Better in every way, we're told. You'd hope a sequel would be, I suppose, and the next sequel to get looked at is Sly 2: Band of Thieves.
The gang return. Their cel-shaded style returns. The inspector trying to hunt them down returns. It seems an awful lot of things return, actually, so how is it all going to turn out better than Sly Cooper?
Fun Times
Somewhere in Cairo, a silhouette descends into the darkened hall of a museum. He is none other than Sly Cooper, infamous racoon thief, and he's so calm under pressure that he's not above joking over the radio.
The jokes begin very early on as the cartoony nature of the first game continues straight into the second. We're dropped right into the action with a simple first task: pull a switch.
It's dark, but our objective is made clear, and the first thing I think to do is familiarise myself with the controls. The X button jumps around, surely. Yep, there it is. Let's jump on whatever this is.
Oh, right, a trampoline. Well, a drum. A drum would make more sense to be in a museum, but why a drum is under the skeleton of a whale, I do not know. Anyway, we're scaling new heights, riding down the spine of a whale, helpfully pointed towards our target.
The switch allows our hacker friend Bently to meet up with us, and he uses his lizardry - sorry, Wizardry - to turn off the searchlights, remove the laser grids and raise the security gates so that we can make our way through the museum to our real objective.
We're on the hunt for some clockwork parts. If you've not played through Sly Cooper (and I haven't gotten around to those other 4/5ths of the game yet myself ), clockwork parts are important. Final boss important. The events of the first game carry through to Sly 2, so I guess it'd be better to play them in order.
Until I do that, though, let's just walk across some cables and see where we're taken. If anything, it seems like the levels are more open than in the first game, but I suppose this could just be a linear sequence to show off the environment. Not sure yet. All the more reason to push forward.
Murray makes a dramatic entrance and uses his bulk to raise some security gates for us. Our march towards these clockwork parts continues. The plan must be going, well, to plan.
Ah. Perhaps not. The clockwork parts aren't here, but Carmelita is and is adamant that she has caught us red-handed. Her new partner, Neyla, isn't so sure.
Frustrations
Sly sees an opportunity to escape, and we're treated to a race through the museum as Carmelita blasts away at us from behind. Sadly, I was treated to this at anywhere from 60% to 80% speed, as the emulation struggled to keep up.
I wonder how much it has to do with having not set it up entirely, or the hardware I'm running it all on showing its age, or a combination of the two. Ultimately, the more effort I put into getting one game to run flawlessly, the less time I spend actually playing the games.
Further Fun Times
If you were a fan of the artwork cutscenes from Sly Cooper, you'll be pleased to know they make a return (and are perhaps better in every way, I can't recall). We escape the scene, and Sly has a chance of dumping some backstory upon us.
It turns out that the clockwork pieces we were after form a giant metal eagle that Sly met two years ago - Sly Cooper territory. The pieces are scattered, but mentions of the Klaww gang prompt the line of thinking that leads to trouble. Either we deal with these pieces, or this gang are going to be quite the problem.
The first pieces have been traced to Paris, in the possession of a failed artist-turned-counterfeiter, Dimitri, and thus begins Episode 1, The Black Chateau.
You'll have to imagine all of this happening slower than you'd want, as the city sweeps past the camera to our hideout. This Parisian hub world will serve up several missions for us to tackle, and acts as a kind of level in itself, full of wandering enemy guards and secrets to find.
As I thought, Sly 2 seems to have gone more open than the first game, and the hideout menu even hints at being able to play as characters other than Sly. Will we get that far with the state of this emulation? I've no idea.
We need to do some research before hitting the joint, or whatever the lingo is. We're pointed to a beacon that indicates the start of a mission, and we are introduced to some more of the controls. A set of binoculars allow us to scan our surroundings. The L3 button flashes up indicators for when we get lost. The R1 button allows Sly to sprint, but the increase in sound may alert the guards, and there are some already present in the city, no doubt looking out for shady characters like us.
Interacting with some satellite dishes allow us to redirect information to our secret hideout (not so secret with laser beams pointing right to it, I guess), and we're now more informed. About what I can't remember, but we're more informed.
Next up, we need to take some photos. Down in an old wine cellar is a route inside the nightclub we're going to steal from, so we head out into the darkness once more.
Further Frustrations
Accompanied by Murray, we get to smack some rats around. It wasn't too slow, but yeah, this set up is struggling, and the screenshots are not pretty. It's playable, just, but really doesn't show Sly 2 in a positive light, so I can't let it affect my opinion of the game. Imagine it faster. Yeah. Ok. The camera will get annoying because it's inverted, but the attacks I have available to me are big and sweeping, so I'm not scared to get stuck in, despite this being a stealth game.
Further Fun Times
Also neat is how Sly has buffed up from the first game, and now has a health bar. You can actually take a couple of hits this time around, instead of instantly failing. Coins and health burst out of downed enemies, with the coins being of use to purchase equipment and abilities later on. You can even pick the pockets of enemies you follow, getting the absolute most out of them before dispatching them for good.
Crawling under tables, out of sight, as well as sneak attacks that pack an almighty punch are welcome abilities that Sly starts with, and are simple to pull off, too. Circle interacts with tables, ledges and wires as your 'do a sneaky thing' button, like the first game, and Triangle followed by Square launches an unaware enemy into the air, and then very forcefully into the ground.
It's a shame I didn't hear all of that line before I pressed triangle, and did only half of the stealth attack, therefore enraging a guard...
We snag some photos of the counterfeiting operation and learn that Dimitri is using some clockwork parts to print the money because the alloy is super durable or something. Just go with it.
How, then, shall we approach this situation? We're whisked back to the hideout for a slideshow to find out.
It's hard to follow, with some photos sliding on by before you've even registered what they were showing. Still, there are a few key takeaways I managed to grab, one of them being the idea that at any point, Dimitri could be walking around the street, where we can tail him to learn more about his routine.
That's pretty cool. That wasn't a thing in Sly Cooper. Stuff like that really is making a strong case for Sly 2 being better in every way, as the 1001 list tells us. How much freedom do players get in how they approach the problem? Are we expecting Hitman levels of interactive worlds here? Ooh, I really need to play the latest Hitman entries. No, focus, we've already got a plan for today.
The first objective marker I see relates to bugging his office, so I guess that's going to be the first step of our plan. The bugged, forged painting is just sitting out on the street, so strapping it to our back is no problem at all. Getting to the office in one piece, however, will require some thought.
Guards line the streets, and we've been told not to damage the painting. I don't know how strict that warning is, so I find myself scanning the area for the best route - and the slower pace at least matches the framerate I'm getting from the emulation.
We're inside, where you'd think it'd be easier to emulate, but no, we're still slow. Have been for a long while now. Let's grin and bear it, though, for the sake of seeing how Sly 2 presents itself. Already, I'm getting an idea of how much more open and free it is, which is nice. I've just got to use that freedom to find a route to that air vent.
Further Frustrations
So insta-fails are still a thing. I get my tail singed on a laser beam, and that was enough to fail the entire job. Don't get hit. Not even once. Got it.
On my next attempt, I get spotted, and a fight starts. This is a problem. Slowdown, multiple opponents, a single hit resulting in failure. I can see where this will end up.
I can't take much more of this. It is playable, as I say, but barely, and I'm losing patience with it. It's not Sly 2's fault, though. It's not you, it's me. I call time after a few more failures.
Final Word
Sly 2 looks promising, in the glimpses of reasonable framerate that I can experience it in. Sly Cooper completely passed me by, but when playing it (despite my frustrations), I could see myself enjoying it and playing it even more.
The same is true for Sly 2, only what was once a friendly little stealth game is now a bigger, better stealth game. Surely? I mean, I've not seen a whole lot of it in action, but I'm given the impression that, in a world of Jak's and Ratchet's, Sly needed to up his game to compete, and he looks to have done so.
They're all different games, of course, but this sequel seems to have started on the right foot and doesn't seem like stumbling any time soon. The emulation is another story entirely, but a problem of my own making.
Until fixing it, or, you know, better yet, playing Sly 2 on a PS2, or its PS3 remaster, I'll just have to imagine what it could be like. Could it have problems? Of course it could. Nothing is perfect. The 1001 write up even suggests it should be five hours shorter and is already a shortish game. That sounds like quite a chunky issue for some. For me? I just couldn't say without going through all those twenty hours myself.
Even seeing how little I did, I can recommend Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Is it revolutionary? Probably not. Does it give fans of the first game a whole heap of new additions to have a good time with? Yes, it does. It is better in every way.
Fun Facts
Hook up a USB microphone or headset to the PS2 and you can use it to distract the guards. Say something too loud, however, and you'll alert them instead.
Sly 2: Band of Thieves, developed by Sucker Punch Productions, first released in 2004.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2004, via emulation.