Sly 2: Band of Thieves

2024-11-28
Sly 2 is 1 step forward and 2 steps back. The platforming, stealth, and minigames are more varied and satisfying in pretty much every way. And yet It commits the classic error of taking a perfect 8 hour game and stretching it out to be a 14 hour game. Classic example: one mission has you playing as Bentley where you have a mini tower defense game: hit big buttons that trigger traps killing incoming waves of wolfboiz. I was having a blast. After doing that for a minute or two I finish and walk out of the area. Then the pink imbecile Murray goes "Nice job Bentley only 3 more to go." So I have to trudge Bentley's green ass along the level to 3 other areas to do the same minigame with some slight changes. There are countless examples like this: steal 8 keys, get 5 eggs, whatever the fuck it is you'll have to do it as many times you have patience for and then that number more again. I think I got bored of Bentley's hacking minigame the 2nd time around and you genuinely must have to do that 20+ times in the game. I mean why are there two separate levels for Rajan, two separate levels for the Contessa?

And it sucks because it is genuinely such an improvement over Sly 1 in so many ways. The cartoon interludes, the campy, funny, weird villains, the fact that the final boss which is "Neyla" + "Clockwerk" = "Clock La" (horrible). To quote the fucking excellent Dimitri "Raccoonus Doodus, you're like totally bumming my house up and bringing me down."