An absolutely classic experience. Sly returns as the main lead and has been improved upon greatly. The sprint button alone is fantastic, but pick pocketing and upper cutting help flesh Sly out so much more. The new playable characters are fantastic too; Making Bentley a tactician and Murray a bruiser are so perfect, they must have planned this when developing the first game. Every character has strengths and weaknesses that must be juggled.
One of Sly 2's greatest strengths is improvements to the overall story. Each level now involves the Band of Thieves performing various tasks, each one contributing towards a greater goal. Once all tasks are complete, the Operation is where all of the pieces come together towards a greater goal. It's a perfect recreation of Heists in game form. The story that connects the levels is also fantastic. Information may be discovered in one episode that becomes relevant 4 hours later, and it's a joy to untangle that plot.
The upgrades have also been greatly improved. It's satisfying to know a new episode will add three new shop abilities, plus a bonus for collectables. Unlike Sly 1, three abilities can be equipped per character. Experimenting with these moves is quite enjoyable, with some standouts being the Paraglider and the Feral Pounce.
Though I have some minor gripes, they don't get in the way of my enjoyment. Some visuals can look a bit washed out, and most bosses are excessively simple. My main gripe is that, while the game focuses on the connected story, the stories of individual missions are kept simple. A majority of missions boil down to being told to do a thing, and then doing it without detour. The weakest missions in the game involve traveling to the corners of the map to complete the same task, such as collecting Spice flowers in the jungle, or... well... nearly half of the Jail missions.
This way of making levels isn't necessarily bad; Having simple missions makes the build up towards the Operation more engaging, since the Operations ramp the complexity up dramatically. The occasional mission that drags is easy to ignore when the rest of the game is so engaging.
One of Sly 2's greatest strengths is improvements to the overall story. Each level now involves the Band of Thieves performing various tasks, each one contributing towards a greater goal. Once all tasks are complete, the Operation is where all of the pieces come together towards a greater goal. It's a perfect recreation of Heists in game form. The story that connects the levels is also fantastic. Information may be discovered in one episode that becomes relevant 4 hours later, and it's a joy to untangle that plot.
The upgrades have also been greatly improved. It's satisfying to know a new episode will add three new shop abilities, plus a bonus for collectables. Unlike Sly 1, three abilities can be equipped per character. Experimenting with these moves is quite enjoyable, with some standouts being the Paraglider and the Feral Pounce.
Though I have some minor gripes, they don't get in the way of my enjoyment. Some visuals can look a bit washed out, and most bosses are excessively simple. My main gripe is that, while the game focuses on the connected story, the stories of individual missions are kept simple. A majority of missions boil down to being told to do a thing, and then doing it without detour. The weakest missions in the game involve traveling to the corners of the map to complete the same task, such as collecting Spice flowers in the jungle, or... well... nearly half of the Jail missions.
This way of making levels isn't necessarily bad; Having simple missions makes the build up towards the Operation more engaging, since the Operations ramp the complexity up dramatically. The occasional mission that drags is easy to ignore when the rest of the game is so engaging.