Day 29: Sly Cooper Thieves in Time

You know what I find weird? Both Uncharted and Sly franchises, both of which involve treasure hunters/thieves by the way, have two games each in this marathon, they both happen to be the second and fourth main series entry, and an Uncharted game appears next to a Sly game (or vice versa) in the marathon. What was it that one guy from 'The Incredibles' said?

Bernie Kropp: Coincidence? I think NOT!

Whatever, coming up next is Sly Cooper Thieves in Time, the first Sly game to appear after an eight year long hiatus…before disappearing for yet another hiatus…this is truly the darkest timeline.

Set sometime after the last game in the series, Bentley notices that the pages from Sly's book, The Thievius Raccoonus, are starting to disappear, leading him to believe that someone is messing with history. So, he reassembles Murray and Sly to figure out what is going on and see who is rewriting history. Oh, did I also mention Carmelita joins the team…and we get to see and play as some of Sly's ancestors…and Penelope, Bentley's girlfriend from the last game, is now working for the villains. Yeah, story wise, Thieves in Time is probably my favorite in the series.

Let's talk about the ancestors and new villains of this game before anything else. Can I just say I love Sly's ancestors. You have Rioichi Copper, the wise and stoic ninja ancestor from Feudal Japan, Tennessee Kid Cooper (my favorite of the bunch BTW), a laid-back and charming outlaw from the Wild West, Bob Cooper, the friendly and loyal cave-raccoon from the Ice Age, Sir Galleth Cooper, the bombastic knight from the Medieval Era, and Salim Al-Kupar, the lazy and grumpy ancestor from Arabia.

Each ancestor plays similar to Sly, but have different abilities that make them noticeably different. Rioichi can make long jumps when perched on a spire, Tennessee Kid's cane doubles as a gun, Bob can climb up icy surfaces, Sir Galleth can latch onto walls and basically catapult upwards to reach another area he can latch onto or bash an obstacle above him, and Salim can climb up ropes at a fast pace, which can be especially useful if the rope is weak and close to breaking.

I really like the ancestors, their personalities, and the differences in their gameplay that make them fun to use.

Sly, Bentley, and Murray play similar to their appearances in previous games, but you also have the option to go out in the field as Carmelita Fox, who can take enemies out with her shock pistols.

Back on topic, we now get to the villains of the game. We have El Jefe, who is essentially furry Fidel Castro, Toothpick, an armadillo who watched nothing but spaghetti westerns and sought to live the lifestyle of the outlaws he watched, The Grizz, a stereotypical black gangster who even goes as far as to rap whenever he talks…and it's kind of hilarious.

(Moment #1)

"G-G-G-Grizz, Grizz, Grizz! The Grizz gonna put some art on ice. Gonna dig it up later for a big fat price! Le Paradox is a stinky dude, and I'm getting real sick of his attitude."

(Moment #2)

"So I'm rolling. I'm flowing so bad it ain't fair. The Grizz will teach Le Paradox don't mess with the bear!"

The Grizz is easily my favorite villain. Next is Penelope, the former love interest of Bentley, now one of Le Paradox's best minions. Miss Decibel, after a trumpet gets lodged in her trunk after a freak accident from a tantrum, has the power of hypnosis and intends to use that power on Salim's friends.

Finally, there's Cyril Le Paradox, one of the most interesting villains of the series. Le Paradox is essentially and evil Sly, having come from a line of successful thieves himself. But after an incident that involved his father going to jail after missing out on a heist Sly's father got to before him, Cyril had no one to teach him how to be a proper thief, and he learned most of what he knows from jail. After getting out of jail, Le Paradox still pretended to be a, as Sly put it, a law abiding citizen under the guise of an art collector, but he formed his own syndicate based on all of the connections he made while in jail, allowing him to commit a series of international heists, with the biggest one being the wiping of the Cooper family line based simply from a grudge from years ago.

Suffice it to say, Le Paradox is a very well thought out villain and an interesting one to follow…if only his final boss fight didn't boil down to a glorified quick time event.

Now let's get to the rest of the gameplay. Content wise, you still have loads of clue bottles to collect to gain another skill, you can still use any coins you find in the field to buy more skills for Sly and the gang to use, you can still pickpocket enemies for money and treasure, and the levels are just as open as they were in the previous games with loads of fun missions to do. On the subject of the levels, they really took advantage of whatever time period the level is set in as they are all well detailed and made even more beautiful due to the cell shaded graphics which, thanks to being on the PS3, make the game look even more like a comic book/cartoon. While most of the gameplay is similar to previous games, it's like the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." (I'm using this statement more than I thought I would)

If there are some complaints I do have with the game, other than the garbage final battle against Le Paradox, it would be the fact that Carmelita doesn't really have a lot to do, no missions are made specifically for her. She does appear in some missions, but only as a small part of a mission which is accessible through another character. I guess you can go out in the field as her but…why? Also, the ending has left the series on one hell of a cliffhanger that needs resolving. Sanzaru, Sucker Punch, someone, anyone, please make a Sly 5! The demand is there, and the potential for a great sequel is there with it. It's been seven years since this game. I don't want to have another hiatus that's as long, if not longer, than the hiatus between Sly 3 and this game.

Overall, while this game as a few things that stop it from being perfect, it still makes the cut as my favorite game in the series so far. And now to go back to waiting for news on a sequel.