Day 16: Sly 2 Band of Thieves
Back in the days of the Playstation 2, Sony released three franchises, all of which are well known for their platforming. There's Jak and Daxter, which I need to play more of, Ratchet and Clank, which I've already talked about my favorite game in the series the other day, and the last one being Sly Cooper, with my favorite of his PS2 games being his second entry: Sly 2 Band of Thieves.
Being set after the first game in the series, Sly 2 follows Sly, Bentley, and Murray as they go on a hunt for Clockwerk's, the main villain of the last games, parts so they can destroy them and ruin his chances on being resurrected and to have him no longer be a threat to Sly and his gang. Yeah, Sly beats Clockwerk to pieces and leaves him to burn in lava, yet the parts still work just fine…only in video games.
However, when they get to the museum holding the Clockwerk parts, they find said parts missing and they soon discover that they were taken for the nefarious purposes of this game's new villain(s), The Klaww Gang. Now Sly and his gang must travel around the world in search of The Klaww Gang and the Clockwerk parts before anymore trouble begins.
Characters returning from the last game are still the same personality wise. Sly is still the sneaky, cunning, and level headed thief who is known for his stealth. Bentley is still the brains of the group. Murray is still the same big loveable oaf he was in the first game, although he has become more courageous in this game, but we'll talk about that when we get to the gameplay. And Carmelita is still the cop determined to capture Sly and bring him to justice.
SPOILERS DEAD AHEAD
But then we get to The Klaww Gang, in my opinion the best villains the Sly franchise has ever had. This organization consists of…
Dimitri Lousteau: a former aspiring artist who, after failing to impress the public with his "kinetic aesthetic" art design, wound up making forged masterpieces to spite art critics, and eventually opened up a nightclub in Paris. He's the gang member in possession of the Clockwerk feathers, but they're for his own personal use so he can use them to make counterfeit money.
Rajan: A former black market spice trader who expanded his business, making him the gang's spice manufacturer. He's the gang member in possession of the Clockwerk wings, which he used to show off his wealth, along with his new palace, to the public of India, as well as the Clockwerk heart, which he used to boost the production of his spices.
The Contessa: A member of the Klaww Gang working undercover as an Interpol agent who majored in criminal psychology, and after marrying and (most likely) murdering a wealthy aristocrat, inherited his estate and opened up rehabilitation clinics for criminals, where she used hypnosis to cure them of their illegal urges. As soon as she joined the gang, however, she used that same hypnosis to make criminals tell her where their loot was hidden. Her main method of hypnotizing her subjects was through the Clockwerk eyes.
Jean Bison: A member of the gang who hails all the way from 1852, during the Canadian Gold Rush, who winds up freezing himself after trying to blow up the side of a mountain in search of gold. Now thawed out, Bison seeks revenge on mother nature by using the Clockwerk talons to tear down trees and damming rivers. He also is in possession of the Clockwerk lungs and stomach, which he uses to power his steam locomotives.
And finally, Arpeggio: The leader of the Klaww Gang who seeks the Clockwerk parts so he can reassemble them and gain immortality. He basically waited until the Cooper gang collected all of the parts so he could take them all right from under them. Arpeggio is a patient villain, and that patience almost paid off. Why almost, I'll explain in a bit, but first, the general gist of The Klaww Gang's plan.
In the first game, Clockwerk's immortality was fueled by the hatred he had for Sly and his family. For Arpeggio to get that same effect when he merges with Clockwerk's body, he needs to generate enough hate to get results. The spice that Rajan grew makes those who consume it not only susceptible to hypnosis but also very angry. Arpeggio wants to hypnotize the people of Paris, in other words those who ate food at Dimitri's nightclub which was laced with spice, into hating each other so Arpeggio gets the hate generator he needs for his plan to work. But in order for the Parisians to be hypnotized, Arpeggio, taking a note out of The Contessa's playbook, needs something with enough light frequencies to hypnotize people, and that's why Jean Bison collected the energy from the Northern Lights in Canada so Arpeggio had something to hypnotize the people with.
So, pretty much, here's a Cliff Note version: Rajan grows the spice, Jean Bison transports the spice, and Dimitri distributes the spice to those in his nightclub. By using The Contessa's blueprints, and the Northern Light energy Bison collected, Arpeggio can hypnotize those who ate the spice into hating each other, thus generating enough hate for him to merge with Clockwerk's body and gain the immortality he craves.
This is a rather complex plan for an E rated game (E 10+ but it was rated E back then) made all the more complex when you compare the alleged spice to drugs and The Klaww Gang is a drug cartel. While the plan is complex, it's at least easy to understand, and I really like this plan as it makes The Klaww Gang really interesting to follow. However, there is one more villain that I'm neglecting to mention, and she is without a doubt one of the most evil characters the series has ever had. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Constable Neyla:
Much like the Contessa, she's a member of the Klaww Gang, Arpeggios' protégé in fact, who is working undercover for Interpol. At first she appears to be on the good side, helping out Carmelita and secretly helping Sly and his gang when they're trying to steal the Clockwerk parts. But this is all a ruse so she could eventually backstab the gang and Carmelita, and with Carmelita out of the picture, this made Neyla the only officer at Interpol close enough to the case, and she took full advantage by hiring her own private military to take The Contessa down. After The Contessa is defeated by Sly, she ends up taking full credit, giving her a promotion to Captain as a result. Fastforward to the end of the game when Arpeggio is ready merge himself with Clockwerk and then…
(Neyla betrays Arpeggio by knocking him off his bird cage)
Neyla: Stupid Arpeggio, I double crossed the Cooper Gang, Interpol, and Carmelita. What made you think I wouldn't do the same to you.
(Proceeds to merge herself to Clockwerk)
Yeah, Neyla was just using The Klaww Gang and Arpeggio as a means to an end so she could be the one to gain immortality. Neyla is someone who doesn't care who she has to step on on her way up to the top, as long as she not only gets there, but is the one to get there first, and a part of me just loves her for it. Call Neyla a Love-to-Hate Villain if you will. She pledges allegiance to no one but herself, you hate everything that she does, you hate the fact she backstabs everyone and anyone to get what she wants, but that's why I love her as a villain.
SPOILERS OVER
So, in short, Band of Thieves has an interesting cast of villains, but I've talked about them long enough (Seriously talking about them alone has filled up a whole page and then some). Let's talk about the gameplay next.
The first two things you may notice is…
A: Sly and the Gang have a health bar now, thank God! In the first game, unless you had a horseshoe, you die in one hit, so this is a welcome change.
B: The levels are all open world as opposed to a small hub world with paths that take you to each mission. All missions take place in whatever variety of open world you're visiting, whether they be the streets of Paris, the jungles of India, the Canadian wilderness, the gloomy streets of Prague, or Arpeggio's blimp.
Throughout each open world are the clue bottles which return from the last game. Once you find all of them, look for the vault to give Sly an extra power. These powers range from giving him attacks that'll allow guards to attack each other, give his cane a one-hit kill attack, give him a music box that'll make guards fall asleep and more.
There are even more power-ups in this game that you can buy with all of the coins you collect in each level including Sly's trusty paraglider, which was introduced in this game BTW.
Another interesting this about the gameplay is how Bentley and Murray are now playable characters with their own missions.
Sly can walk along ledges and walk across tightropes while attacking enemies with his cane.
Bentley attacks but putting enemies to sleep with his darts and throwing bombs, and he's the one to hack into whatever technology the villains are using. The hacking process is a pretty cool minigame that would find itself right at home in an old arcade shoot 'em up.
Murray, now no longer behind the wheel of the Cooper van and no longer easily scared, is the muscle of the group, and he proves it by pummeling any and all enemies with his fists. Murray is also the one in charge of the game's vehicle sections like the tank or helicopter. Most of them are pretty fun…but the tank section in Chapter 5 can go burn in a fire.
In short, all three characters are fun to play as and have enough different in their play styles that make them feel different from each other.
And to top it all off are some colorful cell-shaded graphics that'll find themselves right at home in a comic book or cartoon series, and some rather atmospheric music that matches whatever environment you're going through.
Sly 2: Band of Theives has so much going for it that it makes me wonder how this is only my second favorite game in the Sly series. Well, that's easy…I just enjoyed my actual favorite a little bit more. What that game is, you'll know it when you see it. Despite Band of Thieves being only my second favorite game in the series, however, it's definitely one I'll gladly play again.
