Sly 2: Band of Thieves

That darn raccoon has been messing with my bins again! Ma, get the shotgun...

	Version PS2	Developer Sucker Punch	Publisher SCEE	Genre Platform

By Stephen Rowley

The first Sly Cooper game was somewhat overlooked in favour of more high profile platformers Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. Even though it was also a very well produced and enjoyable game, it just didn't seem to have the clout of those other franchises and as a result not many people got to experience its delights. Developers Sucker Punch have laid low for a year, skipping out on the first sequels of the Jak and Ratchet games, but is now releasing Sly 2 alongside Jak 3 and Ratchet and Clank 3. Will things be any different this time around?

The structure of this sequel is significantly different from the linear progression of the original. Each chapter in Sly 2 is a hub world much like a GTA-lite. There are numerous missions to complete in each chapter along with sub goals such as stealing loot, finding clue bottles and pick-pocketing the guards. Most of these chapters are very well designed, and the mission types are varied, with each chapter culminating in one big heist to steal a Clockwerk part from a member of the Klaww Gang. There are also missions for the now playable Murray and Bentley. Sly himself handles the sneaking and pick-pocketing missions. Bentley is the brains and a demolition expert; his missions involve hacking computers (a nice Robotron-esque minigame), bombing runs and shooting sections. Murray is the brawn and getaway driver, and mostly gets used to smash and break things (enemies included). He also refers to himself in the third person ("The Murray") which irritated the hell out of me.

This new found freedom is initially quite liberating, allowing you to choose the order in which you tackle missions (although you still have to do them all to complete a chapter), but the constant to-ing and fro-ing to initiate each mission starts to grate after the umpteenth time. You have to do enough traipsing around the map within the missions, so some way to avoid it outside of them would have been nice. It actually turns out that the big heists concluding each chapter, although as linear as the previous game, turn out to be the most enjoyable parts of this one. This is when all of the setting up in the previous missions comes together in an oftentimes ingenious way ("I love it when a plan comes together!").

Visually the game cannot be faulted. Cell shading may well be old hat and overdone by now, but the effect is perfectly suited to Sly 2; animation is smooth, environments are solid and everything is boldly coloured and cartoony. It fits in well with the excellent presentation, with each chapter presented as an episode of a cartoon or comic. For the most part too, the chapters and missions are very coherent, although later chapters feel a little drawn out and repetition starts to set in. Having to pick-pocket a key from 2 guards in earlier levels, then just cranking that up to 5 guards later on, just gets frustrating.

The repetition is really the only thing that annoys though, as Sly 2 is very generous with restart points and health. Later missions do get harder sure, but after you figure out what you are supposed to be doing, you should be able to breeze through (even if you die a few times in the process). Traditional lives and continues have been scrapped completely, and whilst it could be argued this makes the game too easy, it does make things more fun. Still, it is a fairly sizeable game (20+ hours playtime) even with the abundance of aid.

Audio rounds off the great presentation nicely. From the bass strings as you creep up behind a guard to the mischievous little 'clink, clink' of a clue bottle (something GTA itself could take note of) there is nothing to fault. Even the voice acting is top notch, making sure that the only 'masters of unlocking' here are Sly and the gang. Although "The Murray" still annoys, the simpleton, Bentleys' voice is perfect, and top honours go to the (very literal) lounge lizard Dimitri with his nonsensical slang-filled rambles. There is one unforgivably bad cockney accent though, so be warned.

Whilst the cartoony styling and (lack of) difficulty may seem to mark this out as one for the youngsters, the story deals with concepts like brainwashing, counterfeiting and 'spice' smuggling, and being occasionally amusing there is much to recommend it to older players. Most gamers will probably choose to stick with Jak and/or Ratchet, but for those that plump for the raccoon, they will not be disappointed.