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Sly Cooper is a series that slipped passed me during the sixth generation era. I’m a big fan of platformers but for some reason, I just never heard of Sly Cooper when the first three games were in their heyday on PlayStation 2. The Sly Collection for PlayStation 3 was my first exposure to the series and I jumped on it as soon as I discovered it. After I got it, I beat the first game but didn’t jump into the sequels for some reason. I don’t remember why because I do remember enjoying the first one so I figured now is a good time to revisit the series. Developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was released for PlayStation 2 in September, 2002. This along with its first two sequels were remastered and all three games were released together in The Sly Collection for PlayStation 3 in 2011. For this review, I played the remaster.
The story follows raccoon and thief, Sly Cooper who comes from a long line of master thieves and the family has recorded all their techniques and moves into a book known as Thievius Raccoonus which is passed down to each generation. But when it came time for Sly to inherit the book as a child, all the pages were stolen and his parents were killed by a group called The Fiendish Five. Sly was sent to an orphanage where he met his friends Bentley, a turtle, and Murray, a hippopotamus, and together they formed The Cooper Gang and, over the years, have attracted the attention of Interpol Inspector Carmelita Fox. Sly swears to avenge his parents and steal back the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus from The Fiendish Five.
The plot is pretty simple but I do like the way its presented. The game uses a variation of cel-shading which makes it look and feel like a cartoon. The story plays out in episodes. The members of The Fiendish Five are located in different spots around the world and each episode focuses on the gang’s efforts to confront one of their members and steal back a page. The story definitely has its share of cliches and each major character fits into a different stereotype. For example, Bentley is the nerdy brains of the gang, Murray is the dumb muscle, and Carmelita is Sly’s love interest with a very black and white outlook on crime. Overall, I like the plot and its cartoony style and wacky characters. It’s not the best story ever told but I do think it conveys a unique tone and atmosphere that makes it stand out from others in the genre.
I came at this game with the idea it is a stealth platformer. In the end though, it feels more platformer than stealth and the game plays out very much like a traditional platformer. The first four worlds or locations feature the same type of gameplay loop. Enter the location, retrieve the key to enter the hub area where you can access numerous levels to retrieve their keys, all of which are needed to gain access to the boss. You fight and defeat the boss, retrieve a page, and move onto the next location. The final location is the only one that breaks this loop.
As a platformer, Sly Cooper is a pretty straightforward but fun time and the mechanics work well. If this was designed to feature a blend of platforming and stealth, it’s the stealth that’s the weakest part and for a variety of reasons. For one thing, every level is linear and the only punishment for getting spotted is being attacked by enemies or more dangerous hazards until you destroy the alarm. You are given the option to evade or engage foes, both of which are not hard to do. Sly carries around a cane that he can use to attack foes and it doesn’t take much to defeat them. Most of the security you’ll have to evade comes in the form of lasers and searchlights and Sly can walk, run, jump, double jump and climb on things and it’s typically always very obvious how to proceed undetected.
I think the game’s biggest problem is that it’s too easy. That’s not to say I never died but evasion is usually not very difficult and enemies don’t pose much of a threat. Many of them carry flashlights and if they spot you they will attack but you are given plenty of tools to evade and/or engage them. I would say most of the challenge comes from the bosses and the Master Thief Sprints. The bosses aren’t really hard to take down once you’ve memorized their patterns but they do have multiple phases and if you die, you have to repeat the whole fight again. The Master Thief Sprints can be taken on after you beat the game and find all the pages. These sprints simply require you to beat the levels within their respective time limit. For what it’s worth, this remaster for PlayStation 3 is an easy game to Platinum.
I really do think the linearity holds the game back in terms of both platforming and stealth. There are things to find and collect in the environments but you don’t really have to go out of your way to find them because they can all be found along the linear path. So you can easily find everything as you go. I honestly feel the gameplay would have benefitted from more open-ended level design. As a platformer, the linearity ensures there’s no reason to explore or figure things out on your own. Everything is basically obvious which is also the case for stealth because there’s typically one way to get past foes and security undetected, not that it’s usually a big deal if you are detected.
There are clues scattered around each level and the entrances to each hub area and where there’s clues, there’s a vault. You need to find all the clues in the level to open that level’s vault and vaults contain pages that reward you with new techniques or moves, upgrades to existing moves, and other beneficial things. Some techniques are only acquired after defeating bosses. You’ll be able to turn invisible making it easy to sneak past foes and security, roll, perform a dive attack, slow down time, speed up time, lay down Sly’s hat as a mine, deploy a decoy to distract foes, and stun all enemies for a brief time. And that’s just the techniques. There’s also the rewards that simply make things easier like one that enables Sly’s Binocucom to show him where clues are located and others like no penalty from falling or landing in water.
All the vault rewards are certainly cool and the techniques are fun to use and experiment with but I can’t say any of them ever feel necessary for survival or to make progress. Some levels feature a segment designed in a way to teach you how a specific technique works and if that’s the case, the game or Bentley will let you know. You don’t need techniques or moves to gain access to areas in previous levels. You can collect every clue and open every vault, minus one, as you progress. Only one vault requires you to come back to the level later. As I mentioned earlier, the game is very straightforward. Don’t get met wrong, the gameplay does prove to be fun, overall, but it just doesn’t put up much resistance or encourage much exploration. Also, the episodes are presented in a way that makes it seem like the gang is pulling off heists but I can’t say the gameplay is designed to make it feel that way. I guess the idea is that each level is like a job and you’re navigating or sneaking around the locations and stealing keys and pages from the vaults. But that doesn’t necessarily make them feel like heists. At least to me. Although, by definition, I suppose they are. Regardless, it all feels like typical platformer design. Collect items to progress, learn new moves, and then defeat the boss. Rinse and repeat.
The Cooper Gang operates out of a hideout and travels by van. The hideout is where you can travel to any already unlocked locations and view unlocked cut scenes. The game will take you to Paris, Wales, Utah, Haiti, China, and Russia and each location does look and feel distinct. You’ll get to navigate around a casino, temples, swamp, volcano, and run and jump across rooftops among other areas. Each level will feature plenty of obstacles, platforming, things to climb, things to swing from, things to break, and enemies patrolling around. You’ll encounter dogs with machine guns, ghosts, walruses, and gorillas with swords among other wacky and anthropomorphic foes. In addition to clues, are other pickups that can be found in the environments including coins, Lucky Charms, and extra lives. A Lucky Charm grants Sly and extra hit-point and he can accumulate two. If he collects one hundred coins, he receives a lucky charm as a reward. If he already has two, he’s rewarded with an extra life. Coins can be found scattered around, by breaking objects in the environments and they are dropped by defeated enemies.
Like many other platformers, Sly Cooper does include minigames. In fact, some levels are just that. I typically don’t like minigames in platformers because in my experience, they’re often straight up trial and error and sometimes feature gameplay elements from other genres but are not fleshed out enough to be all that enjoyable. I have never wanted to revisit a platformer just for the minigames. I would always prefer traditional levels in their place. For the most part, I feel the same way about the minigames in Sly Cooper. There’s racing, there are some dual stick shooter sequences, a couple levels let you drive vehicles and shoot things, a few require you to use guns to cover friendly NPCs, you’ll man a turret and shoot enemies and hazards in an on-rails sequence, and one boss battle is basically a rhythm minigame. Some of these are definitely more enjoyable than others but I can’t say any of them are super frustrating or tedious, thankfully. However, I can tell you I would not replay Sly Cooper just for the racing or shooting or rhythm dodging or to kill a set amount of chickens within a time limit. Unfortunately, the final location is made up of minigames with only brief platforming segments which I feel is disappointing. However, the final boss battle does let you fly around and shoot with a jetpack which is pretty cool.
This PS3 remaster is a lot like the other remasters for the system. In terms of the presentation, it’s pretty barebones. It’s basically the original game but now presented in HD and widescreen. In general, the presentation is colorful, I love the variation of cel-shading used, the character models look good and the environments are varied and detailed. I have never played the PS2 original but from what the internet tells me, much of the music in the game has been remixed and in some cases, changed. From what I heard in this remaster, the soundtrack is pretty good with many catchy beats and more intense tunes that kick in whenever Sly is detected. The sound effects are pretty good overall. The whacks heard when Sly’s cane makes contact with enemies sound satisfying and I do enjoy the little tune heard whenever Sly takes a step. It adds to the cartoony style. On the technical side, the frame rate does noticeably dip when there’s a lot of action on screen but other than that, I encountered no problems.
I really enjoyed Sly Cooper despite the fact it doesn’t offer much in the way of challenge. I find it to be very charming and atmospheric and I’m a sucker for cartoony presentations. I’m guessing this game was designed to appeal to a very wide audience which is why it leans into the easy territory. As expected, I could do without the minigames, although I didn’t find any of the ones here to be too annoying and I feel the final location is a bit disappointing due to the lack of traditional platforming. But on the plus side, the mechanics work well and the game is easy to pick up and play. The stealth may be very basic but it can be cool and fun sneaking past foes or through security undetected, even if it isn’t very difficult to do so. I think this game does show potential for excellent stealth platforming gameplay. The idea and concept for something very cool is present, it’s just not executed very well here. It’s not fully realized. From what I understand, the sequels expand upon the stealth elements among other things but I haven’t played them as of this review so I can’t really confirm. Ultimately, Sly Cooper is a fun and easy platformer with some stealth elements and it’s held back by its linearity.
I would recommend Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus because it is enjoyable. It’s not the greatest platformer I’ve ever played and the stealth is weak overall. It feels more like a platformer than a stealth game or even a blending of the two but the platforming works well and the game is fun to play. It’s got charm, atmosphere, and despite the lack of challenge, it does manage to maintain its own identity and be unique in the genre, especially for the time it released. If you’re a fan of platformers, definitely check this out.