Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Sly Cooper and I go back a very long time. Back to when I didn’t have a PlayStation 2 yet. That’s when I would go over my cousin’s house and play it and I ended up beating it for her in one day. That’s also the day I found one of my favorite games of all time. Once I got a Ps2 I played it again until Sly Cooper: Band of Thieves came out and I beat that game several times also. When I thought it was all over Sucker Punch gave me another game to play, Sly Cooper: Honor Among Thieves. As you probably guessed I also beat this game quite a few times. As you know if you beat the game, the game left you with an open ending to another game. Sly Cooper did not return to us until February 5^th, 2013. Honor Among Thieves came out in November of 2005, which is 8 years it took for another Sly Cooper game to be released. Now that the game is released I finally have beaten it and I have quite a lot to say about this game.

First off is the story to this overdue game. The story begins a few years after the previous game had left off and explains everything right from the get-go, which made it extremely easy to refresh my memory on everything that had happened in all of the previous games that would lead up to this game. From there you are told that the Thievius Raccoonus’ pages are disappearing. Of course Sly Cooper and his gang Bentley and Murray immediately coming up with a plan and diving right into the action of Sly Cooper’s biggest adventure yet. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone at all so I won’t tell more than I already have thus far. What I will say is that this story is nothing at all what I thought it would be and was excellently told and for once a sequel to a game is better than the originals. But don’t get me wrong, I love the original PlayStation 2 Sly Cooper’s as well.

Gameplay in this Cooper adventure is fantastic. I definitely give Sanzaru Games crazy amount of gratitude for keeping this gameplay controls extremely close to its original Sucker Punch made games. If you played the previous games then you will grab the controller and feel that familiar feel of running along tight ropes and gliding across the skies. Sanzaru Games also made a few positive additions such as costumes that give you special power-ups and many more skills to purchase on ThiefNet. To new-comers of the series, the controls are very basic and easy to remember. Navigating maps is easy and very enjoyable to sneak around and discover secret locations to pieces of art. In this game you will play as Sly Cooper, Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, and Sly’s ancestors. Each of his ancestors is very humorous and unique. The ancestor’s personalities are each entertaining along with the way to move around the world’s they live in.

The levels are excellently designed and extremely unique compared to any other game out there. Each map has its own theme that has a great amount of detail and thought put into them. Examples are how the guards are appeared to be to how you get around the map on tight ropes and climb up tall towers. All levels have 30 clue bottles that open a safe that contains a treasure with a special power-up that’s permanent from the point you obtain the item. Certain parts of the levels are hidden and can only be obtainable if you use a costume’s power-up to reach it. Each level will have each costume’s power-up hidden somewhere in it. An easier way to explain this is a costume you obtain in the 5^th chapter can be used to reach a hidden spot on the 2^nd chapter. Adding this adds more gameplay and more things to discover once you beat the game.

With all of this information on this game I have come to a conclusion of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time…It’s amazing in every single way. The story is long enough to be enjoyed but not too long to feel like it is dragging on and wishing it would end already. The boss battles can get very intense and angering and once you beat them, you feel a great accomplishment. The missions are never really repetitive minus Bentley’s hacking mini-games. Each level has its unique feel to it and always kept me running around wanting to discover every nook and cranny to no end. Once you beat the game there is still plenty to do and keep you having fun. Such as masks that are cleverly hidden in each level, clue bottles to be found, and treasures to be returned to your hideout in a certain amount of time. My suggestion is if you are a Sly Cooper fan since PlayStation 2 then you will love this game as it feels just like previous Sly Cooper games. If you are completely new to the series, you don’t have to play the previous ones but I suggest you do since they are also fun. I hope you have enjoyed this review and find it helpful and accurate. Let me know on what I can do to change myself for future reviews. Thank You!