What Do We Love About… Triad Wars?

October 19, 2015 16:13 ( Articles, F2P News ) 1

What Do We Love About... Triad Wars?

We’re checking out Triad Wars for our newest “What Do We Love About…?” article, the free to play open world action title from United Front Games and the spiritual multiplayer sequel of single player game Sleeping Dogs. Set in Hong Kong we step into the shoes of a rising Enforce in one of Chinas many Triad gangs, thrust into a world of criminals you get to take over your own turf, build it up and take on your rivals in open world sandbox combat. So here are some of the things we really love about the game.

• Vehicular Pursuits - Walking is boring. Whether you simply need a vehicle to get you from one place to another, or to take in the scenic coastal views of Hong Kong or the bustling city lights, driving around is quite the experience with hundreds of cars, trucks, motorbikes and more driving around. It’s even more of an experience when you are blitzing it at terrifying speeds, doing handbreaks round bends and driving into oncoming traffic with the police hot on your tail with their sirens blaring. The cinematic experience of vehicle pursuits is frankly awesome, and driving is only one aspect of it, given the ability to actively ram rivals off the road or even shoot from your vehicle you can unload a few rounds of a shotgun into a rival gang members car to take out their driver in a bloody display, or wipe out the cop car pulling up at the side, or for the more twisted among us just obliterate some civilians. Aiming from a vehicle allows you to skill shot, time slows down slightly meaning you can go for head shots, take out pedestrians or gather gang rivals on the sidewalk, or even blow out pursuing cars’ tires at top speeds to make them flip their cars in a beautiful cinematic arc leading to an explosion. Wonderful.


• Combat - Very dynamic, very fun. As a trained Triad martial artist your body is your primary weapon and throughout the game you will put it to good use, whether taking on some gang members as you punch, flying kick, grapple, throw and break necks, or simply taking out your frustrations on an innocent passing by as you create some fictitious reason in your head as to why they needed killing. Hand to hand combat is extremely fun and dynamic as you are able to counter opponents attacks, even so far as countering a policeman, grab and locking him in his own handcuffs, you can also interact with the environment during fights, slamming enemies’ heads into table, walls, car windshields (complete with sickening crunch and a breaking of glass), electric circuit boards to fry them, or even the occasional instance of putting their face to a table saw… ouch. Throw in some weapons and things get even more fun, whether using a hatchet or a hammer to inflict some serious wounds, or going for a little more firepower with a variety of pistols, machine guns and shotguns. Once more the combat stays very dynamic, with weapons you can take cover to fire from safety, or even take someone hostage and use them as a human shield to try and get to a vehicle and get away.


• Favor Cards - Favors are a varied way to customize characters. Favors are booster cards that players can collect and equip to give themselves a variety of improvements and boosts to help out their character or their turf. They come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from cash boosts, XP boosts, improved Enforcers, various weapons that start in your possession when you respawn (after death or being arrested) and even infinite ammo for 24hours. Many Favors do have a time limit on them, but some are permanent and are ideal for players to pick and choose how they want to kit themselves out; they can be bought with premium Gold currency in Favor packs (which always include a rare card) or equally earned in game from Favor missions that are scattered around the minimap.


• Open Sandbox World - Hong Kong is a cool place to explore. One of our favourite things to do is simply get in a car and drive around the city, a living world filled with passers-by, street vendors, patrolling police and assembled rival gang members. Head down open streets or shady back alleys, make your way to the port to drop off cars to chop shops or head through the bustling markets, it’s a breathing city with impressive scenery. The serenity doesn’t last too long as sooner or later you can’t help but unload a few rounds into the back of a pedestrians head and then all hell breaks loose. The escalation goes from the police being called and arriving guns already drawn, a shootout, a car chase, more police coming, riot police... it gets hectic and it’s all because you got out of the wrong side of bed. The great thing about the open world killing sprees you inevitably go on is that they are factored into the gameplay; once the police have been called and you are actively being pursued then a timer starts and players can try to keep being pursued as long as possible for prizes and bonuses for causing more damage and chaos.


• Building Up Turf - Rule over your homestead. An interesting feature of Triad Wars is the Turf system, in many ways playing like a castle/empire building RTS it is a detailed side feature where players have their own plot of land and can spend their own cash to create a variety of rackets from which they will earn cash and bonuses. Players build up their Turf and defend it with a variety of goons, which can be upgraded to make them better at defending, and even their own character as an Enforcer, the “Boss” of the level. Then when roaming around the sandbox world players can actively try to attack each other’s turf for rewards, given a set time limit to kill off the defending gang members in each racket area before making their way into the safe house to kill the Enforcer; though remember that retaliation won’t be that far behind. The system works well as a way to introduce a multiplayer component to a relatively solo based experience.

So that’s what we love with Triad Wars, but more importantly what are some of your favourite things? What do you think could/should be added to our list that makes the game great? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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