Sly 2: Band of Thieves

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Zack Burner
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Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Postby Zack Burner » July 24th, 2019, 1:18 pm

I've recently beat this game, and it's often considered the best Sly Cooper game in the series, and it's not hard to see why! It improves upon the first in every way (though I'm still on the fence of which of the two I like more), and even becomes it's own class in and of itself. Whereas in the first game where you primarly play as Sly and on a few rare exceptions Murray (the two racing games), Bentley (the lone hacking game reminiscent of Asteroids), and even Carmelita in one of the shooting series, this one you branch into 3 different character who have jobs to do in order to pull off heists rather than just one character. Sly can jump onto spires, climb/walk on ropes and pipes, Bentley can hack, demolish, or fly an RC chopper, and Murray does the heavy lifting and brawling. You get 8 missions with an intricate story of espionage, betrayal, deception, trust, and friendship. Carmelita has some constable named Neyla who are not only after the Cooper gang, but the Klaww gang who has stolen the parts of Sly's mortal enemy Clockwerk. The question is which side is Neyla really on? That's for you to find out. Like the other games in this series there's some great voice acting, though the actress who plays everyone's favorite foxy lady cop is different in each game, here I'd have to say the person voicing her Aleisha Glidewell is one of the two standouts (the 2nd one yaI'll name in another review). Kevin Miller is just great as Sly, bringing that memorable feel to him. My favorite Klaww gang member is none other than the Contessa, she just oozes evil and her voice actress Gloria Manon lives and breathes the role like how June Foray did with Natasha in Rocky and Bullwinkle. Another good one is Dimitri, the lounge lizard whose weird English he acquired from watching music videos and his quote will have you laughing out loud, my favorite is the still hard to decipher "Show your bling and let me shine you!" The worlds are bursting with creativity as you pull off each heists. If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the lack of replayability, which the first game was bursting at the seams with. You do have the option to find all the clue bottles to unlock special moves, but these are optional and don't affect the story one bit. There are some unlockable videos though this only applies if you're playing the original version and not from the Sly collection which are strangly absent save one. Other than that you'll remember this game for sure like the first game!

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Retro STrife
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Re: Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Postby Retro STrife » July 25th, 2019, 11:26 am

Thanks for the review! The PS2 had some great platformer series... Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper being the Big 3 that I always think of. And yet, I've never played any of them. I own a few games from each series, but just haven't had time to play them yet. My goal is to play one game from each series -- which Sly game do you recommend if someone only plays one? And, if you've played any Ratchet or Jak games, do you prefer Sly over those series?

Zack Burner
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Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Re: Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Postby Zack Burner » July 25th, 2019, 12:55 pm

Retro STrife wrote:Thanks for the review! The PS2 had some great platformer series... Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper being the Big 3 that I always think of. And yet, I've never played any of them. I own a few games from each series, but just haven't had time to play them yet. My goal is to play one game from each series -- which Sly game do you recommend if someone only plays one? And, if you've played any Ratchet or Jak games, do you prefer Sly over those series?


To answer your first question, that's a tough one, though would definitely say Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus since it's the most famous of the bunch and after a much heated internal debate with myself, my personal favorite, even though the 2nd one had better gameplay and a more involving story, I'd say play the games in the correct order so you get a better feel of the story. As for Ratchet and Jak, I can't really comment on those ones since I never played them, they just didn't click with me like Sly Cooper did (to each their own)

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velcrozombie
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Re: Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Postby velcrozombie » August 2nd, 2019, 11:00 am

Retro STrife wrote:Thanks for the review! The PS2 had some great platformer series... Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper being the Big 3 that I always think of. And yet, I've never played any of them. I own a few games from each series, but just haven't had time to play them yet. My goal is to play one game from each series -- which Sly game do you recommend if someone only plays one? And, if you've played any Ratchet or Jak games, do you prefer Sly over those series?


If this helps, the first Sly Cooper game is considerably more straightforward - it's a platformer with some light stealth elements for the most part, with the occasional gimmick section (vehicle battle, race, a section where you man a turret to keep your partner safe as he makes his way through a course) and a boss battle at the end of each level. In the second Sly Cooper game, from what I've played of it (still need to go back and finish it) each mission is a small open world where you need to do a series of smaller tasks in preparation to pull off the big heist at the end of each level. The mechanics of the individual challenges aren't much different than in the first game for the most part but it's satisfying the way each task builds on top of one another as you get closer to your goal. The structure also gives the second game a greater emphasis on story and characters than the first, although both games have a lot of charm in those areas. If you can only play one I'd probably go for the second since it has a bit more of its own thing going on than the first one does - but if you want more in the way of linear, continuously-flowing levels then I'd play the first game instead. I still haven't played a R&C or Jak game despite owning digital copies of the first three games in each series (I installed a 1TB hard drive in my PS3 because of how crazy cheap digital copies of their old games can be during their sales).

Zack Burner
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Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Re: Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Postby Zack Burner » August 3rd, 2019, 3:07 pm

velcrozombie wrote:
Retro STrife wrote:Thanks for the review! The PS2 had some great platformer series... Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper being the Big 3 that I always think of. And yet, I've never played any of them. I own a few games from each series, but just haven't had time to play them yet. My goal is to play one game from each series -- which Sly game do you recommend if someone only plays one? And, if you've played any Ratchet or Jak games, do you prefer Sly over those series?


If this helps, the first Sly Cooper game is considerably more straightforward - it's a platformer with some light stealth elements for the most part, with the occasional gimmick section (vehicle battle, race, a section where you man a turret to keep your partner safe as he makes his way through a course) and a boss battle at the end of each level. In the second Sly Cooper game, from what I've played of it (still need to go back and finish it) each mission is a small open world where you need to do a series of smaller tasks in preparation to pull off the big heist at the end of each level. The mechanics of the individual challenges aren't much different than in the first game for the most part but it's satisfying the way each task builds on top of one another as you get closer to your goal. The structure also gives the second game a greater emphasis on story and characters than the first, although both games have a lot of charm in those areas. If you can only play one I'd probably go for the second since it has a bit more of its own thing going on than the first one does - but if you want more in the way of linear, continuously-flowing levels then I'd play the first game instead. I still haven't played a R&C or Jak game despite owning digital copies of the first three games in each series (I installed a 1TB hard drive in my PS3 because of how crazy cheap digital copies of their old games can be during their sales).


What you said velcrozombie, to quote Sly at one point, "Truer Words never spoken"

Zack Burner
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Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Re: Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Postby Zack Burner » August 10th, 2019, 1:14 pm

I should mention folks some of my favorite moments from this game:

1.) Sly's showdown with Dimitri - from the famous dialogue "Show your bling and let me shine you!" "I have no idea what you're saying, and you suit sucks" "AHHHHHH! Let's dance!", the music, and how the battle plays out like melee vs gun (though he shoots from a ring).

2.) Sly and Carmelita dancing - it's a rhythm game moment, but the sweet music and this dialogue make it memorable: "You look familiar, are you in law enforcement" "I often deal with police while on the job"

3.) The 2nd Prague level - too many good moments in this part to name from Bentley using Neyla's voice to cause chaos, Murray using a tank a few times, Sly's battle with the Contessa (gotta love her voice!), to the end where we see Sly ziplining with Carmelita in tow.

4.) Balloon jumping - Sly couldn't have said it all better for this job "sounds like fun" jumping on balloons and paragliding is all fun.

5.) Bentley's fight against Jean Bison - "alright Jean Bison time I showed you just how "Stew-pid" we turtles can be!" This fight is memorable for a lot of reasons you call attacks flames, logs, and saws to give Jean Bison a good lesson.

6.) The prefight against the main antagonist speech - "Look Sly for once let's cut the flirty chit-chat, and get down to business. I need an experienced tail gunner, jump in and grab the gun we've got a bird to take down" "That's not flirty chit-chat?"

7.) The ending - too good to reveal here, you have to see it for yourselves.


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