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Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves
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Game Name:
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Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves |
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Console:
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PC |
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Reviewed:
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Unknown |
I was quite surprised when I started to play this game. Most sequels either evolve a good game design into a better one (eg. Diablo) or fall short of capturing the greatness of the original (eg. Tomb Raider). Sly 2 isn’t just better than the original; it’s a lot better in almost every way.
The graphics are much better than the original – this game is exactly what cell shading is meant to be. The environment is the largest changed area though. Players of the first game will recall that each mission followed pretty much the same format – you passed through an entrance area to get to a small open area with entrances to all the other sub mission areas. Once you’d finished them all you could take on the boss for that mission in what was usually a minigame type battle. Each area was generally pretty linear. Sly 2 changes that formula to a large extent. There is no entrance area for one thing. Instead you start straight in the mission joining area – but it’s no longer small, instead it’s actually quite large. Located around the map will be the start point for each sub-mission that you can currently undertake. Some of these sub-missions take places in small areas that you enter; others take place in the main area.
The main area of the map is patrolled by enemies. You can sneak around them if you want by keeping out of their line of sight and not making any loud noises. Unlike the first game, your default movement speed is walking – although the speed does vary based on how far you are pushing the analog joystick. You have to push a separate button to run – running isn’t stealthy though and nearby enemies will hear you if you run past them. Scattered around the main map are clue bottles like the first game. These will open a safe found somewhere within the mission – generally inside one of the sub-mission areas. These clue bottles can be a lot harder to find than those in the first game because the mission area is so much larger and many bottles are placed in hard to reach or hard to notice places. The contents of the safe will be a new technique for a character to use (generally Sly). Also found around the main area are treasures – you can grab these when not on a sub-mission and try to take them back to your hideout. The item will vanish if you take damage en route though but usually reappear where you found it. If you do get it back to your base you can sell it.
A larger change to the game is the introduction of a health gauge. Lucky charms don’t reappear in this game, instead your character can take a certain amount of beating before they die – if this happens they are taken back to the last checkpoint if they are in a sub-mission or taken back to their hideout otherwise. The checkpoints aren’t blatant like the first game i.e. you don’t see a small marker on the ground which lights up when you approach. Instead, the game tracks your progress and takes you back to the last point where you accomplished something significant. Your character also has an energy gauge – this is used when you perform some kind of special move or technique. Both gauges are fully replenished if you return to your hideout or partially replenished if you pick up a health pack. Health packs will sometimes be dropped when you defeat an enemy or when you smash apart an object. Gold coins will also be dropped when defeating enemies or smashing objects. In this game, gold can be used to purchase special techniques back at the hideout via thief-net. A new technique becomes available for each character at the start of each mission. They vary in usefulness; some have to be used specifically by mapping them to a particular control button while others are always active after they are purchased.
As the title of the game suggests, Sly is no longer doing missions alone. Bentley the turtle and Murray the hippo now work with him. Some of the missions involve teamwork – either one of the team completes part of the mission then another takes over or one character is controlled by you another character is under AI control. Each character has different talents and thus gets different missions suited to their talents.
Sly is of course stealthy and nimble. He is the only one who can climb up poles and walk across ropes. He’s picked up some new skills since the first game – being a thief he’s now mastered the art of pick pocketing. If Sly sneaks up close behind a guard he can use his cane to extract some gold from their money pouch. This can usually be done several times. If the pouch has an extra bright glow to it then the enemy has something valuable in it like a gem or a ring. Repeated pick pocketing is the only way to get it out – these valuable items can be sold back at the hideout like the treasures you can steal. Killing an enemy will only give you any gold coins they are carrying, valuable items won’t be dropped. Pick pocketing is sometimes required for a mission when guards are carrying something like a key on them. Sly also has a stealth takedown ability – by knocking a guard into the air with the triangle button then quickly following with the square button he can take them out instantly. This move is stealthy in the sense of surprise but it does make noise (unless you buy a special technique to make it silent) so it will attract the attention of other, nearby guards. Sly seems to have gotten some unexplained amnesia since the first game. Some of the techniques he learned from the Thievius Raccoonus are no longer available to him while others are back but you have to purchase them first. This makes sense from a gameplay perspective since Sly would be too strong for this game if he had all the powers from the first game.
Bentley isn’t as fast as Sly and can’t climb. Both he and Sly can crawl under tables to hide from enemies though. Bentley is armed with a crossbow which he can bash enemies with in a pinch but its main use is to fire sleeping darts at enemies. He’s also a demolitions expert and carries an unlimited supply of timed bombs with him. He can drop these at any time and they will explode after a few seconds. This can be used in a fight by dropping them then backing away to lead a guard over them. They can also be dropped next to sleeping guards to take them out. Of course Bentley needs to be clear of the blast area when it goes off – bombs also make noise which attracts nearby guards. Bentley is also a computer hacker and has to hack some consoles during certain missions. This takes the form of a shooting mini-game; one analog joystick moves a small vehicle around in cyberspace when the other shoots in the direction it is pushed. The area is filled with enemies who try to ram you or shoot you – you have limited health to complete the “hack” with. There are also certain barriers that need to be blasted through and certain areas you need to visit to either unlock more areas or complete the hack. This mini-game feels a lot like an old school arcade game – it gets harder as the game progresses though with respawning enemies, enemies with shields and enemies that can move and/or shoot.
Murray is the muscle of the team and the driver. His missions are usually heavy lifting or heavy combat. Being so strong make Murray a much better fighter than the others. Two punches are usually enough to take out most opponents. He can also stomp on the ground which makes nearby objects fly into his hands ready to be thrown - this includes stunned enemies. Murray has taken on a personality shift in order to appear more confident – he refers to himself as “The Murray” and seems to think he’s some kind of superhero. His can dish out the pain quite well though so it’s best not to argue.
I’ve mixed feelings about the enemies in this game. The guards seem to be almost recycled between each mission. They look different but that’s mostly a case of adding a new skin to the same enemy. Their behaviour patterns tend to be the same. Usually you have one big, tough guard with a light – they will only spot you if you move into their searchlight area. There are weaker enemies who may make an alarm noise if they see you to attract nearby enemies. Finally there are general attack guards. The AI is pretty good – guards will come running if they hear you. If you can hide from them they will just look around a bit before returning to their regular patrols. There is some special variety in some levels. In the missions in India there are elephants patrolling with spotlights on either side. In another mission there are werewolf guards. Around the map are statues of werewolves and these will randomly burst open when you come close to reveal a real one. The boss fights tend to be a bit less satisfying than the first game. Most of them are more in the way of a regular boss fight where you have to learn your opponent’s attacks and work out when they are vulnerable. I suppose it’s a fair trade given the number of minigames added to the rest of the game.
I’ve been using the term mini-game a bit and it’s not exactly the best term to use. In many ways the entire game is a string of mini-games. Pretty much every mission has some kind of gimmick to it. The various missions have you doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things. It’s fair to say there is a lot of variety in this game.
The plot of the game follows directly from the first game. After the defeat of Clockwork (the main enemy from the first game) his remains were taken and placed into a museum. Sly felt that was a bad idea as Clockwork was such a dangerous enemy that his remains need to be destroyed. He and his team break into the museum to try and steal the parts. Instead they are ambushed by Carmelita Fox who accuses them of stealing the parts already. Her “sidekick”, by the name of Neela, suggests that it might not have been Sly’s doing but the work of the Claw gang. Sly and his gang manage to escape and begin investigating the Claw gang who they discover are using the parts from Clockwork’s body for their own schemes. From there the plot takes many twists and turns as you discover why the Claw gang stole the parts.
Sly 2 is a bit harder than the first game (which was arguably too easy) and is much longer (again, the first game was pretty short). This really is a must buy for anyone who is a fan of platform games. It’s been polished to a huge degree and it’s one of the most fun games I’ve ever played on the PS 2.
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