Playstation 2 - Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer
Sucker Punch
Country of origin
US
Genre
Stealth

Sly 2 - Band of Thieves

By David Rasmussen
21st Sep 04

Sly 2 - Band of Thieves
Studio - SONY
Age - E for Everybody
Genre - Platform
Sub Genre - Stealth

NOTE - This has been upgraded NOW that I finally finished the game!

How did I first find out about the Sly Cooper games?

On G4/Tech TV they have this show... "X-Play"... I don't know if you've seen it or not... stars Adam Sassler and Morgan Webb... well, this game series (the Sly Cooper series) is one of Adam's favorites and I picked it up because he spoke well of it before.
Good or bad choice? Find out.

Band of Thieves
Previously...

Two years ago it all started off with "Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus".

His legacy is a longtime history of family thievery. The Cooper family, a living legacy of the art of the theft, were the best at what they did... but that perfection earned them an unhealthy "curse" in a jealous rival named Clockwerk. Clockwerk, so hateful of the Cooper family, turned himself into a mechanical nightmare of cybernetics and unbreakable metallic alloys just to wipe out the legacy of the Cooper clan. To this end he kills off Sly’s parents and leaves him an orphan.

But in this act he laid the seeds of his own destruction.

In the orphanage he meets his two future lifelong friends, Bentley and Murray.

Bentley, the glasses wearing turtle with serious hacker skills, is the team computer expert slash demolitions master. His weapon of choice is bombs, and a crossbow that fires sleep darts (both of which can be quite devastating even on big enemies)!

Murray, aka "The Murray", is a hippo who is both big of heart and courage as he is in body. While he’s not as skilled as either Sly nor Bentley, he is strong as heck.

Donning his super heroic "costume" he battles alongside Sly and Bentley as the team muscle and driver of the team’s vechile.

As for the downfall of Clockwerk? It comes when he stole the Cooper family "legacy", the book that details their best thieving techniques... the Thievius Racoonus. Over the course of the first game Sly manages to wrest back the book, one section at a time, from Clockwerk and his gang, ending the game by putting the bad old bird down for the count -- permanently.

Or so it seems. However nobody told the archeological community of this "battle" between Sly and Clockwerk because, somehow, the unbreakable "remains" of Clockwerk end up in a museum (mistaken no doubt for some ancient relic) sitting on display whole and intact.

And that is where we enter gamewise in "Band of Thieves". Picking up where the last game left off, we rejoin Sly and company two years after "Thievius Racoonus" as they move to pick up the now rather "deceased" metallic mechanical remains of Sly's nemesis Clockwerk from it‘s new "resting place" in a museum.

But upon arriving at the museum the gang find out that Clockwerk’s remains has been... well, "body napped". It's mecha remains have been scattered left and right by an evil organization called the "Klaww Gang" who seems to be bent on... well, NOT what Sly thinks! He thinks they're out to resurrect old Clockwerk but in fact it seems they only want to better their own situations with the body parts... except for one who has plans for Clockwerk’s body, and who manipulates the events of the game as Sly gathers up all the remains for the purpose of destroying them once and for all.

In the end I figured out who was behind it, but I won’t be divulging that to you... you’ll find out soon enough once you start playing it. Let’s say it’s the obvious choice if you think about it.

But I can figure out excellent gameplay when I play it.
It's fun. The missions are intense and deep, with lots to do each chapter that'll keep you on your toes throughout. The stuff you can do is wide ranging, going from...

- Pickpocketing guards of their "fragile keys" (which will break if you attack them).

- Mass destruction! Sneak and destroy missions!

- Use heavy weapons to take out enemies, remove obstacles, destroy targets, etc.

- Or use an RC copter to aid in your missions...

- Or dance the night away and do the tango with your female law enforcement counterpart (the lovely yet kind of antisocial Inspector Carmelita Fox, who solves all her problems with a shock pistol) to distract during a major heist!

- Infiltration missions, straight out battles, stealth... and there’s more!

You can play as Sly (main weapon - his cane and wits), Bentley (bombs and crossbow) and Murray (fists and... well, his body) to carry out each "chapter", each with specialized skills that’ll make each mission go off like clockwork.

Stealth, of course, is a must. As a band of thieves it’ll be your friend, but that is not to say you can’t have some times when you’ll basically go to town and unleash some major buttkick on your enemies. Stealth? Yeah. Lots of it? Yeah. Too much stealth? No way.

There’s quite abit of it, but not to a point where you become frustrated by the excess of stealth missions (ala XIII for example).

There's a ton of moves, skills, and lots to do. From picking pockets, stealing and general mayhem to the standard beatdown... except you need to actually think that beatdown part first since you'll get mauled like nobody's business if you try to just rush and attack (it's not going to be as easy as, say, beating down giant Genma in Onimusha 3 especially since you CANNOT carry things to heal yourself from what I've seen so far of the game!)

That is not saying you can’t beatdown your enemies, it’s just sometimes it’s smarter to think it out and take them out with stealth over rushing in blindly. Your rewarded, in fact, when you use discresion and stealth over aggression so there’s a benefit to it!

Not to mention there are hidden "moves"! Collect all 30 "clue" bottles on each level to be able to open a special "safe" on each mission level that gives you a special move.

The moves? They’re VERY good! Quite useful and well worth taking the time to find those bottles, which isn’t as hard as it sounds since they can be had quite easily with a little bit of effort.

Best way you’ll make it in this game is to think like a thief... no, no, not Lupin the III... try another thief. Anyway it's fun, and that's the important thing. I went through this from beginning to end, and enjoyed myself to the point that I wanted to play it again and again.

I don't know if it's come out where you are yet but when it does you should buy it, and play it.
If you are a fan of the original then you'll enjoy the sequel...

Sly 2 Breakdown
What's Hot?
It's all good. Guess I can see Mr. Sassler's fascination with it.
With a ton of things to do, lots of depth to each chapter, extras and depth to the missions, and all around solid gameplay from beginning to end it’s all just plain good.

The voice acting? Excellent. Especially when it comes to the trio of Sly, Bently and Murray.

It’s a solidly locked game, tight in it’s gameplay it’s well worth a place in your permament collection of games without a doubt!

What's Not?
Nothing. It's all good. Everything was improved from the original, and all that improvements make for a better and smoother gameplay. Very nice job here, keep up the good work!

Moments to Remember?
Everything. Lots and lots about this are quite memorable, making this worth having in your collection whe it comes right down to it! Nice job!

What to Ignore?
Eh? Apparently the first Chapter is a good excuse to resurrect... disco? Damn. You must see if for yourself. Other than that there is nothing to ignore. Very good stuff.

Overall?
I didn't think I'd get into the Sly Cooper games but I guess I was wrong. It was far more fun than I thought it would be, and I enjoyed it! Now I guess I'd want to see a Sly 3 sometime soon cause if it's as good as this one then I want to play it again... sequel wise. Maybe a GBA or PSP version as long as there’s another game soon.

-- David Rasmussen 21st Sep 04

Playstation 2 Sly 2: Band of Thieves Images