Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

"You think this is another mindless platformer? Well, think again."

When I first saw Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, or Sly Raccoon as it is called in Europe, I thought: ''Oh no, not ANOTHER mindless coin-collecting platformer ''. Now I throw myself in a lake filled with flesh-eating zombies twice a day for thinking that this game looked boring and dull.

As you've read in the introduction I never really wanted Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, but that changed when it was released in the United States (I live in Europe myself). I read a lot of positive reviews, there were more screenshots, movies etc., and actually I became quite interested in it. I decided to buy it when it was released over here in Holland...I was pleasantly surprised.

Sly Cooper is a stealth-based platformer (Metal Gear Solid meets Ratchet & Clank) and, although I hated Metal Gear Solid 2 (I know I'll be flamed for this), I really like the concept. The main character is Sly Cooper, an orphaned raccoon. He is a thief, just like the rest of his (large) family (they are thieves who steal from mean people, though). This family of thieves has a special book called the Thievius Raccoonus. This book contains all the information a thief needs to become a master thief. On the night the book should be passed over to Sly, a gang of 5 villains called the Fiendish Five kills his father and steals the Thievius Raccoonus. Now, a couple of years later, Sly seeks revenge.

Sly's mission is to beat each member of the Fiendish Five and steal back the Thievius Raccoonus. Each gang member has another hideout, each with another theme (The Panda King, for example, has his hideout in China, while the hideout of Raleigh is located in Wales). There's also a great diversity between the themes.

The remaining part of the review is divided into 6 different sections: GRAPHICS, MUSIC & SOUND, GAMEPLAY, HOW LONG DOES THIS GAME LAST & REPLAY VALUE, CONTROLS and finally CONCLUSION.

GRAPHICS: 8.5/10: Sly Cooper is cel-shaded, so it looks a little cartoonish. The graphics are very good, but not spectacular. The only negative thing I have to say is that Suckerpunch could have added some more detail to the surroundings (don't get me wrong, the graphics are very detailed, but I feel like they could have added even more detail).

MUSIC & SOUND: 9.25/10: The music is awesome with a capital A. The music in Ms. Ruby's swamp area, for example, creates a real moody atmosphere, while the music in Muggshot's city makes you think you're in a casino.
The music isn't really catchy though.
The sound effects are great; your footsteps, the enemies, the items you collect etc. all sound quite realistic. The voice acting is great, which kind of surprised me.

GAMEPLAY: 8.75/10: This is the most important part of the review, since this section describes how the game plays.
Your main objective in each stage is to collect a key. When you have collected a certain number of keys, you're able to open another part of the area, which brings you closer to the boss of the area.
One of the first thing you'll notice is that Sly dies after just one hit. This means you have to be careful all of the time. You are able to increase Sly's life span by collecting horseshoes though.
Another I noticed is that the stages are quite linear; there is only one route you can follow and there are almost no secret locations. In each stage you can find a number of clues. If you have collected all clues your partner in crime Bentley will crack the code of the vault in that level, which contains a page from the Thievius Raccoonus with a new master thief move on it. Some clues are very hard to find (they can be hidden in small vaults, hanging from ceilings, resting on platforms etc.), so it's quite a challenge collecting them all in every level.
Sly Cooper and The Thievius Raccoonus has awesome boss fights, not too hard and not too easy and fun to do. They are also quite innovative and original.
The most important and innovative part of Sly Cooper are the stealth-based parts. Some enemies carry flashlights which you have to avoid, you can edge around pipes to avoid enemies, you can walk around in barrels etc. Mix this with a lot of platform jumping and collecting and yo get Sly Cooper.

HOW LONG DOES THIS GAME LAST & REPLAY VALUE: 6.5/10: This is one of the things that keeps Sly Cooper from having a 9 or even a 10. It's...so...damn...short. Well, it isn't as short as Luigi's Mansion, but I finished it under 10 hours (with 96%). This wouldn't be a problem if Sly Cooper had a good replay value...but it actually has quite a bad replay value. When I finished it, I didn't feel like playing it again to achieve 100%. Sly Cooper is quite a hard game, though, so if you're not really good at platforms it might take you some time to finish this game.

CONTROLS: 9/10: Sly Cooper has good controls, the only thing that keeps it from having a 10 is that the ''mini-game'' controls (stages where you don't have to jump platforms and collect clues, but shoot crabs or collect computers) are quite irritating.

CONCLUSION: 8/10: Sly Raccoon is a great game, but it has some negative points (the major flaw is that it's short).
--Rent/Buy: Buy, unless you only want the REAL good games.

I hope you liked this review, it's my first, so don't hate me if it sucks ^_^... -Gobicamel-

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/25/03, Updated 02/25/03