...Or the The Sly Trilogy depending on where you're from. Since I got the digital PSN version, it doesn't pack in the extra mini-games the retail disc version has, but apparently I'm not missing much anyway.
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus:
...Or Sly Raccoon in PAL territories. Anyway, Sly Cooper is a neat platformer that reminds me (for some reason) of the Crash Bandicoot games (at least from the PSone era). I loved the platforming elements here, and when you're speeding through a level, swinging from hook to hook, the rush feels great. The stealth sections were simple yet effective, and fits into the theme of the game very nicely. Playing through some more recent games, I found Sly to have simple controls, as in, right from the start, you have all the attacks you'd need (the swing of his cane). While you do earn some more moves after every boss, they feel arbitrary in that you have to use them for the next level anyway, and none of the previous levels require that (i.e. you don't go back to previous levels and find that with the new powers you've got, you can reach some previously impossible to get to areas). The extra moves when you collect all the clue bottles in a stage were kinda useless too. While they're fun, and you test them out, they just aren't as useful as Sly's original moves. I found myself only using the Dive attack move and maybe the Roll if I wanted to get through an area faster. They're completely optional to finish the game.
So that's the platforming element, but it's only like two thirds of the game. The other third stems from mini-games, and quite a few of it. They're aren't completely original, but some can be fun. What I don't like is that they're forced upon you and you cannot advance until you've finished them (same goes for the other platforming levels, you gotta finish ALL levels in an area before you can fight the boss), since some of the mini-games aren't exactly the best. Sure, they're not hard, but some of the latter ones will probably require you to try it multiple times, and for something that should take a few minutes gets blown to around fifteen minutes. When you just want to advance the story, that is not what you wanna do. It's especially true in the final boss's area, it's basically one mini-game after another, which I found disappointing. I was looking forward to some tougher platforming levels. Some of the mini-game controls aren't great, I mean, the racing controls feel weird, and the final boss's jet pack rail shooter type battle had you controlling the aim and Sly's position with the same left stick which caused a bit of confusion at first. That said, on a whole, the game teeters towards being on the easy side, whenever you die, it's probably just coz you're careless or something surprises you (but it'll never surprise you twice).
I found myself liking the mechanics of the game. I found that the designers expects you to memorize the level by trial and error, in order to get through them. The boss battles are mostly the "memorize the pattern of the attacks and work around that", but I found Mz. Ruby's boss battle to be the most interesting. Even though it was a rhythm game in which you punch the buttons that show up onscreen, it was done nicely, and more exciting than I was expecting. Sly also has one of the best stories of a platformer I have played. The story isn't just a thinly veiled excuse for the platforming levels, but there's a clear purpose. While it's a simple plot with no twists, the interaction between the characters are enough to keep you going, and Sly has his charms. I've read of many complaints about how the game is short, and I don't think it's that short, it'll take around eight hours to finish it which is basically how long games are these days. I found the Platinum trophy to be super easy though, and that it'll take around an extra hour or so after playing the game (maybe even not if you found all the clue bottles while progressing) to get it. The graphics still hold up well to this day, thanks to the cartoony look. The cel-shading threw me off at first, but I came to like it, and having the characters cel-shaded on a completely 3D environment is cool. The music didn't stand out to me. A solid game but with a few minor flaws.
Sly 2: Band of Thieves:
This game changes a fair bit compared to the Sly formula, the main difference is that instead of a Crash Bandicoot-like run through of linear levels, it's mission based and provides eight hub worlds of decent sizes. However, these changes might not be a good thing. I'm quite sick of games changing and adapting the Grand Theft Auto formula just because they want to ride the same success. This was just like Jak II, in that it lost the charm that made the first game so enjoyable. The mission based progression meant that it's repetitive with the tasks that it asks you to do, but most importantly, the levels are short and doesn't hold the same platforming appeal as Sly 1. Actually, Sly 2 lacked the long platforming levels of Sly 1 and this is one of the bigger downsides. On the repetitive side, there are way too many tasks that involve pickpocketing keys from patrolling guards and various minigames such as hacking the computer (although most of the minigames aren't too bad, the tank control scheme sucked though). I should note that the game overall isn't hard, but the tasks are just annoying. You can't help but roll your eyes when the game asks you to hack or pickpocket for the upteempth time. That said, pickpocketing for coins/money (i.e. at your leisure and choice) was a great addition.
The enemy respawn rate is another annoying factor. There you are, carefully eliminating all nearby guards and what happens? The game respawns them before you've succeeded your task, boo!! Even though stealth is a priority, the fact that the 'stealth' kills attract guards, even the 'silent' upgrade that you purchase later on still making a noise, just plain sucks. Controlling between the three characters is okay. There may be variety in this, but the other two (Bentley and Murray) don't bring anything different enough from Sly to make them worthwhile. On the contrary, Sly is so much more nimble and much more fun to use that the other two characters feel clumsy and awkward, especially since they have to resort to traveling mostly on the ground (the maps are clearly designed for Sly). The lack of map or general direction means you'll get lost easily. There are destination markers that you can pull up but getting there is another story, especially with the multiple height levels in the map meaning you'll be detouring a few times. While the episode structure was okay and quite refreshing for the first two episodes, once again, it becomes repetitive since you know you're going to do recon photos, then a plan forms, do a few missions, then the final plan is created and finally some more missions. It's too predictable and dragged out, and of course, there's more than a few missions that you don't see the point of except to extend game time.
So, that's all the negative gameplay features, and now for some positives. I loved the dance scene between Sly and Carmelita, it was oozing with charm. The open world concept (as much as I detest it when used in conjunction with mission based game play) was executed well here (since the map isn't awkwardly large), but like Jak 2, it feels pointless since there's not much happening apart from getting to destinations, prowling guards, some valuables to steal and clue bottles to get (well... it's not enough for me to justify the use of the open world). I'm glad one-hit kills don't happen anymore, the hit bar that all characters get is a welcome change. I liked how most of the missions don't have a time limit, since you can do it in your own pace. In the one section where it did, the mission was more annoying that usual since the controls were so clunky (e.g. Sly jumping up from hook to hook in speed or when Murray had to shoot the harpoon at the boss, but there is no crosshair to indicate where you are aiming at so in the first couple of tries you just had to guess... and miss). At eight episodes long, the game feels too long in general. It felt like they were dragging things on and on, taking the criticism that Sly 1 was too short, they made this double the length.
I mean, episodes 1 and 2 were fine, but by the time you're playing through episodes 3, 4 and 5, it was struggling and boring. Thankfully, the game picks up a little bit in episode 6 and 7 (then in episode 8, you just want to finish the game). Personally, I felt the story is uninspired. After the first two episodes, each one thereafter just feels like the next destination to get the next piece of Clockwerk, and it ends up being generic and boring. I didn't invest emotionally into the story, sure, there were some good moments, but most of the game's story wasn't spectacular. Even with the ending, in which it was supposed to be sad, it didn't impact me at all (since it was over so quickly). Still, the ending was good enough to make it worthwhile. The final boss was disappointing though, maybe it's coz the other bosses that you fought previously were each interesting in their own right. Music was still forgettable. Graphics as great as ever. I can't fault the responsiveness of the controls and Sly's moves. Overall though, the game felt like a drag with the repetitive mission after mission and wasn't as fun as Sly 1.
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Sigh, lets get it over and done with, if you didn't like Sly 2, you won't like Sly 3, in my opinion, it's even worse. There are some aspects that improves upon Sly 2 but for the most part, they're both not that fun (it's hard to say which one is worse to be honest, since both has bad and good parts). Just like with Sly 2, I shall go over the cons of the gameplay first, before the pros and then everything else. Sly 3 contains even less platforming missions/levels/challenges than Sly 2, so it's even less of a platformer now (at least, in the vein of the first game). The game is filled with minigames which have terrible controls. What does this mean? It means that the minigames are extremely annoying to play, and makes these already stupid minigames even worse than they already are. The minigames present have a lot more variety but the amount of times you play each one throughout the course of the game (which, although it isn't as many times or repetitive as the minigames were in Sly 2) makes you sick of them before too long. If possible, Sly 3 feels even more dragged out than Sly 2, this is due to the boring missions. It took me around 13 hours to finish Sly 3 (including diversions such as pickpocketing for cash and doing all the refresher missions), whereas Sly 2 took me 17 hours.
In addition to the boring missions, the biggest offender to the reason why it feels so long is the cutscenes. There's way too many of them, and they're all way too uninteresting. There's cutscenes at the start and end of episodes, start and end of each mission, but what's wrong, is that there are more than one cutscene during the missions. It kills the pace, I don't want to stop what I'm doing just coz someone has something stupid or obvious to say. Sucker Punch should have included the option to skip cutscenes. I know I wouldn't replay the game if I had to sit through all those cutscenes again. Sly 3 features four new characters to the Cooper Gang, which means in addition to play as Murray and Bentley, you are forced to play those four new characters. Yay, just what nobody ever asked for. These characters add little to the team, since unlike Murray and Bentley (who are fully playable characters), these four additions each have only one type of gameplay associated with them (in the form of a minigame). It's terrible, weak, stupid and a bad choice. I was sick enough of Murray and Bentley stealing Sly's spotlight (most players play a Sly game to control Sly...) but now he has to share it with even more characters. Also in terms of plot, those four character's special abilities feel arbitrary in what they add to the team.
Speaking of stealing Sly's spotlight, Bentley gets a lot of focus in this game. It had to opposite effect for me though, Bentley gets annoying, and you'd start to want him to shut up, fast. There's "only" six episodes here, as opposed to Sly 2's eight, but a lot of the episodes are filled with rubbish, stuff that isn't essential yet they added it in. You hear Bentley explain the necessity of each detail but it feels arbitrary, just to extend the game time. It's even more evident here with the amount of pointless missions. Do you like boss battles? If yes, then you'd love the game. If you answered no, then be prepared to frequently encounter boss battles here. Sly 3 has way too many of them! Boss encounters are so frequent that after the first few, they lose their charm and individuality. Boss battles also drag out for so long because each hit you do only lowers the health bar a little bit, yet the boss still follows the same repetitive patters so the battle isn't interesting at all. I'd rather a short, fast paced exciting battle, rather than this dragged out affair. What's even worse is that a lot of the boss battles (common in the second half of the time) require the use of minigame controls, they weren't fun in normal missions, and they're definitely not fun against a boss.
Carmelita's voice changed yet again, and it's the worst voice yet. The voices in Sly 1 and 2 were pretty good, but Sly 3's Carmelita had too deep a voice to match, it doesn't suit her. Finally, the last platforming section sucked (just when I wished that we have long platforming levels, I get my wish, but I hated those wall hooks), as did the final boss. Just to make things clear, this game isn't hard, it's very easy, BUT, the game is annoying. You die because of the controls, not because you suck. It also seems that the camera isn't as good here, I never had problems with the camera in the previous two games, it just seems to stick or swing wildly more here. Same with the controls, sometimes it's a bit unresponsive, thankfully, that's rare. How about the pros? Well, it's Sly, and he's as charming as ever. The return of some characters from the previous games was an excellent choice. It's fun watching them reappear and seeing how they had gotten on after their capture or defeat by Sly. Ummm... I think that's it. Sly 3's story was bad. Unlike Sly 1 or 2, where at least throughout the game/missions/episodes, there was an aim the team was going for (whether it was to get all the keys or stop each member of the Klaww gang), there is none such objective here.
You know where the team is going to end up thanks to the introduction (bad choice to do it this way), but playing episodes 1 to 5, you feel that the team is only where they are because it was a coincidence. It was like something popped up and they went there on a whim, there's no overarching objective other than find additions to the team (which isn't a strong enough motive). The ending was so so and Dr M as the antagonist was weak, they should have explored more on the jealousy side, so we can understand him more. I did like the part where Sly danced with Carmelita, and we learn of his deception. The graphics are good here. Sly 3's platinum trophy is the hardest to get, but only because you need to get 100% completion. It feels lazy that Sucker Punch gave like 45% of game completion to the challenges, which is just replaying the same (boring) missions under some sort of restriction (health reduction, time limit etc). With the absence of clue bottles, there is no reason to explore the level thoroughly; these bottles are sorely missed here. Sly 3 is a dragged out game, ruined by the abundance of minigames. Some more platforming levels akin to Sly 1 would have made the game much better.
Overall:
Sly is often brought up in conversation as one of the best platforming titles on the PS2 along with Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter. Yet I feel that they're not as fun as either of them. Sly 1 was platforming at it's purest, with the stealth mechanics and 'thief reflexes' differentiating it (in a good way) from the competition. With that said, along comes Sly 2 and 3 with the open world revolution that was so contagious back then and Sly lost all his charms. The games become long winded and dragged out, bogged down with the many repetitive missions (and even more minigames). If you're a trophy hunter than this collection is for you, bearing two extremely easy platinum trophies, although if you're only in it for the trophies, you might get bored before too long and tear your hair out. When all is said and done, all three games are well received and loved by many people, so give them a try.
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