Ah, the mascot platformer. There's so many of them out there that it's hard to expect new things from them. They all tend to blur together into an endless array of wacky levels, item collecting and lead characters with attitude. Sly Cooper (and his titular Thievius Raccoonus) doesn't float too far from the bleak surface of the contemporary platform cliches, but it is far enough to score a big thumbs-up.
Sly Cooper comes from a family of trained thieves, and the Thievious Raccoonus is his predecessors' legacy: a book of lessons and tricks in thieving. But it's been stolen by the Fearsome Five, a loose alliance of villains. Sly must track down all the missing pages of the TR, beat all five criminal bosses, and learn some new thiefy skills along the way. Sly's backup consists of Computer Geek Stereotype #1 and Fat Oaf Stereotype #1. Their names are Bentley and Murray, and that alone should be enough to suggest their roles and dialogue.
Sly is actually a nicely interesting character, with excellent voice acting and tons of engaging animations. It's a shame he gets saddled with a pair of typically dopey sidekicks. Sly would have been much cooler if he had tackled this mission without them. (For example, why does super-thief Sly Cooper need to have a computer whiz onhand to decode safe combinations? Listening to lock tumblers ought to be basic enough for him to handle on his own.)
Sly's only weapon is a huge hooked cane. 99% of the time, you'll just use it to hit people, but it can also latch onto rings so Sly can swing across chasms and whatnot. I kept expecting Sly to learn some sort of distance-attack maneuver, but he never does. Sly is a close combat kind of raccoon.
Although, as a thief, he also does a fair amount of sneaking around. When you see little blue sparkles, that indicates an area where Sly can perform a context-sensitive special move. Usually it's used so Sly can flatten against a wall and inch along a narrow ledge, but the sparkles also mark pointy areas you can land on, and outcroppings you can hide behind. Eventually, you'll even unlock the ability to turn invisible, and then Sly can tiptoe right past baddies so as to whack them from behind with his cane.
Each level begins with a slick animated movie. I thought these were very nice, although Sly himself looks... odd... in animated cartoon form. These movies set the mood for the game, sort of a mock-noirish anti-hero underdog suspense tale, to coin a long and unwieldy phrase. This game turns out a very nice example of graphics and music working together to hold that mood. The designers had a very specific goal in mind - the dangerous missions of a professional thief - and they stuck to it.
There is some exceptional camera work. Although you can control the camera yourself most of the time, the viewpoint will swing around for a dramatic view or fly overhead when the game knows you have to gauge a touchy jump. I always appreciate when a game goes to forced perspective or cinematic angles to heighten the drama of a level.
But these levels are all extremely linear. Despite all the casual nods to Metal Gear Solid (Sly and Bentley communicate in a very codec-like way, and Sly will peer around corners just like Snake), you basically have one path to follow. At least it's a great path; keep your eyes open for some fantastic level layouts. Instead of the usual straight/winding path ahead, the level will wind back in around itself. Often you'll be in some trapeze act and look down to see you're crossing over the first portion of the level.
There are five worlds, and the first four are all fairly standard. There's a central hub level (which is fairly adventurey in its own right) and about eight levels branching off from the hub. The fifth world is pretty much one extended boss fight, split into five acts with a three stage boss battle. Each world is beautiful, filled with unique cel-shaded enemies. Just about every level is dark, fulfilling the noir theme. Unfortunately, the larger worlds suffer from terrible slowdown... particularly if you like to adjust the camera yourself. I found the slowdown frustrating, since the game is so pretty otherwise. The levels are still playable, but when a game goes to such lengths to present a cool visual style, it really hurts when an obvious technical problem wrecks it all. The third and fourth worlds are where you'll see the slowdown.
Each level's main goal is a treasure key. Once you collect enough treasure keys, you gain access to the world's boss. You can also collect clues, in the form of letters-stuffed-in-a-bottle. When you find all of them, you are rewarded with a safe combination that holds a lost page of the Thievius Raccoonus. You can also re-run the levels as a time trial.
The nice bit about collecting clues is that there's an actual purpose for them. It's not just collecting for completion's sake; you win new special moves, advanced old moves, and new abilities for your binocucom (the first-person mode you can use to scan the path ahead.) However, many of the special moves you simply don't need, and since they are all mapped to the triangle button, you can't effectively combo them.
To break up the platform levels, Sly Cooper has several different types of classic arcade action levels. Among them: two driving levels, two scope shooting levels, and several 360 degree shooting levels. The scope levels are especially impressive. Through your viewfinder, you have to track Murray's progress through a zig-zagging path as he runs for a treasure key. Naturally, he'll stumble into baddies and you have to shoot them before they club the pink fool to death.
And eight hours later, it's all over. To be fair, the game prepares you for a short ride: it's the Fearsome Five, not the Fearsome Fifteen. But I really, really wanted more. Especially since the last world is about half the length of the other four. I wouldn't push for something 20 hours long, but another two worlds would have been perfect. As it stands, beating the game in a week of non-serious play is disappointing. I still have time trials to go through, but I hate timed levels, so it's not exactly a priority.
Here's a storyline quibble. The final boss seems to come out of nowhere. You never see him posturing throughout the game like most big bosses. In fact, you don't see much of *any* of the Fearsome Five until it's time to whale on them, except for the opening cartoons. Since the game lets you get to know Sly's personality so well - and his cat-and-mouse love affair with Inspector Carmelita - I would have liked more opportunities to interact with the bosses.
Length aside, it's a very nice game. The action is smooth (except for a few instances of slowdown) and Sly himself is fun to control. The sequel better let him throw that damn cane like a boomerang. It's not an epic like Super Mario Sunshine, but it's not a slapdash slouch either. You're going to see a lot of used Sly Coopers for sale once people beat it and forget it, and that's a shame.
