Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Reviewed By Tristan Tancredi
Sly and the Gang make a spectacular return to the Sly Cooper chonicles with this fast paced, comedy packed, challenge riddled; Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Has Sony delivered yet another stealth classic, or have Sly and the Gang become all too predictable and stale? Let's find out.
Taking off from where Sly Cooper 3: Honor Among Thieves left off, Sly, Bentley and Murray reunite once more for what is essentially the 4th installment to the Sly Cooper series. Together with Carmelita Fox, who is somehow caught up in the fracas, the gang must head back in time to repair the 'Thievius Raccoonus', a family heirloom of the Cooper Clan detailing their rich ancestory of Thievery.
It is soon discovered that a villain is travelling back in time and altering the fate of Sly Coopers ancestors (hence the changes to the Thievius Racoonus) by stealing their trademark canes. Thus Sly and the Gang must head back in time, rescue the fate of his ancestors and in doing so, save the world. Make sense?
Utilising the trusted Cooper series formula, Gamers are thrust into an environment whereby they must complete a set of jobs before ultimately taking on the "boss" of that environment. Once defeated, the gang move onto the next environment and it's much the same. Repeat this 5 times across 5 environments and that's the basic set-up of Thieves in Time.
At each environment, the gang must rescue an Ancestor of Sly Cooper and defeat the villian of said location. Here's a brief run down of the ancestors of Sly Cooper in desperate need of salvation:
- Riochi Cooper, the master and inventor of Sushi, is in need of help to escape from the clutches of Jefe, a tiger with a strong military background. No surprise here that the Sushi Master resides in Japan.
- Tennessee "Kid" Cooper, the notorious Western outlaw and bankrobber is locked up by gunslinging armadillo slash sheriff, Toothpick. Alas, no surprise that Tennessee is bound up in the Old West.
- Bob Cooper, one of Slys earliest ancestors is a cave "rat" during the dinosaur era / ice age. The Grizz, grizzly bear, art thief and artist extraodinaire calls the shots during this level.
- Sir Galleth of the Knights, a dramatic knight of medieval England who has a knack for overacting. Rocking a fully clad suit of armour, Sir Galleth is one of the more entertaining external characters (Not wanting to reveal any of the stories secrets, all i'll say is he is pitted against the 'Black Knight').
- Salim Al-Kupar is the final Cooper ancestor, a member of the forty thieves, Al-Kupar is one of the worlds greatest thieves. This level pits you against Ms.Decibel, a crooked elephant, with a love of classical music and a trumpet lodged in her trunk.
All ancestors are playable characters and each have their own unique gameplay traits. Tennessee for instance is a dead-eye gun-shot specialist, Bob can climb ice walls, Riochi can jump from ledges, and so on. You get the point. At each environment, Sly Cooper also claims a "costume" which enables him to master a special skill, from long range attacks to bow and arrow specialties.
Despite playing a multitude of various characters throughout the 8-10 hours of playing time, the gameplay is still quite repetitive. Thieves of Time dips back into the formula of past games in the series and the result is a game with very few differences from its predecessors. Sure, you can briefly play portions of levels as different characters, but the objectives and scenarios follow the usual paths.
For instance, the Bentley hacking mini-game missions vary between motion sensor and 2D arcade style shoot-em ups. Fun at first, the missions become tiresome as you repeat the same mission styles over and over again.
The Murray missions are perhaps the games weakest point. Basically it's non-stop button mashing with zero level of difficulty. The boss missions are also ridiculously easy for gaming veterans. It's not surprising considering the degree of difficulty would be more suitable for children aged 7-14.
That said, the gameplay may be a rehash of a successful formula but the storyline is entertaining and rich in detail, the worlds are larger and more interactive than ever and the character design is sharper, crisper and the graphics cleaner.
The comedic banter with this addition is very hit and miss. The puns are frequent (pretty much every dialogue includes a pun or a joke) and the banter between the lead characters flows continuously. Some of the jokes fall flat, some of them work and some of them are so bad (but good!) that they bring out a hearty laugh.
All in all, Thieves in time is a triumphant addition to a steady and reliable series. A must have for the younger generation of gamers out there.
Game: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
System: PS3
Developer/Co-Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
