Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3) Review
Developer: Sanzaru Games
Format: PS3/Vita
Release Date: Out Now
Sly Cooper, in a fantastic use of metaphor, snuck onto PS2 around the same time as Naughty Dog’s hit Jak & Daxter, causing Sly to be overshadowed somewhat by the mute and his meerkat. As a result, I didn’t play the Sly Cooper games until the HD collection came out and realised they were solid, enjoyable and good games. But Thieves in Time is a whole new game and delivers beyond its predecessors.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Sly Cooper comes from a long line of master thieves, with Robin Hood style ethics. Rather than stealing everything and anything, Sly only steals from other thieves. His partners in crime (literally) are Bentley, the brains, and Murray, the muscle. Chasing him continuously throughout the series has been the detective Carmelita Fox whilst the most iconic element of the games is the Thievius Raccoonus, a legendary manual used by the Cooper clan and all their sneaky secrets. Thieves in Time begins with us discovering that Sly has feigned Amnesia and pleaded ignorance to his decorative past and is in a relationship with none other than Carmelita Fox who is unwilling to prosecute a man who can’t remember his crime. Sly is not content with this civilian life and as he plans to change it, he gets a call from Bentley who tells him that pages from the Thievius Raccoonus are starting to disappear!
Developed by Sanzaru Games, a change from the franchise’s original home of Sucker Punch Studios, Sanzaru have brought some great work to the game. Anyone familiar with the previous games will see some familiar aspects, albeit massively amplified. As you go in search of the various missing chapters, you will get to specific periods in time, each containing a large “hub” environment where you will find items to collect, secrets to reveal and missions to partake in. These hubs are beautifully crafted with the signature cell shaded design, and the environment is as explorable as anything you might see in Assassin’s Creed. It’s stunningly easy to run around the rooftops with no goal in mind, just to see where you can get to and what’s reachable. Dotted around these landscapes are missions, be it for Sly, Bentley, Murray or the Cooper Ancestor who’s had their timeline tampered with.
These missions are by no means hugely difficult, however, getting 100% in this game is no simple task. Some of the collectables are hidden in bizarre and difficult locations but it is unlikely you will ever spend too long looking for one. When playing through the main story, pressing down on L3 will display a compass showing what direction you should be travelling and thus keeping you on track to complete the game. The differences in gameplay for each of the characters keeps the game nice and fresh and at no stage does it feel overly repetitive. The entire aesthetic package is one of simple elegance, without the need for high res, insanely detailed textures, and instead of going for a colourful and appealing cartoonish appearance with an audio track to complement it exquisitely. In particular, the voice acting is done particularly well and its confirmed that the original cast of the band of bandits has returned to do the voices again. The sound effects are suitably over the top and the score keeps the game from ever getting too serious, keeping the appeal open to younger gamers as well.
I thought long and hard about this before finishing the review and completed the game to be sure but this is definitely one of the most fun games I’ve played with in a long time, irregardless of it’s childish appearance. If you are looking for something a little lighter to play, you will not regret this purchase.
Score 4/5
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