Sly 2: Band of Thieves
released on Sep 14, 2004
The sequel to Sly Cooper delivers the same crime detective style of presentation, borrowing heavily from movies, novels and comic books to create a beautiful, highly animated game. The story takes place two years after Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. In the first game, Sly was becoming a professional thief, but in Band of Thieves, he is a professional thief -- so he retains all of the moves from the first game. He also earns new moves and gains different items to assist him in his dark craft. The biggest upgrade comes in form of the new multi-character gameplay. Players might start a level as Sly, and then after completing a particular task, players switch to Bentley, and Murray, respectively.
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This review contains spoilers
One of the big issues this game has that people gloss over is that 100%ing it, at least in my opinion, is way less satisfying. All of the pages are hidden in the hub worlds instead of in the levels themselves. Also, they backed themselves into a hole narrative-wise. In the first game you had a really good reason to want to get all the pages back cause the Thevius Racoonus is a family heirloom. It's not as compelling here, I dunno. Small detail.
Other than that this is a great game. I'd say that Sly 2 goes in a different direction instead of being a derivative sequel, so the two games are supplementary. There's some really memorable levels and story beats.
Other than that this is a great game. I'd say that Sly 2 goes in a different direction instead of being a derivative sequel, so the two games are supplementary. There's some really memorable levels and story beats.
Best non Nintendo 3D platformer ever?
Still great. It builds on the first game, the writing is better, the gameplay is more varied, and it's an all-around super fun and charming platformer.
My experience with this game shaped my taste as someone who enjoys the medium of video games and by all accounts you can disqualify my review due to my bias.
This game is THE 3D platformer. Similarly to its predecessor, it mixes engaging gameplay with a story that doesn’t feel phoned in. Despite losing some of the difficulty in combat with the inclusion of a health bar and more tools with which to defend themselves, players are now expected to approach challenges through stealth, adding another more fleshed out layer to the difficulty.
Additionally, you may now play as Bentley and Murray, each of which altering how one might approach gameplay, while still feeling similar enough to sly for the player to grasp how to play easily.
Missions are longer, yet more streamlined in that they feel more varied, entertaining, and they all seem to add something to the preparation to the upcoming operation. Instead of collecting your 17th treasure key, you’ll be replacing a painting in the enemy’s office with a bug so that the gang can plan around what they hear during surveillance.
Sly 2 ditches Sly 1’s more “gamey” elements for a higher quality all around experience which has yet to be outdone by any other platformer I have played to date.
This game is THE 3D platformer. Similarly to its predecessor, it mixes engaging gameplay with a story that doesn’t feel phoned in. Despite losing some of the difficulty in combat with the inclusion of a health bar and more tools with which to defend themselves, players are now expected to approach challenges through stealth, adding another more fleshed out layer to the difficulty.
Additionally, you may now play as Bentley and Murray, each of which altering how one might approach gameplay, while still feeling similar enough to sly for the player to grasp how to play easily.
Missions are longer, yet more streamlined in that they feel more varied, entertaining, and they all seem to add something to the preparation to the upcoming operation. Instead of collecting your 17th treasure key, you’ll be replacing a painting in the enemy’s office with a bug so that the gang can plan around what they hear during surveillance.
Sly 2 ditches Sly 1’s more “gamey” elements for a higher quality all around experience which has yet to be outdone by any other platformer I have played to date.
Fun as hell game, better than Sly 1 in numerous ways even if some worlds are rougher around the edges.
However, half-star off (not really) for somehow breaking my decade-and-a-half muscle memory of 3D camera controls to the point where both inverted and normal cameras feel wrong now. I don't know how or why, but this game's camera has genuinely fucked with my head ever since I beat it.
However, half-star off (not really) for somehow breaking my decade-and-a-half muscle memory of 3D camera controls to the point where both inverted and normal cameras feel wrong now. I don't know how or why, but this game's camera has genuinely fucked with my head ever since I beat it.
It's wild to see how much more is going on in this game over SC1.