Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus Review

Sly Cooper is one of the best games that I have so far played for the PS2. Sly comes from a long line of thieves. His family put together the “Thievius Raccoonus”, which was a book on thievery. The book was stolen and torn into five different pieces which spread throughout the world. In an orphanage Sly met Bentley and Murray, his two best friends.

Each level is distinct in its own way. Some levels require you to use a special move to get around, which you acquire by retrieving parts of the “Thievius Raccoonus”. Other levels require you to use a stealthy approach. One level requires you to sneak past guards by hiding in a barrel. Different varieties of levels and foes make playing the game an adventure from beginning to end. Sly Cooper shines due to not only the fun factor, but also the simplicity of the game.

Each bad guy is colorful in his own way. The bosses have certain weaknesses, which give you an “edge” over them. Each of the levels is quite large and the whole game will take you a relatively long time to beat. It will take the average gamer a good 8-10 hours to fully beat the game, possibly a little less.

The implementation of cel-shading was done very well. The game looks like an animated cartoon and plays as if it were too. The controls are simple and easy to learn. As you continue to collect pieces of the “Thievius Raccoonus” you will learn new moves such as the slide and other moves. The developer did a great job at placing cut scenes in the correct place, all of which are high quality with marvelous voice acting. The only main complaint is that the camera angle seems to complicate things every so often.

In the end I was very happy with this title, due to how fun it was. I really don’t enjoy playing a game 30 hours, because it gets awfully repetitive. I hate when companies prolong a games length, JUST to make it longer unnecessarily. In Sly Cooper’s case, the game was made long enough without making it tiresome. I must compliment the cel-shaded look, because it adds to the cartoon feel of the game. This proves that a “cartoony” look doesn’t make a game just for kids.