United Front Games has announced Triad Wars, an online open-world PC adventure game set in Sleeping Dogs' Hong Kong universe.
A video, which you can see above, explains how players will start out as low-level enforcers in the Triad and will “rise to power as a criminal kingpin of the Triad underworld”. Players will build gangs, obtain and protect turf and expand their criminal empires all while battling other gangs and raiding their turf.
Other aspects of organized crime such as extortion, counterfeiting and smuggling are also said to be part of the package.
Triad Wars does not tell a linear story according to the developer but it is expected to evolve over time as players affect the landscape of the online Hong Kong underworld. Every player’s experience should be different from each other's and the game could be completely different in two years.
“Triad Wars is the flipside of Sleeping Dogs. Sleeping Dogs was about taking you on a ride along that story,” design director Steve Ferreira explains. “Triad Wars is the other side of that. It’s all about Hong Kong and the criminal underworld within Hong Kong. And this is about you creating your own game.”
Elements of the game’s driving, shooting and hand-to-hand combat were shown and appear very similar to Sleeping Dogs' gameplay.
“People liked two things about Sleeping Dogs. They really loved the cop aspect, or they really loved the crime aspect. So we made this one for the criminals,” character designer Rob Olivera says.
Triad Wars has been confirmed for an early 2015 release on PC. Players can register for a limited closed beta now.
United Front Games confirmed the development of Triad Wars, originally thought to be a sequel to Sleeping Dogs, last October. It teased an announcement for Triad Wars last Friday.
The studio will be doing a Reddit AMA on Tuesday, September 23 at 12pm PT / 5pm ET / 8pm GMT.
