Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Last year, I took a risk on a little known Sony PlayStation2 title called ICO. In retrospect, it was probably some of the best gaming dollars I spent the entire year. Though rather short and simplistic, every implemented detail of ICO exuded polish and quality – from the at times breathtaking visuals to the various game puzzles. And though the in-game dialogue was (intentionally) incomprehensible gibberish, the interactions between the game characters were completely riveting.

This year’s unexpected hit is Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. Sandwiched between a series of big-named titles – StarFox Adventures, UT2003, and Kingdom Hearts to name a few – Sly Cooper displays far more style and quality than any of the aforementioned blockbuster titles. Though, like ICO, the game is on the short side, Sly Cooper does many things exceptionally well and is worthy of your gaming dollar.

Story
The basic story of Sly Cooper is a mixture of the novel and the clichéd. The game stars a dexterous raccoon named (surprise!) Sly Cooper. Sly is the latest in the Cooper line of master thieves. Over the years, the Coopers have compiled their knowledge and filching expertise into a thieving compendium – the Thievius Raccoonus. The day the young Sly is supposed to inherit this great heirloom, the Cooper family is ambushed by a shady group known as the Fiendish Five. These evildoers off Sly’s parents and steal the Thievius Raccoonus, leaving Sly to be raised in an orphanage. There, he meets his buddies Bentley – a tech-savvy turtle – and Murray – an earnest but slow-witted hippo. These buddies join Sly in his quest to steal back the Thievius Raccoonus, avenge his parents’ deaths, and establish himself as a master thief.

Yes, the story is rather campy, but that is the desired effect. Sly Cooper is not a game that takes itself too seriously. Though it has some dark undertones, the game is intended to be buoyant and light-hearted. Today’s games are all about realizing some sort of interactive Hollywood. A quick scan through any gaming publication’s preview section will turn up a laundry list of titles with gore, violence, tragedy, and drama. Comedy, however, seems to be rather underrepresented. Comedy is a key genre in the movie industry and should not be neglected in the game industry’s quest to have non-gamers take games more seriously. Sly Cooper proves that comedy can be just as fun and entertaining as violence. But whether or not it sells as well is still an open question. Violence sells movie tickets and seems to move game titles as well.

Presentation
Without a doubt, the most impressive aspect of Sly Cooper is the game’s sense of style and presentation. The game visuals use cel-shading, an increasingly popular technique that makes computer graphics look more like animated cartoons. The cel-shading in Sly Cooper is the best that I have seen. It really feels like you are playing a cartoon. This sense is helped by the excellent character designs and the outstanding character animation. Sly’s movements are smooth and stylishly exaggerated, just like a cartoon movie. Not a single time did I notice a movement that seemed jerky or out of place.

The graphics engine itself is also quite impressive. The levels are large and highly detailed, populated with hundreds of objects and enemies. There was one moment late in the game where there was some slowdown, but outside of that one place, the game is smooth and fluid. I also want to note that the camera system is exceptionally well done and rarely gets in the way. When I say camera system, what I’m talking about is the viewpoint of the game. For non-first person perspective 3D games, having a viewpoint that adjusts quickly and fluidly to the movements of the character has turned out to be an extremely difficult problem. You would think that over time, developers would continually refine their camera systems until the problems were eliminated. However, many recent games have actually taken a step backwards in this regard. Mario Sunshine and Kingdom Hearts possess two of the worst camera systems in my memory. I was becoming resigned to the possibility that bad cameras were just a reality of 3D technology, but Sly Cooper has proven that a third person action-oriented game can have a responsive and capable camera.

Between action sequences, Sly Cooper advances the story with short animated cinemas. These little clips are done extremely well – good enough to compare with what you’d find on TV. I don’t want to say too much about them, but I think you will be pleasantly surprise and entertained, particularly by the dialogue and excellent voice acting. Voice acting in games has really improved by leaps and bounds. Those of you who regularly read my (sporadic) reviews know that I’ve been saying this for some time now. But I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t think it was 100% true.

Aside from the voice acting, the rest of the sounds in the game are well done. The various background music samples aren’t all that memorable, but definitely suite the style and mood of each environment. And all the sounds effects are plausible and believable. Sound effects don’t make a game great, but they can definitely make a game bad. Fortunately, there’s nothing annoying or out of place in Sly Cooper’s audio library.

Gameplay
If you haven’t guessed already, Sly Cooper is a platformer in the style of Mario64 and Crash Bandicoot. What this means is that the main play mode of the game revolves around maneuvering the agile raccoon up, around, and through the various obstacles in each level.

Given that the main character is a thief, you may think that stealth is a core element of the gameplay. Surprisingly, however, stealth plays a fairly small role. But this is not to say that the gameplay in Sly Cooper is disappointing. Rather, Sly Cooper plays like a dream. As a master thief, Sly possess a sizeable array of maneuvers. In addition to the standard run, jump, and roll, Sly possesses a number of more acrobatic moves. He can hang from ledges. He can press against walls. He can climb up pipes and vines. He can ski across ropes. He can even balance on the tiniest tips of structures ninja-style. Sly can even slow down or speed up the game Matrix-style. In many games, it’s often difficult to tell when certain maneuvers can be used. Sly Cooper makes it easy by illuminating these special zones in a starry blue light. Whenever you see the lights, you’ll know that Sly can show off some fancy skills.

Sly also carries with him the Cooper cane – a family heirloom of sorts. In use, the cane is more like a hook, which Sly can use to grab onto hooks and ropes. The cane is also Sly’s de facto weapon. One of the most unusual aspects of Sly Cooper is that aside from the bosses at the end of each area, every other enemy in the game can be disposed of with just one shot from Sly’s cane. Now, you may think that this makes the game horribly unbalanced and excessively easy. That is not the case. Sly himself is pretty fragile as well and is wiped out by a single mishap. The raccoon hero can acquire lucky charms that grant him a miraculous recovery each, but nevertheless, the stress level on each level is quite high as the margin for error is very small.

The level designs are very well thought out, in my opinion. There are five major environments, each with multiple areas. Sly will have to navigate through these areas to steal keys to unlock other areas and ultimately reach the level’s boss. In order to avoid spoilers, I won’t discuss the specific details. However, I will say that the level designs are fairly linear. Each environment has a hub area that connects all the various levels. The levels themselves, however, each have a well-defined path. You will rarely find yourself wondering what to do or where to go. Some people prefer open-ended levels. Personally, I don’t mind linear design – I don’t like wandering aimlessly feeling lost and confused.

The goal of each level is to find the key. Each level also has a secondary goal of opening a locked vault. Spread out over each level is a varying number of bottles. These bottles house clues that your genius turtle sidekick Bentley uses to crack the code of a locked vault. Getting all the clues and opening the vaults gives Sly access to new moves, attacks, and thieving techniques. These aren’t absolutely necessary to finish the game, but certainly do make things more fun.

Replay Value
The weakest part of Sly Cooper is its duration and replayability. The game itself is rather short. An experienced gamer can finish it is under a dozen hours. More casual gamers will probably take up to twenty hours. Once it’s over, there’s not a whole lot left to do. You can go back through the levels and unlock all the vaults. Finishing the game also unlocks the time trial option. Essentially, you have to reach the end of each level within a certain amount of time. Completing the time trials for all the levels in the game gives you a special bonus movie. I personally found the time trials to be quite challenging and spent a large amount of time completing them. But I doubt other people will get into it as much as I did.

Conclusion
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is an outstanding game. It is probably the best platformer on the PlayStation2 and one of the best platformers on any of the next-generation consoles. The only knock against the game is its length. Sly Cooper is definitely a bit on the short side. But what it does offer, it does extremely well. I don’t know the actual sales figures, but my impressions are that people don’t really know about the game. That is really too bad. Just like ICO, Sly Cooper is a shining example of wonderfully constructed game that is not centered on gratuitous violence and excessive gore. If you own a PlayStation2, you owe it to yourself to go and play this game.