Sly 2: Band of Thieves
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| Sly 2 Band of Thieves | |
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| Developer(s) | Sucker Punch Productions |
| Publisher(s) | SCEA |
| Series | Sly Cooper |
| Engine | significantly modified Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus engine |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) | NA September 14, 2004 EU October 29, 2004 JP June 16, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer Stealth |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G |
| Media | DVD |
Sly 2 Band of Thieves is a PlayStation 2 video game by Sucker Punch and SCEA released in 2004. This title is a sequel to the game Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and part of the Sly Cooper video game series.
The sequel has a variety of changes, particularly in level design, in which the ultimate goal, a "vault," occurs not per level, but per "world". Also, it takes more than one hit to kill both the Sly and the opponent. Other changes include the ability to control not only Sly, but also Bentley and Murray, who are given more skills as compensation, able to do much more than their more limited persons in the previous game. However, Sly remains the central focus and character despite these changes to character roles. Finally, new skills can be bought at a 'safehouse', as well as being unlocked by opening safes hidden in each world.
Music for the game was composed by Peter McConnell.
[edit] Story
Two years after Sly Cooper unsuccessfully defeated Clockwerk for the Thievius Raccoonus in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly, Bentley, and Murray are back by robbing the Museum of Natural History of the Clockwerk parts, which are being stored in a separate building. As they make it to the building, the Clockwerk parts have disappeared. Just then, Carmelita Fox and her new partner, Constable Neyla, jump out of two coffins and confront Sly. Neyla then tells Carmelita that the Klaww gang broke in and stole the parts the night before. Carmelita, who then saw Sly escaping, hunts and just misses Sly as him and the rest of the gang make it to the team van and drive away.
After they dodge Carmelita, Sly then retraces his history with Clockwerk. After arriving in Paris to steal local Klaww gang member Dimitri's Clockwerk Tail Feathers, Sly discovers he is using them to print counterfeit money. During the heist, Constable Neyla, who is Carmelita's new partner, betrays Carmelita and joins forces with the Cooper gang, ultimately leading Sly to the nightclub's entrance. After pulling off some jobs to shut down security in Dimitri's nightclub, Sly then confronts Dimitri and battles him for the Clockwerk Tail Feathers. Sly wins the battle, sending Dimitri's operation into ruins and Clockwerk's Tail Feathers into the hands of Sly. Just then, Carmelita and Neyla arrive on the scene, shutting down the nightclub and throwing Dimitri behind bars.
The Cooper gang's next heist is to steal the Clockwerk wings from an illegal spice trader named Rajan, who lives in the palaces of India. Sly sneaks into Rajan's party he is hosting and discovers that he is only using the Clockwerk wings for a decoration on his statue. He also discovers that all of the other Klaww gang members (except for Dimitri), Carmelita, and Neyla are attending his party. After Sly sneaks into the ballroom and dances with Neyla to make Carmelita accept a dance to distract the crowd from Murray sawing the Clockwerk wings off, Sly then dances with Carmelita. After Murray has sawed the Clockwerk wings off the statue, Rajan discovers they are missing and the Cooper gang runs from the party, forcing Carmelita to blow her cover and start making arrests, which forces Rajan to flee his own party, and his home.
The Cooper gang's next heist is to find Rajan in the jungles of India to retrieve the Clockwerk heart, in which Sly finds out he is using half of the Clockwerk heart to grow the illegal spice, and the other half of which he is carrying on his staff. After Sly runs into Neyla again, Sly asks her out and Neyla accepts. She then shows Sly the way into the spice growing facility, which leads him to pickpocket the keys to the winch that is holding one half of the Clockwerk heart. After that, more jobs are pulled off, and after meeting up with Sly, Rajan knocks him out while Murray confronts him and battles him, ultimately winning. Just then, Carmelita, Neyla, and the Contessa show up, placing Rajan, Sly, and Murray under arrest by Neyla and the Contessa. Neyla then shows a photo of Carmelita dancing with Sly the night the Clockwerk wings were stolen, so Murray grabs Rajan's other half of the Clockwerk heart, Neyla betrays Carmelita and the Cooper gang, and Sly, Murray, and Carmelita are being hauled off to jail. Bentley, who saw the whole thing, discovers that Neyla had betrayed them.
Bentley then must jailbreak Sly and Murray out from the Contessa in the castles of Prague. After discovering that the Contessa is actually a secret member of the Klaww gang, Bentley then frees Sly easily, but getting Murray out is harder because he was put in solitary confinement. After pulling off some hard jobs, Sly and Bentley free Murray, in which he reveals he kept the other half of the Clockwerk heart safe. The Contessa then shows up and finds out Murray has been freed, so she escapes on her blimp to another part of the city.
After the gang was reunited, they all need to get at the Clockwerk eyes, which the Contessa is using to hypnotize Carmelita, who is trapped in the Contessa's re-education tower. The gang then discovers that Neyla and the Contessa are at war, and the Neyla's headquarters are in the city. When the gang pulls off some jobs, they free Carmelita while she chases after the Contessa. Sly and Bentley then grab one of the Clockwerk eyes, with Neyla grabbing the other. Sly chases after Neyla and retrieves the other eye from her, but the Contessa confronts him and the two duel, with Sly winning. The Contessa is then arrested for her crime she did while working for Interpol.
The Cooper gang's next target is a spice shipper named Jean-Bison, who lives in Northern Canada. The Cooper gang then discovers he is in position of three Clockwerk parts: The Clockwerk lungs and the Clockwerk stomach. They are being used on the three Iron Horse trains to ship the illegal spice all over North America, so the gang breaks into the trains and steals all three of the parts. They end up destroying Jean-Bison's spice shipments, which forces him to flee.
After tracking down Jean-Bison's new location at a lumber camp in Northern Canada, Sly then tells the gang that Jean-Bison was talking with the Klaww gang leader Arpeggio, who was signalled to pick up a northern lights battery from Jean-Bison, and it is mentioned that Arpeggio has the Clockwerk brain. After pulling off some jobs that involved draining the northern lights battery, they then compete in the lumber jack games for Jean-Bison's Clockwerk talons, in which he was using the Clockwerk talons to make strip malls by cutting down trees. After they are discovered cheating, Jean-Bison throws the Clockwerk talons at them, with the gang ending up in a building. When Bentley confronts Jean-Bison, he tells Bentley that he found their safehouse and sold all the Clockwerk parts to Arpeggio, which forces Bentley to battle Jean-Bison. He wins and all three of them escape into the northern lights battery, which the team is forced to sacrifice the team van.
After arriving on Arpeggio's blimp, Sly discovers that Clockwerk has been re-assembled and that Neyla had been working with Arpeggio the whole time. When Sly confronts the two, Arpeggio then tells Sly that the northern lights battery was to help the blimp release a shipment of spice over Paris, which will then cause the citizens to go into a fit of rage. Neyla, overhearing how she double crossed everybody, suddenly betrays Arpeggio and takes over Clockwerk, crushing and killing Arpeggio. She then names herself Clock-La. The gang then pulls off some hard jobs, with the last one involving Sly and Carmelita shooting down Clock-La. After shooting her down, she crashes into the engine and destroys the blimp, scattering it in pieces all over the sky. Sly, who was separated from Bentley and Murray, jumps over to save them, whacking Clock-La's head off and crash-landing in Paris. Bentley then finds out about the hate chip that can kill Clock-La, so he removes it, only to have himself paralyzed forever after the beak shuts down on his legs. Carmelita then destroys the hate chip and kills Neyla and Clock-La forever. She puts Sly under arrest because Bentley and Murray were in no condition for arrest. Sly and Carmelita then talk and she brings a bottle of champagne, but the gang leaves a present for Sly, making his escape route.
At the end, it is revealed that Carmelita walks into her office and finds the champagne bottle and Sly's calling card. It is then revealed that Dimitri became a dance instructor on a cruise ship, Rajan started selling carpets in North America, the Contessa became a realtor (hypnotizing her customers), and Jean-Bison went on a mission to save baby penguins, only yet to be frozen.
[edit] New features
Sly 2: Band of Thieves brings several new gameplay elements into the fold. In addition to Sly, the player can play as Bentley the Turtle and Murray the Hippo. Bentley follows a more Cloak and Dagger approach to stealth. He can't climb poles or jump very far but he is equipped with a sleeper dart crossbow and countdown bombs to subdue and defeat enemies one-by-one or sabotage enemy equipment. He can use his computer skills to hack villain's computers, bringing the player to a top-down shooter-like mini-game. Murray is much more direct. His brute strength allows him to take on groups of strong enemies by himself with powerful hooks and upper cuts. He can pick up objects and enemies to throw around and his thunder flop can stun and destroy enemies. His strength allows him to help the gang with heavy duty tasks.
Each character now has a health bar and a special bar. Health is diminished every time the character gets attacked or hits a hazard etc. If it is depleted the player must restart any current mission and respawn at another location. The orange mana bar depletes whenever a character uses a gadget move (some gadgets don't require mana use). If it hits zero, manual gadgets moves can not be used (things like the paraglider, trigger bomb, feral pounce, etc. don't require mana and can be used even after the mana bar runs out). Some gadgets must be purchased in order to complete certain missions.
Missions are now connected to a main hub of the location Sly and the Gang are operating. A safehouse located in the hub is where the player can choose what character to use and get away from pursuing guards. This hub can range from a city to a lumber camp in the wilderness. Enemies prowl around this area although its usually a secluded spot, and there are no objectives until a character arrives at a mission beacon.
Another new feature is pickpocketing. When Sly sneaks up behind an enemy, he can reach out with his cane and grab coins out of their money pouch. The coins come in clusters, and they go directly to Sly's coin count. He does not need to pick them up. If there is an aura around an enemy's coin pouch, they are carrying an item. Once Sly gets all of their coins, he can grab the enemy's item and sell it later back at the safehouse. Murray and Bentley can't pickpocket in this game, although the ability is available to them in Sly 3.
Most powerups and extra moves are now bought from the safehouse instead of safes. Using collected coins, Sly can buy powerups from an in-game online store for each character. Sly's powerups focus on stealth, Murray's on power, and Bentley's on gadgets. Most powerups need to be assigned to a button, but some give a constant effect. Items stolen from guards can be sold for money in the safehouse to help fund for upgrades. Special upgrades and moves can be found after a number of clue bottles are found in the main hub and a hidden safe is unlocked with the code. Certain valuables can be found around the field and can be stolen then sold at the safehouse for a large amount of money; this can range from portraits to vases, etc.
The game also makes use of the Playstation 2's optional USB microphone allowing the player to use the sound of their voice to distract and attract in-game enemies. This in turn adds a new twist to the stealth elements, as the player has to refrain from noises such as talking or coughing or risk creating in-game noise. This feature first appeared in the game Manhunt,[citation needed] which was released a year earlier.
[edit] Reception
The game received generally positive reviews from numerous publications. Its varied gameplay, intricate story and unique graphics were praised, but criticised for its lack of difficulty and length when compared to other platformers.
It was awarded IGN's editor's choice award and GameSpy placed the game as #23 on their list of best Playstation 2 games of all time.
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