Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Mr. T would say it, "Pity the fool that don’t like Sly 2."

Sly Cooper is back and improved in almost every way in Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Outstanding gameplay, brilliant level design, good control and excellent graphics combine to bring the player as close to living and controlling a cartoon as he’s likely to get this year.



In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly managed to destroy the malevolent Clockwerk. In Sly 2 the evil Klaww Gang has stolen the shattered parts of Clockwerk for some nefarious purpose. Sly must stop them and save the day.

Sly 2 is presented very much like a Saturday morning cartoon. The game is divided into episodes, each with its own unique name. Within an episode the player will accomplish many missions and move the overall story forward.



In addition to Sly Cooper the raccoon, the Sly Gang also has Bentley, a turtle and the brains of the operation, and Murray, a hippo who is short on brains but long on brawn. In any given episode the player will call on the strengths of each of these characters to accomplish certain tasks.

A major complaint of the first Sly Cooper game was that it was too short. No worry this time: the game is more than twice as long. The game is less linear too. It is possible to roam a little more while still staying on mission with the help of on-call objective markers that guide players to where they are supposed to be.

In each of the game worlds the Sly Gang has a safe house that acts as their headquarters. Here the player gets an initial mission briefing, buys gadgets that may help him in his mission, swaps characters and fences loot obtained during a mission. The safe house is the hub of operations and the player will find himself coming back fairly often.

Each of the characters has his own signature moves in the game. Sly has a fairly well-rounded array that includes basic actions like walking, running and jumping; stealth actions like climbing, crawling, sneaking and picking pockets; and one set of attacks for use against aware enemies and others that are only for use when he takes an enemy by surprise. Murray has the basics as well as some very powerful hand-to-hand attacks, including the Thunder Flop which, “… knows neither friend nor foe, only destruction.” Bentley has the basic moves and some gadget attacks. He is the brains after all.

Control of all of the characters is easily learned, and even though they may call the moves different things for each character, attack buttons remain attack buttons and basic move buttons remain the same. In short order most any gamer will have Sly bounding over rooftops, walking ropes, sneaking along ledges, pick-pocketing security cards and waylaying guards.

Level design truly is outstanding. The city and other locals are alive and richly textured. There is generally more than one way to reach an objective in the larger areas. One player could choose to use stealth in the streets while another could stick to the roofs and use agility to reach an objective. The choice is often a matter of taste. Once inside a building, the choices are fewer and more linear.

Graphics are brilliant. As mentioned before, the environments are well detailed. Character design and animation is, quite simply, amazing. The characters look like they are straight out of a cartoon and display great detail while standing still or on the move. Audio equals the visuals in every way. Great sound effects and music tracks complete the package.

Let’s get this straight so there is no mistake, Sly 2: Band of Thieves is an action platform game. Invariably 3D platform games seem to have one element that keeps them from being the cream of the gaming crop. The camera angles are bad or graphics slow down or jumps are imprecise or any of a whole litany of things go wrong. I played Sly 2 with an eye to finding what made it less than the best. I could not find it. Sly 2 could very well be the standard by which other platformers will be measured this holiday season, and Sony may have done itself a disservice by releasing Sly 2 ahead of the latest Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank games. Sly 2 has set the bar almost impossibly high for any platformer that comes after it.

Sly 2 is a definite buy for any action/platformer game fan and will be a hard act to follow as the holiday season gets into full swing. As Mr. T would say it, "Pity the fool that don’t like Sly 2."



© 2004 GameShark.com