Was it? I thought you were saying the game was pretending to this higher tier of drama, not marketing. I don't think anything in the game represented it as anything more than its HK Blood Drama roots.
In a way, yes, they both are trying to tell us they offer a higher degree of realism, drama, character development, action, moral decisions/ambiguity. All that amounts to, though, is the same gameplay (albeit more polished / fun / well executed) with a concerted marketing push on those elements.
If I compare Sleeping Dogs to GTA, there is not a lot of difference. I make the same amount of decisions in both games that affect the story (i.e. none), I kill the same amount of people indiscriminately and there are the same lack of consequences for my actions, outside of a police wanted level. The difference is that the marketing was aimed at making the public think that you needed to skirt the line of law/criminality and that my actions would be attributed to how I took down the triad. It also said that I would be tested morally. Neither of these things happened; the only choice I had was to go to the next mission or stop progressing the story.
Tomb Raider purports to present me with the creation of a legend by allowing me to play through the crucible with which she was forged. I would be presented with the experience of surviving on the island, presented with moral ambiguity, confronted by taking the lives of others and would see the growth of Lara's character. If I compare Tomb Raider 2013 with the original Tomb Raider, the difference is that the newer one does not have any puzzles. Or a T-Rex.
My comment in my original post was that I played two games, back-to-back, (which I've both enjoyed) that claimed to offer me a fuller experience with regards to mechanics being teamed up with a stronger, mature narrative and choices that would test me and neither did. Not one bit. Not even a binary Bioshock decision. Nada. Zip.
That's all
