United Front Games held a live-stream over Twitch.tv to roll out some details on the upcoming Triad Wars as well as answer questions about the gameplay and mechanics. I'm not all too fond of live-streams since they can sometimes devolve into a lot of senseless chatter, but I must admit that the Triad Wars live-stream absolutely nailed it, and the team delivered tons of useful information to viewers.
Not only did the developers show off gameplay of Triad Wars but they answered questions and walked gamers through some of the changes and upgrades that the game has undergone since the original release of Sleeping Dogs.
Players will join the fray as an uninitiated gangster and will have to work their way up the ranks by completing missions and taking out rivals. Players will level up based on carrying out successful actions and this will enable them to upgrade stats, skills and unlocking new ways to attack or protect bases.
When you're building your base up you'll need to hire in guards to protect it. The higher your level, the more access to equipment and weapons you have. You can purchase things like knives, guns and armament for the NPCs who defend your rackets within the territory.
Your base/rackets/operations can be attacked while you're online or offline, so it's important to guard yourself well. It reminds me a lot of how Hideo Kojima explained the multiplayer mode of Metal Gear Solid V.
Just like in MGS V, the higher your level the more access to better gear you have, which, in turn, enables you to better equip your crew members.
For players on the attacking end, you have to attack the smaller operations and rackets before you can raid a main base. Attacking rackets and taking out small operations adds to the “raid timer”. The “raid timer” is how long you have to raid a rival player's base. Each time you take out a racket/operation/etc., scattered throughout the city you'll add more time to the raid. So what happens if you run out of time? The cops show up and the raid ends; attacking players then have to fight through the cops to get out alive.
If you fail a raid on a player's base then you'll lose face points and the player whose base you attacked will gain face points. If you log out of the game after completing a few racket missions but fail to raid the player's main base then you'll lose whatever raid-timer points you built up. It takes about 20 minutes to take out small operations and raid a player's main base, so it's fairly reasonable.
One highlight is that you don't have to completely take out an opposing player's entire base to earn points/rewards. If attack a main stronghold but decide to only take out a few key points in the base and cause some mayhem, you can do that and reap some rewards and then exit to avoid being killed or running out of time. You won't get the full rewards for taking out the full base but you'll still earn something for your efforts.
Another quick noteworthy addition to the game is that players can equip more than one weapon at a time, including a melee weapon and a long-range weapon. The team also added a ton of other weapons to the game in addition to what was already present in Sleeping Dogs.
You can learn more about Triad Wars or sign up for the closed beta for PC by paying a visit to the official website.
