Sticking to the story isn’t all that rewarding either. You’ll earn superpowered punches early on by drinking a concoction involving antifreeze. These glowing, blue punches can’t be used all the time, however. By combating the Jiang Shi, Wei Shen will build up a blue meter, which replaces the Face meter. Once full, his strikes become devastating to the living dead. Furthermore, this meter must be full to battle the Yaoguai, giant demons. This ends up placing the player in a repetitive cycle of bruising the Jiang Shi until they have enough power to take on the Yoaguai who is usually accompanying the group. Somehow, a shooting segment forces itself into the mix very briefly and then it’s back to the old grind. Completing the DLC does little to make the player feel as if their time invested was worth it, walking away with only a Jiang Shi hat to use in the main game.
Repetitive Gameplay
As stated above, Nightmare in North Point is extremely repetitive. The DLC introduces three new enemies, the Yaoguai demons and the Jiang Shi, which come in the hopping vampire and brawling zombie varieties. After the first couple battles, you’ll have seen all the new moves. All fights from there on out are nothing but the same, which is another reason to avoid the fights placed at the portal side missions on the map. Assuming you feel like exploring, there are Hell Shrines you can visit, but they also serve little purpose. Given that the whole thing wraps up in under two hours, its both disappointing and impressive that this extra content could manage to become so repetitive in the small amount of time it lasts.
Verdict
United Front Games tried to craft a Halloween-inspired expansion in the same vein as Rockstar and Sucker Punch’s creations, but they fell short. Nightmare in North Point has a unique premise with its Chinese mythology, but all of its potential is lost on poor execution and short play time. If you’re dying to play more Sleeping Dogs, $4.99 isn’t a terrible cover charge, but you’d most likely have more fun replaying the main campaign than diving into this failed experiment.
[Editor’s Note: Nightmare in North Point was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 platform. The DLC was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
