I'm kinda surprised with just how much I enjoyed this game. Granted, I don't think it'll blow anyone away, but the game overall just has a lot of charm to it in my opinion that elevated it over its flaws. It feels practically tailormade to lend itself to a truly great cartoon or comic series, to the point where I was shocked to find out it had neither. I really love the animated cutscenes and the fun cast of characters; I am excited to get to Sly 2 once I grab the game.
The gameplay's pretty good. I will say, you'd think that stealth would be more of a central mechanic here than it actually is, but it really isn't that all-encompassing and the game is pretty forgiving if you mess up stealth bits. This is kind of a blessing in disguise for me since I am pretty bad at being stealthy in games. There are definitely levels where you need to sneak around, but this is definitely a platformer through and through so the platforming is the focus. The platforming here is good, took a bit to get the feel of and sometimes it can be janky (mainly with those special parts of the environment you need to interact with through pressing circle) but it still feels good overall. Those segments where you need to swing from hook to hook with your cane were probably the hardest platforming segments for me since I had a tough time getting the timing down between jumps to reach the hooks. I never really felt like I was super "in the flow" like some of my other favorite platformers, but nonetheless it was fun to make my way through these levels. I think the only real downside with the gameplay is that they shove a lot of different play styles in here, which sounds good on paper to break up the monotony but they all feel either half-baked or just plain mediocre. Twin-stick shooters were never quite my thing and this game throws a good number of 'em at you, same with racing minigames where you need to get first place. There's also a few escort missions that are still shoot-em-ups but done through first person and you gotta have pretty quick reflexes for some of those. One boss has a rhythm game section that felt like it went on forever and was pretty challenging for me, I hear the PS3 collection of this game messes up the timing in that minigame and I can't imagine how much worse it would be if I was playing it that way lol. I also died a lot in this game but I'm not sure how much of that I can chalk to the game being actually hard or just me being a complete doofus at 3D platformers. Nonetheless, aside from the rather disappointing forcing of different play styles, I did think the gameplay was solid overall; I just think the game should have stuck to more pure platforming. My favorite levels were in the China world and the Haitian jungle world.
The game doesn't have much story, so I will use this paragraph to talk about the minor stuff making up this game that I enjoyed. I know I already mentioned this but I did quite enjoy the characters, Sly's crew feels very much like a typical cartoon series team dynamic with Bentley being the verbose and nerdy brains of the operation, Sly being the cool charismatic leader, and Murray mostly being the comedic relief sidekick. I think Bentley talks a little TOO much and for some reason his voice feels much louder than the others, but I suppose that suits his character well. Carmelita Fox has a fun dynamic with Sly Cooper, with the master thief often teasing the detective and just barely avoiding capture every time. It was nice to see them come to an understanding and work together briefly at the end, even if they went right back to business as usual after. Also, shoutout to the animated cutscenes in this game, they look really great and it makes me wish we had an animated show that looks just like it. There's a surprising amount of them, too, and you even get a little surprise one at the end which is a reanimated version of the opening trailer stylized to look more like an anime (complete with Japanese narration). From what I hear you can unlock a few more of those in the game but I didn't bother with it.
Overall, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a fun time. The game's got some noteworthy flaws that I complained about, but the positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion. I am looking forward to playing the whole series (although I hear Thieves in Time is rather divisive).
The gameplay's pretty good. I will say, you'd think that stealth would be more of a central mechanic here than it actually is, but it really isn't that all-encompassing and the game is pretty forgiving if you mess up stealth bits. This is kind of a blessing in disguise for me since I am pretty bad at being stealthy in games. There are definitely levels where you need to sneak around, but this is definitely a platformer through and through so the platforming is the focus. The platforming here is good, took a bit to get the feel of and sometimes it can be janky (mainly with those special parts of the environment you need to interact with through pressing circle) but it still feels good overall. Those segments where you need to swing from hook to hook with your cane were probably the hardest platforming segments for me since I had a tough time getting the timing down between jumps to reach the hooks. I never really felt like I was super "in the flow" like some of my other favorite platformers, but nonetheless it was fun to make my way through these levels. I think the only real downside with the gameplay is that they shove a lot of different play styles in here, which sounds good on paper to break up the monotony but they all feel either half-baked or just plain mediocre. Twin-stick shooters were never quite my thing and this game throws a good number of 'em at you, same with racing minigames where you need to get first place. There's also a few escort missions that are still shoot-em-ups but done through first person and you gotta have pretty quick reflexes for some of those. One boss has a rhythm game section that felt like it went on forever and was pretty challenging for me, I hear the PS3 collection of this game messes up the timing in that minigame and I can't imagine how much worse it would be if I was playing it that way lol. I also died a lot in this game but I'm not sure how much of that I can chalk to the game being actually hard or just me being a complete doofus at 3D platformers. Nonetheless, aside from the rather disappointing forcing of different play styles, I did think the gameplay was solid overall; I just think the game should have stuck to more pure platforming. My favorite levels were in the China world and the Haitian jungle world.
The game doesn't have much story, so I will use this paragraph to talk about the minor stuff making up this game that I enjoyed. I know I already mentioned this but I did quite enjoy the characters, Sly's crew feels very much like a typical cartoon series team dynamic with Bentley being the verbose and nerdy brains of the operation, Sly being the cool charismatic leader, and Murray mostly being the comedic relief sidekick. I think Bentley talks a little TOO much and for some reason his voice feels much louder than the others, but I suppose that suits his character well. Carmelita Fox has a fun dynamic with Sly Cooper, with the master thief often teasing the detective and just barely avoiding capture every time. It was nice to see them come to an understanding and work together briefly at the end, even if they went right back to business as usual after. Also, shoutout to the animated cutscenes in this game, they look really great and it makes me wish we had an animated show that looks just like it. There's a surprising amount of them, too, and you even get a little surprise one at the end which is a reanimated version of the opening trailer stylized to look more like an anime (complete with Japanese narration). From what I hear you can unlock a few more of those in the game but I didn't bother with it.
Overall, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a fun time. The game's got some noteworthy flaws that I complained about, but the positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion. I am looking forward to playing the whole series (although I hear Thieves in Time is rather divisive).