Sly 2: Band Of Thieves für PlayStation 2

I got Sly Cooper and the Thevious Racconus several years ago on a whim, and it turn out to be a fun if by the books platformer game. I got Sly 2 a couple of weeks ago after seeing it for less then 10 bucks at a bargain bin in wal mart. Unlike Jak and Daxter series, Sly 2 doesn t look like a big change in the series. But like Jak 2, Sly 2 has some major differences and directions in the series. Unfortunately not all the changes are good, in fact some either aren t put to full use, or are used to much and become tedious. Well read on to see what I mean.

Story.
2 years ago Sly Cooper and his friends Bentley (the brainy turtle) and Murray (the not so bright but loyal and strong hippo) beat up the fiendish 5 and got back the thevious racconus a book belong to Sly s family. They also discovered the leader of the fiendish 5 was a large mechanical owl named clockwerk which had been hunting the cooper clan for centuries. Sly destroyed it or so he thought, but it seems that clockwerk has turned up again in several pieces, that have been stolen by the Klaww gang.

Now Sly must get the pieces back before his old family foe is brought back to life, and try to stay ahead of Carmelta Fox and her shock pistol.

The story is ok and the cut scenes are similar to the original, the same type of animation is used has Sly tells you the story of the criminal he s going to rip off, or what happen in the epilogue of the stage. This time the story tries to go a bit darker in some of it s story telling has there is a character that helps and then betrays Sly, but it s obvious that it s coming.

Graphics.
The same type of cel shaded graphics that were in the original, but then I loved the story book look of the original and it fits the gameplay perfectly to the tee. Each stage has it s own set of bad guys character designs (all be it the same type of enemies pop up but more on that in the game play). Unfortunately a lot of stages look a lot like, the prison scene, and some of the castles Sly visits look a lot a like and that increases the tedious of the game.

Sound.
The music in the game changes depending on the situation your in. If your sneaking around with no guards the music will be the stage level, if your sneaking behind one you will hear some notes indicating your behind one of the guards, and if your detected the music gets more serious has Sly has to escape from being shot at.

Gameplay.
Unlike Jak 2 in which your hit upfront that this going to be a different game then the original, Sly still looks like the original, but it s gameplay is a lot different. Sly 1 was a fun and basic platformer. Sly 2 though is more missions base with free reign over each area, there is no hub area for each stage. Rather you start out and pull out your binoculars and missions will be highlights. You then have to get Sly (and in some cases Murray and Bentley) over there to start your mission objectives. They can be lifting keys, taking care of guards, or getting pictures.

Unlike the last game stealth is important you have to sneak around guards and avoid being detected. Because unlike last game in less Sly pulls off his sneak attack the guards take a lot of damage before going down. Sly can outrun and occasionally hide though. This game takes a lot more patience just with dealing with the enemies alone.

Murray and Bentaly are now playable. Murrary plays more like Sly 1 when it comes to dealing with the guards, you don t have to be sneaky he has the muscle to put them down in a couple of hits. His missions usually have him smashing or lifting heavy stuff. Bentaly plays completely different then the two others, since he s small and meek he can t go out and smack enemies. Rather you can access his dart gun and put enemies to sleep and then mine them so they blow up. His missions usually involve either blowing something up, or playing a hacking mini game that similar to a lot of old arcade tank shooter games. They do add some nice variation to the game play.

While some of the changes are good there is some bad. First despite being free to explore each world, they are not that big, nor unique. You ll be sick at looking at a lot of the places way before the end of each level. On top of that just getting to some of the missions can be a chore, you think that it s in that direction only to find there is no way to directly climb the building, you have to find another building with a rope that you can slide on to it and it can be on the other side of the stage. Only one word fits to describe these situations annoying. The missions themselves can also be frustrating. There were quite a few where I was about to stomp my controller on the ground, not that they were hard (the game to it s credit is pretty good at not sending you to far back when you die) but they were annoying. For example one mission has Sly putting a barrel of TNT on his head and walking across stages if he is spotted or if a guard walks to close to the barrel you start over. These are annoying to say the least.

Final recommendation
While Sly 2 isn t necessarily a bad game I liked the quick and simple platform action that the original Sly had over the stealth mission orientated missions of the sequel. This is of course more of a matter of taste, but the small world and the sometimes tedious missions make this no were near has fun has the original Sly. But it s on sale in most places for less then 10 bucks and there are worst things to blow 10 bucks on.