. You immediately know what you're dealing with when the cultist talks about his leader Master Chu, who foresees the end of the world and his unwavering belief that “unbelievers will be cast down into hell.” There are hundreds of these maniacal cultists all over Hong Kong, and it's up to Wei Shen to end their reign of terror. It seems that Hong Kong's supercop just can't catch a break, or indeed take a break.

Year of the Snake essentially casts Wei Shen as John McClane in Die Hard With a Vengeance, chasing bomb threats around the city in numerous forms, whether they're on buses, in suspicious parked cars or strapped to the insane cultists themselves. During the first part of the DLC, Shen finds himself figuratively putting out fires all over the city, before he dons SWAT gear and leads a squad in bringing down some of the higher-up cultists who are a bit more aggressive and equipped with gas masks. Tear gas? It'll obviously have no effect on the gas masked nutters, although you can still knock them down with a well-aimed gas grenade to the chest.

Between story missions, Shen will report back to the Hong Kong Police Department's mobile HQ, unlocking new police outfits, a police car and police motorbike along the way. If you've already bought the Law Enforcer DLC, you might be kicking yourself a bit while playing Year of the Snake.

As we play our way through the DLC, we spend a good few hours trying to complete as much of it as we possibly can, giving us the impression that Year of the Snake might be comparable to Nightmare in North Point in terms of missions and content. You're given the entire city as it is in the full game with an array of new cop missions to complete, as well as new favors and bomb threat missions to tackle. There's a good-sized chunk of content to sink your teeth into here then, covering all of the bases that made playing through Sleeping Dogs' campaign so enjoyable in the first place.

There's plenty of opportunity to break out your martial arts moves, using the taser to electroshock the apocalyptic cultists into submission, while there's also the odd shootout to be had too. The opening section where Shen finds himself in the middle of the New Year festivities is bold, colourful and visually striking, and the missions we've played thus far prove to be almost as compelling and involving as the full game's main missions, albeit without the tension and drama inherent in Wei Shen's role as undercover Sun On Yee.

Year of the Snake adds more challenges to the Social Hub too, so frying X number of enemies with the taser, gassing people with gas grenades, arresting suspects (or random bad guys, or innocent members of the public) and collecting evidence bags scattered around the city is the order of the day. You can also blast your police car's siren to make the traffic move, which is another award you'll need to earn, and Shen's powers as a cop enable him to commandeer vehicles without being penalised by the law. Go on a rampage and a killing spree, and the law will still come down on you like a ton of bricks, but as a cop, Shen has a little more wiggle room when bending the rules.

Sleeping Dogs' Year of the Snake add-on looks to continue Square Enix and United Front Games' smart DLC strategy to provide quality content at a fair price. It's the first of the game's add-ons to pick up where the end of Sleeping Dogs left off, providing fans with a sort of epilogue to Shen's undercover work as a member of the Triad. In short, Year of the Snake is shaping up to be the best Sleeping Dogs DLC yet, giving us the opportunity to kick ass all over Hong Kong once more.

Available to download now, the Year of The Snake add-on pack is a police-themed expansion for Sleeping Dogs that takes place during the Chinese New Year Festival. Year of The Snake is a standalone side story add-on accessed from the game’s main title screen (similar to Nightmare in North Point) and comes complete with four new Achievements/Trophies.

On starting Year of The Snake, you’ll be able to see that Hong Kong is getting ready for the Chinese New Year's celebrations. The city is decorated in red and gold and people are excited in preparation for the festivities - fireworks, lion dancers, flag bearers and fire breathers can be seen at key locations in Central, Kennedy Town and Aberdeen.

The story begins with Wei reporting back to Inspector Jane Teng, who tasks him with some non-undercover related police work due to his reckless actions in his mission to bring down the Triads. Wei soon finds out that he is being punished by the higher-ups and must prove himself as a proper police officer before he can regain their trust. However, there are still a few perks of the job - working as a uniformed police officer grants Wei the ability to arrest or stun with an electroshock pistol anyone he grapples while he is wearing police gear.

At first, Wei is a mere Constable with access to the standard police uniform and cruiser only. Before long, Wei starts to unravel the plot of a mysterious cult who claim that the world is about to end. This cult believes that by “cleansing” the city, they will earn a spot in the New World that their Master claims will dawn when the Year of The Snake begins. With the city in peril, Wei is able to demonstrate that he is still one of the best cops in Hong Kong and rises up the ranks of the force in record time. Wei quickly earns new gear, outfits and vehicles, culminating in a full SDU (Special Duties Unit) outfit with access to a supercharged police car, machine gun and tear gas grenade launcher.

Through several missions and optional activities, Wei must track down the Cult of the Snake’s leader before the cult’s followers bomb, terrorize and subdue the citizens of Hong Kong. It is down to Wei to personally show them that the world is not about to end for anyone but their Master and his followers.

Completing the Year of The Snake pack will earn you three new outfits (Cultist Uniform, Beat Cop and SDU Gear) and two new weapons (electroshock pistol and tear gas grenade launcher) for use in the main game. As a perk, Wei will have the ability to arrest or stun anyone in the main game while he’s wearing police gear.

Additionally, there are 20 new collectibles hidden around Kennedy Town, Aberdeen and Central, as well as five Stat Awards and five Stat Games across which you can compete and challenge your friends.

For a closer look at the pack in action, check out this preview video crafted by the talented individuals over at Outside Xbox, where they pay extra special attention to Wei’s new ability enabling him to arrest civilians.

The Year of The Snake pack weighs in at approximately 1.8GB and will be available to download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, PlayStation Network and Steam for Windows PC from Tuesday 12th March for 560MSP / $6.99 / €5.49 / £4.39

PlotEdit

It begins when Wei is at the police station with Inspector Teng, where Teng told Wei that the bosses were unhappy with Wei's recklessness when he infiltrated the Triads back then. Soon, Wei found himself to be an ordinary police officer. One night, when Wei was about to put a ticket to a sports car, he saw a suspicious looking blue Enterprise and chased it (and also told the dispatch its license number, which the dispatch found to be a rented car). The car stopped near a dragon dancer attraction, where Wei asked people around about men in yellow shirt. Wei quickly apprehend the suspects and made his way to the blue sedan, which turned out to be wired with a bomb. Then, Wei quickly ditched the car to the ocean. After that, Wei asked for the address and found out that the address that the dispatch gave him is a warehouse. Wei investigated the warehouse and found out that the suspects he arrested was a group of cultist. After investigating, Wei was ambushed and managed to handle the ambush with help from a fellow officer. Back in the HQ, Wei interrogated one of the cultists and found out that the cult predicted an apocalypse when the Chinese New Year started.

Continuing the investigation, Wei went to Aspirazone to get his undercover outfit and made his way to K-Bar in Central, and overhears many conversations there, including a conversation about bomb trading. After overhearing the conversations, Wei went to the back room and found the dealer, who escaped from the building, only to found himself surrounded by police in the end. Wei arrested the dealer and put him into the cruiser, where the dealer told that he only sold one bomb and about to set it off at a certain place when there are many people. On his way to Mobile HQ, the cruiser was ambushed by a group of people in Neo V.

After reaching the Mobile HQ, an officer told Wei that there were bomb threats at a crowded shopping center and went there to investigate. Wei found the cultists who were about to set a bomb hidden in a sports bag and quickly dispersed the crowd. After fighting the cultists, Wei brought the bag of bomb to the bomb disposal unit across the street. Next, he made his way to meet the cultist bomber. The bomber ran away, and inadvertently hit the timer. Wei, however, managed to ran away from the bomber, who blow himself into pieces. Then, Wei went to a parking lot (where there was a bomb threat) and investigated some of the vehicles, where he found an 860 MHC sports car that ran away. Wei chased the car with the police bike and hijacked it, only to found out that the sports car was rigged with a bomb, where Wei ditched the car to the ocean.

After ditching the car, Wei received a report about mini bus bombing in Central. To prevent further catastrophe, Wei made his way to the North Point Bus Depot, where he saw the cultists about to rig a bus with their car bomb. Then, Wei told Inspector Teng about a suspicious truck activity sourced from the fish market. In the fish market, Wei encountered the cultists again, and this time, managed to found the bomb maker, who was scared because the cultists abused him and told Wei to protect him. On the way to the Mobile HQ, Wei was ambushed again, but managed to made it to the HQ. After that, the dispatch told Wei that there was a riot in Soho and told Wei to go to the mobile HQ to receive equipment upgrades. Now, working with the SWAT, Wei made his way through the riots and dispersed the rioting crowds (and also fighting the cultists). After taking care of thing at Soho, Wei made his way to the Plaza, now armed with tear gas grenade. Unfortunately though, the cultists are wearing gas masks now, so Wei's tear gas explosions doesn't affect them. Nearby the Plaza, the crowd was shocked by an out-of-control Bisai, which ran into people on the staircases. At the Plaza, the riots are quite intense, making it rather difficult for Wei to disperse the crowds.

The cultists are getting even worse now, as the dispatch reported that there was a van carrying nerve gas. Riding shotgun in a Supercharged Police Cruiser, Wei tried to fend off the ambush vehicle while a fellow police officer drove the police car. The duo then went separate ways: Wei takes care of the escaping Master while the police officer takes care of the van.

Wei, now in Aberdeen, confronts the cultists at the docks. Both sides are now engaged in a long gunfight. After finishing the cultists at the docks, Wei made his way to Central to another gunfight, now occurring in a park, where Wei and fellow SWAT officers managed to finish the gunfight. Then, Wei, along with Inspector Teng and a fellow officer went to the docks to finish the cultists by using a police boat. After protecting the police boat from the cultists, Wei was dropped at a barge to encounter anoter wave of armed cultists and the Master himself. In the end, Teng wanted to put the Master under arrest as soon as possible, but Wei told Teng to wait until it's midnight. At midnight, Wei officially put the Master under arrest, ending the cult's quest to terrorize Hong Kong's citizens with apocalypse prediction at the Chinese New Year.