Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a third-person platformer developed by Sucker Punch, the people who would later bring you inFamous. In the game, you take control of Sly Cooper, a raccoon thief and the last of the Cooper clan, a family of master thieves. The story goes as follows: When Sly was a young lad, a group of people calling themselves the Fiendish Five broke into his house, killed his family and stole the Thievius Raccoonus, the Cooper Clan's tome of thieving. After that, Sly is sent to an orphanage where he meets his crew: Bentley, a turtle and brains of the operation, and Murray, a hippo and getaway driver. You then track down the members of the Fiendish Five and try to steal back the Thievius Raccoonus while also trying to steer clear of Inspector Carmelita Fox, the cop responsible for catching the Cooper Gang and Sly's love interest. The gameplay is pretty much standard platforming, lots of double-jumping, grappling and collectables in the form of coins and clues. If you get all clues in an area, you can open a safe and learn a new thieving move. There are places in the game that have glowing blue sparkles on them that let you know you can pull off a "master thief move" as the game calls them such as walking on thin ledges, jumping on small points, and grinding rails. You play almost the entire game as Sly, with two driving missions for Murray, one or two hacking missions with Bentley. There are a couple of mounted turret position areas and a couple of dual-joystick shooter areas. These various missions all play a little bit differently and all hold there own. Since most of it is just platforming, it's nice to have a break every now and then. The game looks really good. All of the areas have a specific design based on the Fiendish Five member you are currently hunting down. The game also has hub worlds leading to the different areas, each one being a kind of compilation of different elements from the areas it leads to. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks of the game is the fact that it's one hit one kill, for bad guys and you. The only way to stop this is to get horseshoes. These are obtained by getting one hundred coins or by finding them around the hub world. This game also has lives. If you run out of lives you are booted out of an area and given back a few lives. Overall I think Sly Cooper is great game. The gameplay is good, the graphics are good, and the story is quite well done. If you own a PS2, buy this game, if not use your thieving prowess to steal a PS2 and a copy of this game. Don't forget to leave a calling card.