Sucker Punch's Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was a lovely game. A lovely, little game. That was the main problem for many - it was over in ten hours. Still, those fleeting hours were packed with quality and refreshingly straightforward gameplay, charming characters, and some beautiful sights. Now, two years later, is upon us.
Longplay of Sly 2: Band of Thieves (HD), played as the NTSC version on the PlayStation 3. This is a list of all known cheats, exploits, and glitches for Sly 2: Band of Thieves. The way to access these videos is the same; the episode number just changes. To access a video, complete the corresponding episode (beat the boss or complete the final mission; vaults are not necessary), then.
It's a much different game than Thievius Raccoonus, and mostly a better one. Sly 2 is firing on all cylinders, and it's a sight to behold. As the title suggests, Band of Thieves places a greater emphasis on Sly's two pals, Bentley the genius turtle and Murray, a hippo strongman.
Their goal is to gather the various pieces of Clockwerk, the malevolent mechanical owl from the first adventure. It seems the Klaww Gang is trying to put him back together, and the Cooper clan can have none of that. So, they plan a series of heists to get 'em all back.
Of course, Bentley already has everything all planned out. It's only a matter of execution. Just Add Cereal Sly 2 was heavily inspired by Saturday morning cartoons, and it shows. The highly likeable cast (good guys and villains alike) are drawn with bold, sharp lines, and ooze with color and personality. They all exist in a world of talking animal people, and act with the broad gestures and exaggerated personality traits you'd expect of cartoon characters.
The intro to each chapter features a lovely 2D animation complete with corny episode title, and even the pause screen sports the reassuring message, 'We'll be right back!' Outside of some miscellaneous (and annoyingly unskippable) cutscene gaffes, Sly 2's presentation is slick as all heck. Oh, stop showing off. The same can be said for the general gameplay. If you missed out on the first game, then there are several things to know. Sly Cooper was predominately a platformer, whereas Sly 2 leans a bit more toward general action and adventure.
There's still plenty of platform jumping, but the missions and tasks are quite varied, especially when you factor in Murray and Bentley. Sucker Punch has action/platforming down pat; few other studios can marry such smooth control with such rich and satisfying gameplay. In short, just about everything that was good about Sly Cooper is good here, too. At least as good here, I should say.
For example, on the technical side of things, Sly 2 blows its prequel away. Band of Thieves' free-roaming worlds are vast in comparison to the linear levels of the original, and burst with color and detail.
Sucker Punch's 'no right angles' philosophy is on full display, and few other games can claim such wonderfully askew, stylized worlds. The soundtrack is a pleasant leap forward, too. The old sequenced tracks have been replaced with real music, and while I don't love it all, the parts that work really work well. Most amazingly, the 60 frames per second framerate is more solid than ever; the original's herks and jerks have been eradicated. Sly 2 is one smooth, sexy beast.