Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

"Beautiful Graphics and Fluid Gameplay, But..."

Being, well, a person, I've seen and heard countless Latin rip-offs in my lifetime. Being a student of Latin just makes it more painful.. plus by now it has been done to death. Only unknowledgeable children will be able to look at 'Thievius Raccoonus' without grimacing.
But I'm not writing this to rag on the name. Let's get started.

Story
You, Sly Cooper, come from a long line of expert thieves. When you were to inherit the book that held all the secret of the 'trade', that's where 'Thievius Raccoonus' comes in, the Fiendish Five broke it and stole it.
Overlooking various flaws-why write the stuff down when you know people will be jealous of you, why give the book such a stupid name-the story is original in that you play as a raccoon thief.
Story: 8/10

Sound
Let me say here before we go any further that I played this game for half an hour before I just had to stop.
The sound effects are average. The battle music is nice and catchy and puts you in a fighting mood, but it lasts a total of two seconds or six seconds, depending on if you die or not. Other than that, not much extraordinary to speak of. The voice overs are nice, but the turtle's voice is downright annoying.
Sound: 6/10

Gameplay
Beautiful, fluid, smooth, nearly flawless. Problem is, it's not hard to put together a gameplay system that is very much like Crash Bandicoot's. Perhaps a few more moves, but essentially that is what this is. [I.e., nothing special.]
Gameplay: 7/10

Graphics
What can I say? [A lot.] The cel-shading is very clean, and the animations are very nice. Lighting sets the mood. The graphics are extremely nice, to forego a paragraph of inane complimenting.
Graphics: 10/10

Replay
I cannot honestly say, as I put this one down rather quickly. I would think it high, though, if you like it. Platformers usually are, and there is probably a bunch of stuff to find, knowing games like this one.
Replay: 8/10

Buy or Rent?
For the love of all things, RENT.
Buy or Rent?: RENT!

I suppose you could give this a chance, if you want. Try Crash first, though. It's probably longer and I know for a fact the voice overs are not as agitating. o_o Chances are you will NOT like this game, but, hey, then again, you might. The similarities between Sly Cooper and other games like Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Mario 64, and many more are many great, so if this is your genre, I say give it a chance anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/04/02, Updated 11/04/02