“Think he'll break?" ~ Raymond Mak
“Never." ~ Thomas Pendrew
True Crime: Hong Kong is the canceled third installment in the True Crime series, developed by United Front Games and published by Activision.
The idea for an open world action game set in Hong Kong was first brought to developer United Front Games by Activision towards the end of 2007, with plans to have the game be developed for next generation consoles (Xbox 360; PlayStation 3). Going into production in early 2008, the game would hold the title of Black Lotus, until after being in development for a year, when Activision would propose that the game be incorporated into the True Crime series, in the hopes that newcomer United Front Games could help to revive the franchise by ultimately taking the series to new heights with new ideas and a unique setting never before seen in a game of its kind.
The game would first be introduced to the public by Activision as True Crime: Hong Kong at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. The game was then set for a Fall 2010 release date, until May of that year, when Activision would announce that the game's release date was being pushed back to early 2011. The reasoning behind this delay was stated as being "in order to give the development team more time to deliver the high-quality entertainment experience they envision for the game".
However, once February 2011 came around, Activision would completely cancel True Crime: Hong Kong, claiming that the game would be unable to successfully compete in the open world genre due to "quality issues".
The game's executive producer, Stephen Van Der Mescht, expressed immense disappointment with Activision's decision, and would go on record stating that the game was "playable from start to finish and virtually complete in terms of content". Activision's CEO, Eric Hirshberg, would later explain that budget concerns and development delays were the reasoning behind the game's cancellation, and that the game would have to be "a pretty incredible success in order to be worth the investment that it was taking to get it done". Hirshberg would also blame other open world titles, such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, along with the fact that the previous game in the True Crime series was a critical and commercial failure, for being the reasoning behind Activision viewing the game as not being able to compete. In Hirshberg's words:
"Even our most optimistic internal projections show that continued investment was not going to lead to a title at, or near, the top of the competitive open world genre. In an industry where only the best games in each category are flourishing, to be blunt, it just wasn't going to be good enough. The day I arrived at the company I said that I believed the best way to achieve commercial success was to provide gamers with highest possible creative quality. The decision to stop production on True Crime is based solely on that belief. These are tough decisions but we believe they are the right decision being made for the right reasons and they reflect our ongoing commitment to delivering the games that gamers want to play."
In August of 2011, Square Enix would acquire the publishing rights to the game itself, but not to the True Crime franchise, leading to the game being rebranded as Sleeping Dogs, which would be viewed as a spiritual successor to the True Crime games. The game would see a release date of August 2012 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows, and would receive a re-release in the form of Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition in October of 2014 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam and macOS.
In December of 2014, Activision would abandon the True Crime trademark altogether, ultimately marking the death of the True Crime series as a whole.
Gameplay
Aside from appearing to have gunplay that featured a heavier emphasize on auto-aim, the game's core mechanics looked to be virtually identical to that of Sleeping Dogs.
Plot
Setting
The game would've taken place in a fictionalized version of Hong Kong, much like what was seen in Sleeping Dogs.
Story
Much like Sleeping Dogs, the game would've centered around protagonist, Wei Shen, an undercover cop with conflicting loyalties, tasked with infiltrating the Sun On Yee Triad. With tensions high throughout the ranks of the Sun On Yee, players would've been placed smack-dab in the middle of an ongoing civil war that would've spanned across a vast open world landscape littered with tons of different ways to dispatch their enemies.
Characters
- Wei Shen
- Thomas Pendrew
- Winston Chu
- Raymond Mak
- Ming
- Siu Wah
- Benny
Reception
The game was generally well-received amongst fans, but publisher Activision didn't have much faith in the project, resulting in its cancelation.
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References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Crime_(series)#Hong_Kong
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Dogs_(video_game)