LB Sly 2 Quick Review

I have to be honest here. I did not play the original Sly Cooper adventure, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, so I can't compare the two games. I can tell you there were many who played the original and posted about it on our PS2 Message Boards. The consensus was, "It was a surprisingly good time, but it was on the short side". With that being said, I can tell you Sly 2: Band of Thieves was a surprisingly good time, and I felt the length was just right. That's not to say it's a long game, but it fell comfortably between the, "I spent how much money for a few hours of fun?" reaction and the, "Oh my God, if I have to do this one more time I'll bash this controller right into my forehead" reaction, both of which tend to be all too common when it comes to platform games.

Sly 2 is a comic crime caper which combines stealth and platform gaming. Created by Seattle-based developer Sucker Punch Productions, the game is truly an interactive cartoon. The animation is there, the storyline is there, the characters are there, and the depth of world is there.

The game uses cel-shaded graphics and the "between level" animations are presented in a single frame manner, which completely gives it a comic book feel. Of course, every comic book needs a good story, which is what separates this game from other platformers. Sly Cooper and his "Band of Thieves" (Bentley the turtle and Murray the hippo) are on a mission to collect all of Clockwerk's parts (Clockwerk being the enemy in the first game, whose various parts are being used for various evil functions) before they come together again to perform a new evil task. To do this, the boys must work as a team to complete various deeds. Sly is a master of stealth, movement and thievery (he is the pickpocketing master), Murray is all about strength and Bentley is the brains of the entire operation. The story is full of twists and turns which really do keep you interested.

There is a repetitive nature to the game, as is the case with all platformers. Each level goes like this: An initial recon mission (where Sly takes pictures), a bunch of missions in between (where each character gets their moment to shine), followed by a final "Operation", where the team works together to complete the task at hand. Eight levels of this could have been seven, which would have made me a bit happier, and would have boosted the rating a bit.

However, with that being said, Sly 2: Band of Thieves is a great family game, with a low learning curve, and enough of a story to keep you going, no matter how repetitive it gets.

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