Far and away superior to the dreadfully boring thud of Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, somewhere on par with the first two games. Even still, if there's one major flaw here - aside from the ruinous ending which of course sucks hard - it's that the gameplay feels really dumbed down in a lot of areas despite appearing to add way more features on the surface. I know a lot of people hate this stuff but anytime there's a game-within-a-game, I love it - and there's a fair bit of that here which I'm all on board for. It also happens to be one of the greatest looking games on the PS3 - with seriously stunning art direction and well-designed hub areas, this game's Feudal Japan section is the most beautiful level in the franchise. But the story feels like it was written in three seconds (then again all of them do I guess), Tennessee is the only one of Sly's ancestors worth a damn (the rest have attributes locked only to a few super specific instances and feel like a weaker Sly), and the already underwhelming final boss is a fucking QTE sequence (this is the seventh gen after all). Feels like it should be fantastic, but a surfeit of new material can't entirely mask a lack of any real difficulty. Still like it though, worthy sequel.

Man, writing and expressing my feelings on Sly 4 is always rough. I do like to think I've mellowed as I've gotten older, but I feel like with some cases it's hard to really articulate my disappointment in something without like, coming across as "too mean" or "too close-minded on it", especially if it's in something I love a lot like with the titular racoon's PS2 trilogy, and especially since it's being done by a different developer this time, Sanzaru Games. I'll at least say, emulating this thanks to RPCS3 has been pretty cool, kind of wild how far this emulator has developed over the years, to the point I think it's - and I think I mentioned this once before - a bit better than PCSX2 in some regards, and though there were some snags in getting it to run in 4K60fps (alongside the recommended settings in the emulator's wiki page, if you have an NVIDIA GPU, go to the custom config's advanced tab and check "force disable exclusive fullscreen mode" to avoid any funky shading shenanigans, or at least heavily downplay it), I can at least say it earned the "playable" status on the compatibility page that it got last year.

As for something actually about the game, I will give some praises starting out. I know it's easy to rag on Sanzaru lately for reasons considering their works on the Sonic Boom games (I never played them myself but they look fine enough), but I do think the people there did a good job with creating an art style that gives off the trilogy's vibe and aesthetics of moodiness and warm colors pretty well, even with the shift from the original's comic-noir to full-on cartoony "squashness" being pretty obvious. Though I have a couple of issues like how Carmelita looks or how the fur and other 'little details' are done, for the most part it isn't anything major enough, and I can overall look at it and go "yea, that looks like a Sly game". Animations and actual graphics are, also obviously, very good looking as well, definitely the best the series has looked in a while, and even the controls are pretty good too. Though my distinct muscle memory knows that this time around there's more weight and... stiffness, I wanna say? for each of the characters, I can more or less do what I've always done in the trilogy with minimal issue, and that's all that really matters to me.

And uh... I'm glad they brought back Clue Bottles? Those are still pretty fun to get. I think the new Mask collectibles are pretty neat too, giving you new unlocks such as costume changes and even a weapon swap once you have enough, such as Ratchet's Wrench of Cole McGrath's Amp from inFamous 2. Platforming's also still good this time around, for some reason I thought it was downplayed here but while some of the obstacles are too basic for my liking, for the most part they're pretty fun and eventful. Er.... yea I ain't gonna hold it off longer, I can't really think of any other big positives to say. Rest of the game is either pretty mediocre or straight up bad to me.

And it's a shame cause like, there's very much a foundation for a decent game, but there's just so many issues - both in relation to the trilogy and just in general - that really hold it back for me. To go back on the art direction for a bit, the animated cutscenes this time around look really off. There's no sense of flow or weight on display, and none of the character designs really made a good transition into that form. It's pretty apparent this was done by a different studio, and sure enough it was done by Ghostbot and not Sanzaru themselves. Could've been worse, but could've been a lot better is how I feel about it.

A lot of people, even detractors, say the gameplay's good but... I don't really agree. It isn't awful, like I said the platforming IS fun, but there's so much fluff and tedium in a stark contrast to the tight focus the trilogy, yes even 3, had. As I said in my Sly 3 review, I don't mind if a game has a focus on minigames or unique setpieces if those're fun and fit with what's happening, but in 4 I didn't feel like that was the case so often. This is really evident with Bentley's hacking sidestuff, cause now alongside the usual one, you have a horizontal shmup, and a SIXAXIS motion one, and I really struggle to figure out how they meaningfully expand the game. The Shmup one's just really boring for how easy and slow the autoscrolling is, and while thankfully the latter are usually short, I still think they're largely there to pad the game out, and considering this came out in 2013 back when Sony actually bothered to give some amount of attention for the Vita, was also done so that it'd utilize the handheld's gimmicks and functions, which in turn meant the PS3 version had to have those as well. Not helping is the fact that it's way more common to sometimes do multiple minigames instead of just the same one at different intervals in a job, like going from a turret section to a previously mentioned hacking one. While I felt like each game prior did a good job to try and keep the core playing aspect balanced, this time I feel like I spent more time doing busywork instead of combat or the platforming. Not helping is the fact that missions really seem to either continue going right when it seems to be ending, or just abruptly end before anything's really "happened".

I also just, find it odd on how the sandbox works this time around. As far as walking around goes, there's not that many distinct paths or setpieces to help distinguish and chart out a mental map on where you need to go and how, which in turn led to frequent map checking to make sure I was heading in the right direction of either a mission, HQ, or just finding the collectibles. It also doesn't help that a chunk of the worlds are simply too big, Ancient Japan and Old West are the first two world yet their size and layout are reminiscent of a late-game Sly 2 world like Canada or Arpeggio's Blimp. I know this point sounds rather bogus since I'm more biased to games I grew up playing and replaying compared to one I only ever played one time, but here's the thing, I haven't touch those games until last month, and I still found new detail or path-charting each time. I'm willing to give Sanzaru some flack though, apparently this was their first time working within a sandbox mold which certainly shows, and to their credit, Medieval England and Ancient Arabia are legitimately good worlds to zone out and try and explore in as anyone since those - and even parts of the Ice Age era - do manage to do the things I talked about needing.

That said though, I can't exactly excuse them in how the economy is borked again, this time in the opposite of Sly 3's "grinding time" extreme cause now you're just handed coins even when just simply doing stuff normally. Simply grinding things out a handful of times in the prologue is more than enough to be set for the entirety of the game, and it really just hurts the drive to try and make sure you're going around to garner these up. There's also a side effect to this in the returning alongside the bottles are treasures, there's now a fixed set of 11 in each world, and like, OK that's more than necessary but whatever, until you realize that most are like, 100-190, with a few actually going over that amount, while two of the three available pickpocket loots are now fixed to 200 and 500. This, coupled with the fact that each powerup pretty uncommonly reach 500+ costs, really lessens the scarcity and cool factor of the treasure, as well as how you have to go out of your way to find them. I dunno, maybe I'm making this a bigger deal than it actually is, but again it bothers me cause this was something 2 managed to do super well in, and I can't really think of anything that needed to offset the balance to your favor, all for the sake of turning it into Just Another Collectible.

And on that note we get to the actual elephant in the room, the writing. I'm gonna be completely honest and say I'm one of those fans that think the writing is such a stark contrast to the trilogy that it's ultimately the game's biggest problem, and is also the main contributor as to why I gave the score that I did. With each game in the trilogy being its own story, anyone could pick those up and be totally fine, but with this one, I feel like people would probably miss a number of things that happened prior, especially considering each new game gives you the option to start a prologue cutscene. Now, I ain't gonna go over every other issue I have - flanderization of the main cast, the baffling and inconsistent nature of the time travel aspect, that awkward and rather uncomfortable dancing minigame in Arabia that didn't need to be there, how the ancestors are written, That Twist - since I feel like anyone even remotely attached to the series in some fashion have heard it all at this point and have said, or have read others say it, in a much better manner, so I'm gonna focus my issue on the main characters and how their humor is done (which admittedly will also touch a fair bit on the flanderized characters), and the villains.

I dunno what exactly was the priority, but it feels like someone was just really focused on emulating Saturday Morning Cartoons, cause the banter, playoffs, and overall nature feels really reminiscent of that. Murray had a few line of dialog about food in the past, but now his whole thing is that he simply talks about food in some fashion in most of his dialog, and if it isn't about that than it's him being brawny as usual. Bentley's always been the techno geek, but now it's in full force since he makes so, so many awful quips and puns - usually tech related - and gets annoyed when characters like Sly - who instead of being equally laidback and serious protag, is now just Generic Wisecracking Animal Protagonist #1213 - don't take their advices seriously. Carmelita goes way back to her days in the first game where she's kind of just there and gets annoyed with The Gang's antics, as well as her and Sly now being a focal point of a pretty miserable romance subplot that doesn't really like, lead to anything meaningful. Everyone must say the obvious objective and what to do to progress, even if the solution is plain as day (seriously at least like, have the player be stumped on a part for a few minutes if you're gonna have the characters say what to do, especially if you're reusing old ones that've rarely, if ever, did this). Oh, and to top it all off, the first two have to go through the arcs they had in 2 and 3 again, this time in a way that feels rather forced and horrifically rushed (Murray's whole thing is so minimal it's shocking, Bentley gets like, one and three quarters worth of sitting out until he's suddenly all better). It all feels really hokey, generic, and doesn't at all fit the comedic wit of the series, not even the first game was like this for the most part. It's not bad all the times, yea, but for the most part it was pretty groan-inducing and kind of hard to see characters I know so much about act very differently than before. Most I can say is that I'm at least glad the newfound focus on stereotypes here are at least like, tolerable, and never did I find it crosses over into "actually just insensitive" territory, though maybe some will (understandably) feel differently.

As for the villains, Sanzaru was valid for going back on 1's approach of simpler writing, but man I really can't like, think of anything to say about them regardless. They're either very stereotypical (Toothpick, Grizz), just have awful writing overall (Black Knight, Le Paradox), or don't that much presence in the first place (El Jefe, Ms Decibel), not helping is that some of these villain's backstories are just mostly reused from the past games. They're the type of people you'd usually think of for "throwaway villain for that one random episode of the week". In my head when going through them, I was thinking about which one would at least past my least favorite villains in each of the three games prior (Raleigh, Rajan, and Mask Of Dark Earth respectively), and afterwards, I can only really say mayyyyyyyyyyybe Grizz? The extremely simplified rap and "street thug" stereotype is very cringe, but like I said I don't think it ever becomes insensitive and he does have actual jokes, he has a rather active role in the story instead of just kind of being there, and he does have a plan I can say has actually like, some level of thought put into it... in fact his and Toothpick are the ONLY ones like that. I would talk about Paradox, but like I said, others have already dissected him and his main villain role not working at all already and probably in a better fashion, so I won't waste my time just repeating them.

Just, I dunno man, like I said talking about this game frustrates me. I can SEE the ideas, some even work, but most of it just doesn't, and considering how this game ends with that infamous cliffhanger... I'd rather not get a continuation, all things considered. Nerdietalk cheekily expressed it in her spoiler review, but I feel like one route this continuation would take is a bunch of walking back as to what 4 has done, and not only is that lame as fuck even with all my problems in mind, it also just robs this hypothetical game of its own identity, and could probably have issues of its own. I guess a soft reboot would be alright, maybe just focus on the Cooper lineage as a whole instead of just The Main Peeps again, but that'd just create a disconnect between a bunch of people and again, could lead to more potential issues. For the time being, I'm pretty much fine with just having the trilogy being the things keeping me company, with 4 only being in the back of my mind unless something new happens. I can kinda recommend trying it at least once, but other than that, I don't think I'm gonna give this another revisit for a long while.

My first encounter with Sly was when I was 9, as a curious kid I was browsing the demos for every game on Ps Store, trying them out I saw a playable demo for thieves in time... looks interesting... little me thought... As I started the demo my initial reaction was "OMG THİS GAME HAS DUBS!1!!" Now that was a rare moment (İf you're a non-american, uk resident) games had dubs at that time. As I played the demo I noticed one thing, characters were so lively in this game... they all were giving different vibes, making jokes, they were basically people. I knew I was in for a big journey and after the prologue sequence, demo has ended... Now I don't know what exactly happened after that time but I forgot about sly for a while. Fast forward to three years later this game came into my mind and I asked my mom "Moooommm cann wee buy thiiis gamee pretty pleeaseee<33" And I started the game. >w<

It's been a while since I've played it but in this particular entry, someone or something causes the pages from the thievius raccoonus to disappear and cause the traces of cooper family to disappear from the current timeline aswell. Sly travels back in time, meets up with his ancestors and fixes the corrupt timeline issue by finding the cause. One thing I'd like to mention is art direction in this game is awesome, backed up with great voice acting game makes you feel like in a cartoon. For the gameplay, controls and animations are as smooth as it was in the older titles. Game consists of hub worlds in each episode you can go and choose missions from. Playable characters are Sly, Bentley, Murray and one of Sly's ancestors depending on which episode you're in. Missions and levels in this game never gets boring or repetitive. There's a lot of variety, for instance each character can only go on a mission suitable for them, Sly goes on mission where there are some swiftness required, Bentley being the brains relies on his gadgets and hacking skills to pass through various obstacles, when there's some muscle needed murray's in charge and on top of that they introduce even more mechanics with the inclusion of ancestors. This game is a love letter to the sly series and even if it isn't made by sucker punch it's undeniable how much sanzaru put love into this game. Sly cooper is one of my dearest treasures, fans of the original titles may prefer the ps2 ones but this one's my favorite. This game is perfect.

The Sly series was one of the best on PS2. It was original, artsy, had slick controls, and clever humor that you could only find on Sony’s consoles. After Sly 3, the series went into limbo during most of the PS3’s lifecycle with no sign of a new game in sight. With Sucker Punch powering away at the Infamous series all fans lost hope. Thieves in Time was finally announced with much rejoicing, but once the game arrived everyone was scratching their heads. Why was this is a game almost identical to the previous three in every way shape and form?

If you’re familiar with the Sly games you know how this game plays out. 5 chapters of various different villains that the gang must take down. Each chapter starts with an intro from Bentley the turtle (the computer and tech wiz). After this Sly goes and takes pictures to gather recon for what to do next. As soon as I saw this in the first chapter I rolled my eyes. I knew I was in for another Sly game with the same gameplay we are now tired of. Sure it’s quality but I wanted evolution in the series. When I say nothing has changed I mean absolutely nothing. The same guard paths can be followed, pickpocketing, the same yellow flashlights, the same small confusing hubs with 30 clue bottles and a safe. You get the picture. However, the hubs aren’t as interesting to traverse and I completely bypassed collecting any extras as it felt like a chore.

That’s not to say every little thing is the same. The clever and witty humor turned into Saturday Morning Cartoon slapstick humor with jokes written by 8-year-olds. No longer do you find the darker humor that adults can relate to. I didn’t laugh or smile at a single joke or line of dialogue. This is especially sad since you go back in time to find 5 of Sly’s ancestors which opens a path for great dialog. Roichi is Sly’s Japanese Samurai ancestor, Tennessee Kid is his wild west ancestor, Bob is Sly’s very first ancestor from 10,000 B.C., Sir Gallenth is his medieval ancestor, and Salim is his Arabian Nights ancestor. These are actually interesting characters, but their personalities are limited by the poor writing. No longer is the banter between Sly, Bentley, and Murray something you look forward to at every cutscene.

I also miss the more clever gameplay segments, now we just get a ton of boring mini-games and quick time events. Hell, even the final boss is an easy quick time event fest. The most interesting part of the whole game are the bosses which are rather challenging and fun to fight. The only new addition to the entire series is the new costume abilities. These add a special set of skills Sly needs to get through some missions. Apart from this, you can expect the same controls even. It’s a crying shame for a series that is so dear to PlayStation fans.

With all of that said the game looks pretty damn good on Vita minus the occasional slowdown and the super long load times. Jumping from area to area was painful due to the 45 second or longer loading screens. Some gameplay segments were shorter than the actual load times. This really hurt the game as I set my Vita down to actually go do something while the game loaded. Long-term fans may either hate this game or love it. Newcomers will actually see it as a quality PlayStation title. As someone who has played the games since the very first one, I find it rather disappointing and almost a chore to play through.

This game to me personally is great, I love it for the most part. The gameplay is solid and it plays exactly how I wanted it to play, and the animation quality for the game is fantastic. My only downsides to this game is how they made Bentley’s sleep darts obsolete and pointless which was a bit sad and my only major complaint is how they changed Tennessee Kid Cooper’s cane to a single gun with a ridiculously long barrel so they could give him the same animations as sly which I personally think was stupid. It would have been so cool to see him with his dual pistols, which they even show in the cartoon cutscenes, and even use them in the actual game together. Besides that I love this game, it was a very nice return to the series. Yes there are things I would have liked to be different but I am happy with what I was given