Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Everybody knows that having two great games is better than one, which is why Sony is releasing two action/adventures this fall: Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.  Despite being from the same company, both games are completely different.  Ratchet & Clank follows in the footsteps of Mario and Jak & Daxter, whereas Sly Cooper follows the path of everyone's favorite spy: Solid Snake.  At first glance, Sly Cooper may not look much different from other games in the genre.  But once you start playing, you realize that this game is very unique.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus stars Sly Cooper, the latest son born into a family of thieves.  Sly is given the Thievius Raccoonus, a family heirloom containing the best-kept secrets of thievery techniques around.  The heirloom has been passed down from generation to generation, giving its user optimum thievery power.  Sly's fun is short-lived though, thanks to a gang of villains who steal the Thievius Raccoonus (how's THAT for irony?).  Now he must stop stealing from others, and go after the thieves who took his prized heirloom.

Sly Cooper subtly parodies the series that inspired it: Metal Gear Solid.  Sly speaks in a deep, slightly raspy voice that resembles the English voice actor for MGS.  His sidekick is an annoying turtle who seems to be afraid of just about everything, whereas Sly is very cool and collected.  You converse with your sidekick via special communication device whenever he needs to give you some necessary information.  During these sequences, both of the characters' faces appear next to each other on the screen.  The enemy can't hear what you're saying either.  But as I said before, the parodies are very subtle.  You won't hear Sly saying things like, "Otacon, this is bad..."  But you will definitely notice similarities between the two characters.

There are also some similarities between the levels.  The demo I played included one huge level, most of which was surrounded by water.  Searchlights, lasers and other hazards have been strategically placed in each area to prevent you from snatching the treasure (you're the thief in this game, remember?).  The lasers are merely a censor device at first, but they can be deadly.  If you slip up and get hit by a laser, an alarm will go off and the laser's power will be increased, and if it touches you again, it could kill you.

This game isn't all about sneaking around though.  There are tons of platforms to hop around, plenty of coins to collect (100 coins = 1 extra life) and tons of enemies to fight.  These are not your typical artificially unintelligent enemies either.  Many of them are fast, and have the power to kill you with one hit.

Sly Cooper's controls are nearly perfect.  Sly reacts to every slight press of the analog stick, which is great because you have to move very carefully in this game.  Every move is performed very naturally.  Sony and Sucker Punch have got the action/adventure genre down pat.

Visually, Sly Cooper is absolutely stunning.  This game features the most impressive cel-shaded graphics that I have ever seen on the PlayStation 2.  The textures, the detail, the animation and the backgrounds are all top-notch.  Sly's animation is superb.  The lighting effects are great too.  And the camera positioning is excellent.  Whenever the view is less-than-perfect, you can adjust the view to a better-than-acceptable level by moving the right analog stick.  I had one camera problem when I fell off a ledge, but it didn't take long to fix.  Other games have similar camera styles, but Sly Cooper uses it much more efficiently.  Trees and other small/medium-sized objects become transparent when Sly is behind them.  These are small enhancements, but they make the experience so much better.

I think it goes without saying that this game is going to rock.  Sony should be releasing a public demo of the game just before its September release (likely with the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine).  So be on the lookout for it.  Fall will be here before we know it.  I hope.