suckerpunch |

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Sucker Punch

Release Date: 9/14/2004

Available On

Sly, Bentley, and Murray return in an attempt to obtain the stolen Clockwerk parts from the Klaww Gang. After defeating Clockwerk in the first game, they were obtained illegally, and the gang must get them back to destroy them. Along the way, Carmelita Fox is still trying to capture them while a few new faces show up. The game is the same at its core, but everything around it has completely changed. This really feels like a whole new game.

For starters, you will notice there are no individual levels anymore. The game is more of a sandbox, with various missions you can take on when you want. You can play as all three characters this time around, and each one has its own specific missions. Each character feels different. Murray is a huge lumbering hippo who can’t use stealth and instead whacks away enemies in just a couple of hits. Bentley is equipped with a sleeping dart crossbow and has various gadgets he can use to get around. In fact, they all have gadgets and abilities you can purchase with those coins that were useless in the first game. 100 no longer gives you life because that whole system is gone. Instead, you now have a life bar, and when you die, you restart at the last checkpoint. This game plays a whole lot easier and relieves a lot of the frustrations from the first game.

Additionally, the interior areas of the game are mission-specific, so you won’t be going back. I honestly preferred the individual levels because navigating these hub worlds can be a pain. Getting to certain places requires climbing around certain areas to get there. Some areas are a real pain, and you have to figure out how to get there. Just to get to the main mission, this is pretty lame. I don’t want to spend 5 minutes climbing around a confusing level just to start a mission. It doesn’t help that enemies respawn all the time when you kill them, and they are everywhere. It gets really frustrating when you just want to get on a mission and you have to keep killing the same enemies all the time. Thankfully, some abilities like a smokescreen, shock cane, and paraglider help Sly get around easier, but the other two have to find their way completely via the ground, which means long, roundabout ways to get to a mission marker.

When you start a mission, you will notice they are varied and pretty fun. Bentley has a new hacking mini-game that is a dual-stick shooter; Murray punches things a lot; and Sly has a new pickpocketing ability that he can use to get coins and loot from guards to sell for abilities and to get those keys. A lot of the gauntlet-style levels are really fun and require quick reflexes. There are 8 episodes, and the game is just as tough as the last one. Boss fights now have meters and don’t go down in a few hits anymore. You have to slowly chip away at their health to beat them, and it requires patience. Overall, the game feels mostly the same, with missions just varying from hacking mini-games, beating this or that up, or pickpocketing X amount of keys. It starts to feel old towards the end, plus the navigation of hub worlds will just drive you nuts after a while.

There are still clue bottles and vaults to be found, but they just have extra abilities in them and really aren’t worth searching for. The clue bottles will take over an hour to find on each level because the hubs are so difficult to navigate. There are 30 in each hub, but good luck finding them all without throwing the controller. Besides this, there are no extras in the game, like the last one, which is disappointing. Despite all this, I think the large open hubs are what hurt the game the most because of how annoying they are to navigate. The mission variety is really nice, but by the end, they just repeat themselves.

The graphics have been greatly upgraded with better physics, better-looking textures, and higher resolution models. The controls are a little tighter, and the camera was fixed a little, but it can still get stuck or lost sometimes. Overall, Sly 2 is an excellent game, but it just feels too similar to the last game. With the whole sandbox idea, I feel they are hard to navigate and get in the way of getting around to different missions.

Reviewed On

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Sucker Punch

Release Date: 9/23/2002

Available On

I am not sure why I passed this game up all these years, but I am sad that I did. Finally being able to play it, I realize just how well it stands up today. Sly Cooper and his gang are trying to retrieve the Thievius Raccoonus, which is a book of secrets passed on from thief to thief in Sly’s family. The evil Clockwerk and several of his henchmen stole a page each, and it is up to you to get them back.

The first thing you will notice about the game is how well it controls. The movement is buttery smooth, with great platforming and gameplay mechanics. Sly can double jump, but his main mechanic is his cane. He can use it to swing around and attack, but there are also ways to sneak around like a thief that just feel really whimsical. When you see blue sparkles on ledges, you can hold a circle and sneak around them. When Sly moves around, a sneaking sound plays instead of footsteps, which are really neat. This also goes for poles and other areas to climb. Just jump near it and hold a circle, and Sly will cling on. This mechanic is very well done and makes platforming a lot of fun. Combat is pretty simple, where you just whack away with your cane and all enemies die in one hit. This isn’t as easy as you think because you die in one hit too. There are traps and obstacles to avoid, such as lasers and spotlights. Sometimes you will have to think a little to find a way around an enemy who is blocking the path.

There are five levels, and four of them focus around a central hub with branching mini-levels. There is a level to infiltrate each hub, and within these hubs are clue bottles to open a vault at each level. These vaults contain new moves for Sly, which come in really handy. It is a lot of fun to find these bottles because the levels are pretty short and aren’t too hard to find. Some levels are actually mini-games that consist of covering Murray on a turret, a dual-stick shooter mini-game, or even a race. These are really hard and require quick reflexes, or you will die often. Before you ask, yes, there are lives in this game, but 100 coins give you a 1-up, but other than that, the coins are useless.

The boss fights are really fun in this game, but also really tough. They require precise movement and patience, because one hit and you are dead in this game. Yes, that sounds really brutal, but it is true. You can get magnets that act as free hits, but these are pretty rare. In fact, probably the most frustrating thing about this game is that with just one hit, you are dead. This includes falling in the water or off a ledge. Later, in vaults, you can find a page that prevents you from dying when falling off ledges or in water, which is a lifesaver (literally). Before that, though, you will die dozens and dozens of times because there are some cheap deaths in this game, but because of how fun it is, you will quickly get over it.

The art style is beautiful, with a cell-shaded comic book look that wasn’t really seen in games before Sly. The graphics look great even for today, but that probably has a lot to do with the art style, which hides the lack of technical prowess of the PS2. The voice acting is a bit spotty, but it brings out the characters, which are nice. I just wish I could have played Bentley or Murray more. They are all great characters and need more time in the spotlight. If this game wasn’t so short and infuriatingly difficult in spots, it would be perfect.

Overall, Sly Cooper is a great entry into one of the best franchises ever created and is a pinnacle for the PS2. Solid controls, excellent platforming, fun combat, and a whimsical art style make this a must-have in your collection.