The biggest additions come in the form of new playable characters and the inclusion of gadgets. From time-to-time one of Sly’s bandmates will be called upon to utilize their skills. Murray, the giant hippo with a super hero complex, is the muscle behind the operation and is brought forth when a bunch of enemies need to be turned into bowling pins. Bentley is the complete opposite as his weak physique prevents him from physically harming foes. He’s the brains of the bunch so he’ll need to use his wits to do damage. Bentley’s also a demolitions expert so you’ll be glad to know that he’s the game’s pyromaniac. The gadgets make life a little easier, but for the most part you’ll stick to the cane as your primary means of attack. The additions bring some much-needed variety to the basic gameplay formula that’s both refreshing and engaging. Then again, they also highlight one of the engine’s most deficient elements, the camera system.
To put it succinctly, the camera system is awful. Instead of focusing the action on the character it appears that the pivot point is five feet in front of them, causing the character to sit too close to the screen and obscuring your view. Since the pace has increased you’ll generally be attacked from all sides, including the blind side from which the camera sits. You’ll constantly have to direct your attention to the right analog stick in order to rotate the camera until it gives you a decent view on the action. There’s an easy remedy for this problem and it comes in the form of a target lock system. Had the developers mapped out one of the shoulder buttons to allow for target locking this wouldn’t be an issue. Instead, the camera continues to cause headaches from the opening frames of the adventure. It consistently fails to keep up with the action and generally gives you the worst possible vantage point.
Sucker Punch made waves when it introduced an advanced level of cel-shading in the original Sly Cooper. It was impressive because it was able to distinguish itself at a time when the market was falling in love with cel-shading. The designers took extra measures to ensure that the game had a Saturday morning cartoon feel to it; giving the characters and the locales that extra bit of life that the other titles had been lacking. This also opened up the door for smoother animation that was fluid and breathtaking. In the sequel all of these facets make a return along with some minor improvements. None of the enhancements are breathtaking but they’re definitely noticeable. My only gripe with the look of the game comes in the comic book-like portions which are used to advance the story. Sly looked god-awful in these sequences, the designers should have stuck with the engine-rendered versions of the characters.
I loved the sound design in the original Sly Cooper and the sequel pretty much holds the fort in this department. Most of the sounds appear to be recycled but it doesn’t really affect the experience too much. The sound separation seems to be much cleaner as you can now hear which side the attacks are coming from. A nice facet of the sound design is the fact that you can plug in a USB headset. With the headset on, all of the information that your teammates pass on to you will come in through the ear piece as opposed to your speakers. It doesn’t necessarily make for a better experience but it’s nice to see that the developers working on ways to incorporate the headset into their games.
With
Sly 2 you have a great title that will hold you over for the holiday season. If you’re a fan of the platforming genre you owe it to yourself to give the game a try. After you get past the inane camera system you’ll be treated to one of the best gaming experiences $39.99 can buy. There’s something undeniably charming about a thieving raccoon and if you’re not careful, you just might find yourself falling in love with Sucker Punch’s impressive sequel.
A-
I’ve often wondered what it might be like to live the high-stakes life of a cane-wielding kleptomaniac raccoon. Thankfully Sucker Punch and Sony Computer Entertainment fulfilled my wish two years ago when it released Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, the most accurate raccoon burglary simulator to-date. Now the two have teamed up again to give the public more of that hot hot raccoon action and guess what? It’s pretty damn good.
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