Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Being a master thief isn't such an easy task. I mean--taking on dangerous missions around the world, targeting the rarest and most valuable treasures of the rich and powerful, and pulling off these and other impressive feats, while dodging the ever-persistent Lolita cop / love interest in the process. People would kill for that kind of wild lifestyle...but that's probably just me. You could also say Sly Cooper is somewhat the anthropomorphic version of Robin Hood, whose sworn pact is to steal only from the most corrupt and worst of criminals. But what does a master thief do when the biggest and baddest of criminals take away the most important thing from him? Steal it back, of course. Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus definitely gives you that interesting adventure, making you feel like a master thief in a very entertaining approach. What Sly Cooper lacks in a lengthy storyline, it definitely makes up for its exceedingly stylish presentation.

The story is centered on Sly Cooper, the titular and main character of the series. It starts off with Cooper breaking into Inspector Carmelita's police headquarters and stealing a document containing the locations of the Fiendish Five, the notorious gang responsible of the death of Sly Cooper's family. The Thievious Raccoonus was also taken in the process, which is the book containing secrets from Sly Cooper's long line of master thieves. He sets out on a journey with his two best friends, Murray and Bentley around the world to track down the Fiendish Five and retrieve the Thievious Raccoonus to uphold the Cooper lineage. The game is filled with quirky but interesting characters that make the world of Sly Cooper diverse and colorful. Storytelling takes on an interesting approach, portraying the game's cutscenes in a film-noir style fashion. This makes the game more appealing than it already is, plus the narrative is great to take part in. However, Sly Cooper is just way too short of an adventure, and would take the player around 6-7 hours to finish. I felt really disappointed because getting into the plot was easy enough, but it was over way too quickly.

Sly Cooper's game mechanics remind me a little bit of how the Crash Bandicoot series worked. That aspect alone makes a platformer game enjoyable enough, but the one thing this game somewhat lacks in is originality. Though that is the case for the most part, the light stealth game mechanics and the 'one-hit-kill' action somehow bring some exceptionality to it. Sly Cooper and his gang visit five different places, each complete with a set of quests containing keys, vaults, and time trials. In every level there are multiple coins to collect, and if you've gathered 100 coins, you gain a horseshoe, which saves you from death once. Collect 100 more coins and get a second horseshoe, which protects you from death, twice this time. Afterwards you just gain extra lives. Other than that, the main goal is to always get the key situated at the end of each level. Collect enough of these keys and you get to proceed through the second part of the vicinity, or even fight one of the Fiendish Five bosses.

But there are also bottle messages scattered throughout the various levels of the game. Basically, these bottles serve as 'clues' to opening vaults. These vaults contain either missing pages (basically, new abilities) from the Thievious Raccoonus, or documents that help detect hidden items you otherwise might have overlooked. Finding these bottles can be a chore sometimes, but they're definitely worth it to gain useful skills, making your quest easier and less frustrating to handle. And speaking of frustrations…this is to be expected in Sly Cooper. Some missions require a little bit of trial and error in order to progress, but this applies mostly in the time trial modes. Trust me, you will be doing lots of restarts and lose a few lives here and there in order to beat some of the hardest trials in the game. Though these modes can seldom be exasperating, completing more and more of them can be a rewarding experience in return. Not many games I've played actually give you some bonus commentary for compensation, but it's somewhat worth the occasional agony to at least complete the game 100% right?

Despite some unforgiving approaches to Sly Cooper's game play, it can also merciful to a certain extent. It doesn't really matter if you gather up 99 lives, lose them all, and get a game over in the process. Once you die, you can start over at the beginning of each area, with 5 extra lives in return. So if, by some reason you can't get past the various levels of Sly Cooper, getting a game over many times isn't such a waste after all. It all depends on your skill with the controller, and of course, how long your patience can hold out in this game. Missions get repetitive over time, sadly. There are only three major things that you do in each level; get the key, open the vault, beat the time trial. And…that's it? Unfortunately, yes. But regardless of that, some of the missions take different, interesting approaches other than just leading Sly Cooper to the end of each level multiple times. Other levels require you to shoot your way through, sort of like a rail shooter strung within the game, and you even get to face off with one of the Fiendish Five in a rhythm-based boss battle. Some missions will involve Murray, making you race against others or provide cover fire for him. It makes it seem that not only Sly Cooper can pull off great feats, but his buddies can also be reliable when the situation calls for it.

Sly Cooper's stylish atmosphere is awesome to look at, and gives the game its unique look and feel to it. Background is pretty well detailed for the most part; cities you visit give you this cool feeling of a real master thief scaling the city rooftops in the dead of night, which Sly Cooper obviously is. Film-noir style cutscenes are very interesting and entertaining to watch, and various game animations are done quite well. All characters have believable expressions and fluid movements, which is always an excellent aspect. Other than that, the game has plausible sound effects; weapons and various onomatopoeia sounds sound just right. Sly Cooper also has a good voice cast, with dialogue handled nicely. Soundtrack is great, for the most part, and boss battle theme songs have their epic moments, which makes combat often intense and enjoyable.

If it were not for its short-lived storyline, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus would have been a much more superior platformer in my book. Even though that's mainly the case, the game still offers a high level of enjoyment; more than enough to play it again and again. Hardcore platformer fans will find Sly Cooper pretty much a cakewalk, but it might be the opposite for those who aren't used to the challenge the game brings. But despite possible mixed reactions on its difficulty levels, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus's stylish atmosphere makes it all worthwhile.

David Gabriel, NoobFeed