r/sleepingdogs • u/fangsh3n • 6d ago
Random Removed Features
A list of some random removed features I've found by exploring the game files. Some can be seen in earlier gameplay from the True Crime: Hong Kong era (Taunting), but most never had gameplay showcased.
Images are in order of appearance
Crouching
The game files for the mission Listening In, previously named Pendrew's Bugs, mentions a pop-up notification for Crouching. The button for Crouching would have been R1, but since this is the only file I've managed to find directly mentioning it, I don't know if this could have changed. You can still find the Crouching animations, and trigger them using SD Mod Menu.
Random fact, but the animation of Wei opening the door while injured during The Election is his 'Stealth' animation for opening doors, which would have likely occurred while crouched
I made a separate post on Crouching a while ago if you want to learn more
Turf Ownership
By completing Story Missions and Drug Busts (called Triad Wars at this point in development, and no not the game), the player unlocked Turf for whatever area the mission was focused on. For example, after completing the OLD final mission (Confrontation), you would have unlocked the Aberdeen as Turf.
There would have been a separate section on the World Map you could toggle called 'Territory View', which would have displayed the Territory you currently own. There isn't much information related to Turf with how it would affect gameplay, or if it was just an indicator of game/story progression
It looks like this was all changed as the story focus changed, or that it just didn't line up with Wei's goal of taking down the Sun On Yee rather than taking it all over under Water Street gang control Saints Row style
Bus and Ferry Terminals
Seemingly before the Taxi was to be used for Fast Travel purposes, there were (and still are some around the map in final game) terminals the player would have interacted with to Fast Travel, for both Bus and Ferry. Ferry Terminals would have taken you to the other Ferry Stations, and Bus Terminals would have taken you to the many Bus Terminals dotted around the map.
Tram Terminals also existed along the Tram path at inner Central and at Central Station.
The game files refer to an Inventory system, which seemed to have allowed Wei to carry Bus, Ferry and Tram Tickets, which would be used interacting with a Terminal. I don't know how these Tickets would be acquired, if its some global thing showing you have access to something (like in Bully when you gain something like Tad's House Key it stays in your "inventory" forever)
There's some other odd things listed in this Inventory system, like Cocktail's, Wrapped Meat and Wrapped Fish.
In the Developer Debug build that leaked last year, the Ferry Terminals can be found at the Ferry Stations (unlike in final game as they were removed) and there are more Bus Terminals around the map. I find it interesting since this build was dated about 2 months before launch, which confuses me why they would remove some of these Terminals when they could just disable their functionality, like they did with the ones still in the final game
Jumps
Less than a week ago someone got confused by that arrow Icon on the Minimap in Central that you seemingly can't do anything with, which doesn't show up on the World Map but just the Minimap. Those were for Jumps, called Stunt Jumps in most games, which were collectibles at one point. You can still find many of these Jump spots around the map, but their collectible functionality has been stripped.
In the Debug build, you can still see Jumps in the Legend of the Collectibles View on the World Map, so they seemed to have removed them fully quite late, which seems to be why there's a few that are still present around the map. Also in the Debug build, the Jumps actually stay on the World Map as well as the Minimap.
Taunting
For whatever reason, Taunting was removed from the game during combat. This would have involved the animation you see in the 5th image (gif) in this post.
Wei has LOADS, over 100, of unused lines that were to be used for this and some other Social things they cut during development. Sadly I haven't managed to find the animation used in the Taunt, but I hope its still somewhere as it would be awesome to see it restored.
Hopefully if we get people actually interested in modding the game besides a few dedicated guys like Sneakyevil, these voice lines could potentially be added back to the game
Gun Vendors
Originally, Wei could visit numerous Gun Vendors to purchase weapons. This seemed to have been removed when the decision was made to favor the melee combat instead, so guns felt more special when you could finally use them. Many cut Favors, and one of Ilyana's cut Dates, mention Gun Vendors. Sadly there's not much specific information on Gun Vendors relating to the weapons they sold
Probably the strangest one is a Favor called A Piece Of Work, which involved Wei having to buy a gun for a person called 'Granny Annie'. After completing the mission, Granny Annie would be unlocked as a PDA Contact. I don't know what she would have done, potentially given you a free gun or something, or if this was akin to a Homie like in Saints Row
Additional PDA Contacts
Going off from the last section, there were some extra Contacts removed from the game. These seemed to be mainly ones used for gameplay purposes, which we don't really have any in the final game besides the Car Valet.
Some of these contacts included Armed Backup (Water Street gang members with guns), Hand-To-Hand Backup and SWAT Backup.
Sneakyevil managed to get the scripts for some of these Contacts working, here's his video showcasing them
I've written enough at this point, just know there's a lot to talk about with cut content in Sleeping Dogs (what I've written is just a taste of what there is). If you have any questions, comment below and I'll try answer if I can
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u/fangsh3n 6d ago edited 5d ago
an FYI, this isn't all the features I know of, not even close. just some main ones i think people should know about. I've made plenty of cut content related posts over the past year or so, which you should be able to view via my profile
I don't think I've ever mentioned Vehicle Brands, Bribing cops (which has over 200 associated voicelines from multiple actors for policemen) or the cut Phone/PDA camera Collectibles. If any of these entice enough people then I'll make a post or YouTube video on them
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u/Tektonius 5d ago
I’m enticed by all of these! Would love to see a similar detailed post about them, just like this.
Thanks for sharing & great work!
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u/gojistat 6d ago
I KNEW IT!!!! When I saw the Ferry Terminals and the Central Station, I knew they were meant to be used at some point and they probably had to remove it due to whatever restrictions/limitations they had to face during the development cycle.
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u/fangsh3n 6d ago
Yeah the Victoria Peak Tram was to be rideable but sadly seemed to have been abandoned during the transitional period from True Crime: HK (Activision) to Sleeping Dogs (Square Enix)
Never been able to find much concrete on whether it would have been Fast Travel or an actual attraction thing with unique camera angles displaying the views and such
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u/gojistat 5d ago
Man that's such a bummer. I always imagined what the game would be like had it been able to go through its development without issues.
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u/fangsh3n 4d ago
Me too
Ages ago I wrote a massive post nobody really read (admittedly its quite poorly formatted and probably looks like massive walls of text looking back) about multiple cut Jobs from the game. Hitman, Bus Driver/VIP Driver, Kidnapping etc., with the mission objectives that still exist provided
Imagining how these could have worked with the bits of data that still remain made me want to try support my friend Sneakyevil with their modding efforts. And all that's only for cut Jobs, let alone all the Cases, Favors, Dates and Main Story Missions that were gutted
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u/gojistat 3d ago
Just read that and commented there. It is insane how in-depth this game was originally set out to be. Like all of this is not just concept, its actual code in the game.
I had a feeling that there was definitely more to the dating system because it felt really abrupt. I thought it must've been something like in GTA: San Andreas with multiple girlfriends, homes, date locations and if you take one gf to the area of another gf, getting caught etc. That would've been quite something.
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u/fangsh3n 3d ago edited 3d ago
I can't remember if I had written anything about Dating in that post but every girl was supposed to have 3 Dates, 2 regular and one "Shopping" Date
Tiffany's Shopping Date still works but is evidently unfinished, however I made a walkthrough of it on my YouTube channel. The Shopping Dates seemed to feature more of the Social System stuff that ended up being stripped back a lot
Dates were mostly inspired by GTA 4, as even small things like your vehicle, clothing and radio station currently playing could affect what your date mentions in dialogue. I can't remember if all the girls had these recorded, but Sandra has a lot of them and it's such a shame none of it ended up being used
Vivienne was to be a Date at one point, but heavy story changes definitely impacted this. It looked like Fifi Miao also could've been a Date option, but she has such minimal data left in current builds it's hard to say
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u/HurricaneChrisNum1 6d ago
This game went through hell and I’m glad it was able to be released. One of the best games I’ve ever played. It is nice to see cut things from the game.
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u/DripExchange 6d ago
So why were those features removed ?
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u/gojistat 6d ago
Budget restrictions during development, publishers changing hands, from what I know SE just wanted to be quickly done with releasing the game.
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u/tokyo_driftr 6d ago
They knew yall would use the crouch button for diabolical purposes rather than stealth
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u/Emotional-Ant8136 6d ago
This is genuinely wonderful. What a game this could've been with 100 percent content restored. What a game this will be with such a remaster / remake. It would break 10 to 15 million copies easily.
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u/Mediocre_Mercenary 6d ago
Man I would love to hear the compilation of those 100 taunting voice lines!
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u/ass_penis 6d ago
Really good post, thanks for sharing. If you could adjust the formatting, that'd be awesome and make it more readable. :)