L2AGO #14
Ah, I love it when a great game comes together.
I don't have any intricate yarns to spin or esoteric devices to break down, this game just fucking works and grips your attention throughout its entire length. Sly 2, or as I and my pals like to call it, Sly Coops 2 & the Gang, follows up just a few years after the events of the original Sly Cooper and involves your quest of cleaning up the remainder of Clockwerk's legacy and taking down a new big bad syndicate. The individual levels are now larger yet tightly constructed overworlds filled with treasure to loot, guards to pickpocket, and separate missions with varying objectives to prep and pull off the grand scheme. The clue bottles are still there as collectibles, but now have a distinct glass tinkering sound that plays whenever you're nearby so you can more easily pinpoint their locations. Once you've gotten all the clue bottles in a location, you can use them to unlock a safe for some super cool powers just like the original; through unlocking safes and purchasing additional abilities in Thief Net, you can greatly expand your cornucopia of approaches and attacks and turn the levels into a bit of a sandbox. The abilities range from classics like a slo-mode toggle to make you feel like you're in the middle of a bullet time sequence, to an alarm clock you can throw to distract guards with noise before you pickpocket and end them. Sly's pals Bentley and Murray also have their own missions and abilities to work with and really come into their own with drastically different characteristics: while classic Sly works on maximizing finesse, Bentley's the brain and strategically disables enemies with explosives and sleeping darts, while Murray's the brawn and punches/throws his ways to success.
It's just so deceptive how the sequel organically takes and expands upon everything that the already super fun original was great at and manages to polish everything to a fine luster. The cel shaded environments and character models look sharper than ever, the soundtrack captures the moods perfectly, there's a great cast of vibrant personalities with fantastic lines, and the movement's just as crisp as ever. Sly 2 sells on atmosphere and great vibes, and it manages to do with such ease yet remaining accessible; the game's not technically demanding at all (simply press the circle button to do cool thing), yet you'll feel so badass and accomplished every time you successfully pull off an seemingly elaborate heist sequence or outmaneuver waves of guards and obstacles. Even the short breaks in platforming to allow for minigame segments like the tank sections and the twin stick shooter hacking have been upgraded with even more flair and precision. Gone are the days of clunky van races or rhythm game reaction boss fights; now you get to engage in a shmup bullet hell bombing run with a RC helicopter over a rogue train in the middle of the Canadian wilds. Finally, I think this is the first 3D platformer I've played in a while where I have absolutely no complaints with the camera whatsoever; the camera was almost exactly where it had to be whenever it needed to be without feeling too uncomfortably close or sensitive and a versatile rotatable free cam gives you the leeway to ensure you'll always be in a position where you can see where you need to go and how to fight against everything in your way. If I really forced myself to nitpick, there were a few moments where the tight and precise jumping of Sly 2 wasn't quite enough to get to obvious collectibles and I had to resort to more arcane solutions, and I honestly can't say I'm the biggest fan of some of the turret sections due to how much of an endurance test they felt like, but these moments were far and few in-between.
I was absolutely stoked picking this back up due to all the praise my friends have levied upon this PS2 classic, and I'm happy to concur that the game has more than lived up to the hype. This, alongside Ape Escape 3 and Super Mario 64, is one of the greats of 3D platforming, and you would be incredibly remiss to give this a pass if you're even remotely interested in slick and satisfying action adventure games with over the top cartoon violence and thrilling and epic heists. I can't recommend this enough, go give Sly Coops and the boys some love. Here's hoping that the leak was real and that we'll be getting some news for a future installment soon.
Ah, I love it when a great game comes together.
I don't have any intricate yarns to spin or esoteric devices to break down, this game just fucking works and grips your attention throughout its entire length. Sly 2, or as I and my pals like to call it, Sly Coops 2 & the Gang, follows up just a few years after the events of the original Sly Cooper and involves your quest of cleaning up the remainder of Clockwerk's legacy and taking down a new big bad syndicate. The individual levels are now larger yet tightly constructed overworlds filled with treasure to loot, guards to pickpocket, and separate missions with varying objectives to prep and pull off the grand scheme. The clue bottles are still there as collectibles, but now have a distinct glass tinkering sound that plays whenever you're nearby so you can more easily pinpoint their locations. Once you've gotten all the clue bottles in a location, you can use them to unlock a safe for some super cool powers just like the original; through unlocking safes and purchasing additional abilities in Thief Net, you can greatly expand your cornucopia of approaches and attacks and turn the levels into a bit of a sandbox. The abilities range from classics like a slo-mode toggle to make you feel like you're in the middle of a bullet time sequence, to an alarm clock you can throw to distract guards with noise before you pickpocket and end them. Sly's pals Bentley and Murray also have their own missions and abilities to work with and really come into their own with drastically different characteristics: while classic Sly works on maximizing finesse, Bentley's the brain and strategically disables enemies with explosives and sleeping darts, while Murray's the brawn and punches/throws his ways to success.
It's just so deceptive how the sequel organically takes and expands upon everything that the already super fun original was great at and manages to polish everything to a fine luster. The cel shaded environments and character models look sharper than ever, the soundtrack captures the moods perfectly, there's a great cast of vibrant personalities with fantastic lines, and the movement's just as crisp as ever. Sly 2 sells on atmosphere and great vibes, and it manages to do with such ease yet remaining accessible; the game's not technically demanding at all (simply press the circle button to do cool thing), yet you'll feel so badass and accomplished every time you successfully pull off an seemingly elaborate heist sequence or outmaneuver waves of guards and obstacles. Even the short breaks in platforming to allow for minigame segments like the tank sections and the twin stick shooter hacking have been upgraded with even more flair and precision. Gone are the days of clunky van races or rhythm game reaction boss fights; now you get to engage in a shmup bullet hell bombing run with a RC helicopter over a rogue train in the middle of the Canadian wilds. Finally, I think this is the first 3D platformer I've played in a while where I have absolutely no complaints with the camera whatsoever; the camera was almost exactly where it had to be whenever it needed to be without feeling too uncomfortably close or sensitive and a versatile rotatable free cam gives you the leeway to ensure you'll always be in a position where you can see where you need to go and how to fight against everything in your way. If I really forced myself to nitpick, there were a few moments where the tight and precise jumping of Sly 2 wasn't quite enough to get to obvious collectibles and I had to resort to more arcane solutions, and I honestly can't say I'm the biggest fan of some of the turret sections due to how much of an endurance test they felt like, but these moments were far and few in-between.
I was absolutely stoked picking this back up due to all the praise my friends have levied upon this PS2 classic, and I'm happy to concur that the game has more than lived up to the hype. This, alongside Ape Escape 3 and Super Mario 64, is one of the greats of 3D platforming, and you would be incredibly remiss to give this a pass if you're even remotely interested in slick and satisfying action adventure games with over the top cartoon violence and thrilling and epic heists. I can't recommend this enough, go give Sly Coops and the boys some love. Here's hoping that the leak was real and that we'll be getting some news for a future installment soon.
2 Comments
100% yes, probably in a week or so
Speedy
1 year ago
Will you play Sly 3 at some point?