Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PS3/Vita) Review

It's been nearly eight years since the last Sly Cooper game was released and I have to say, Thieves in Time was worth the wait. All that skepticism about Sanzaru Games making this entry instead of Sucker Punch was all gone.

The story begins after the events of Sly 3. Sly is enjoying his retirement from being a thief, faking his amnesia and forming a relationship with Inspector Carmelita Fox with no Shock Pistols involved. Murray is enjoying time being an unbeatable race car driver. As for Bentley, while working on a project, his girlfriend, Penelope, vanishes. Not only that, the pages for the Thievius Raccoonus start to go blank. 

Bentley built a time machine in between sequels and he reunites the Cooper gang to steal an item in a museum that will send them in that time period. They must recruit each Cooper ancestor in whatever time period they’re in to defeat various adversaries and find out who is the cause of it all.

Basically, it’s Sly Cooper mixed with Back to the Future (time-traveling vehicle), Doctor Who (traveling through a time vortex), and Assassin’s Creed (visiting ancestors). And you know what, besides the outlandish plot, the characters truly shine throughout the game.

The Cooper Gang

We, of course, have the trio, Sly, Bentley, and Murray. Sly is still the suave, smooth-talking raccoon we’ve come to know and love. However, he's a little more, for the lack of a better word, enthusiastic this time around. I guess it's because he hasn't been thieving in a while. Bentley is still the techno-savvy turtle, coming up with elaborate plans. Murray (or should I say “THE MURRAY!!”) is still the strong, third-person-speaking, egotistical hippo. Also, does anyone notice that Murray sounds different in each game, minus having the same voice actor?

Speaking of voices, sticking with tradition, Carmelita has a new voice actress. First it was Roxanna Ortega (Sly 1), then Alesia Glidewell (Sly 2), then Ruth Livier (Sly 3), and now we have the ever-so talented Grey DeLisle voicing her in this game. I’m guessing that in the next game, she’ll be voiced by Tara Strong?

Anyways, Carmelita finds out that Sly has been thieving and faking his amnesia (don't look at me like that, you all knew it was going to happen). The character development between Sly and Carmelita STEALS the show for me (see what I did there?). Later in the game, she decides to help the Cooper gang. When Sly keeps trying reconcile with Carmelita, she just turns him down. You actually feel for the characters, which is not rare in video games.

I really love the Cooper ancestors. Each one have their own distinct personality: Rioichi was cool (especially since he is voiced by Steve Blum), Tennessee Kid was energetic, Caveman Cooper (or Bob) was hilarious, Sir Galleth was charming, and Salim was cranky and lazy.

I also think it's the funniest game in the series. Even funnier than Murray putting his fist in his mouth in Sly 3. Sure, some of the jokes were cheesy, but I don't think I've laughed this hard in the series before.

So, yeah, the plot was kind of weak, but I did like the character development. There was this plot twist in the game that threw some fans off. In retrospect, yeah, it was mediocre and full of plot holes. Don't believe me? Read Raggedstar's blog on why she hates the plot twist, but only if you've played through the entire game.

Peter McConnell returns to compose the score for the game. I like to think of him as the John Barry of the series. Pretty much like how John Barry established the music of the James Bond franchise, McConnell managed to make the music in the Sly series (starting with Sly 2) sound Sly Cooper-ish.

He composed the iconic Sly Cooper theme and the tracks had the film noir feel mixed with cartoony music to fit with the world of Sly Cooper. He outdid himself with the Thieves in Time soundtrack. The main theme itself is my favorite track in the game. Doesn’t it remind you of Doctor Who a little? Seems appropriate, though.

As for the sound effects, the cartoony sound effects for when you shimmy or sneak up behind a guard are still there. But what happened to those ‘60s Batman sound effects that you hear after taking down an enemy? I might be nitpicking here, but I want to make sure I defeated an enemy.

The traditional cel-shaded, cartoony graphics are even more visually stunning thanks to the PS3’s hardware. I especially love the character models in the game. It's probably one of the best graphical leaps since Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. I mean, what’s Sly Cooper without cartoony graphics?

I really love the level design in each episode. The lighting, textures, and environments help give us a feel of where, and most important, WHEN each episode takes place.

Keeping with tradition, we have the usual animated cutscenes played during the intro and outro of each episode and during moments where we learn about each villain in the game. The animation is even smoother than in previous games. Now, we are having a debate on which animation style is the best: the original trilogy or Thieves in Time? I say both are good in their own way.

Notice how different the animation styles are.

Finally we have the gameplay. Let’s start with the open world concept. First of all, the hub worlds are even larger than in previous games. New to the series is the radar that you usually see in sandbox games. It lets you keep track of the safe house location and the location of story missions as well as nearby guards. I actually like that idea. I hate having to click the analog stick to know where my next mission is going to be, because I always feel like I’ll break the analog stick if I kept on clicking it. There are also hidden collectibles throughout the game, but I’ll get to that in a little while. When entering a new hub world, I suggest you scout out the area first to find any clue bottles or hidden treasures, which I’ll get to later.

The safe house now does more than just selecting a character and buying abilities on ThiefNet. You can view the treasures you've collected so far, replay missions, play each hub world's arcade machine (hacking mini-game), and play ping pong with Bentley.

Now we have the playable characters. There is of course, Sly, Bentley, and Murray. Sly can still scale buildings, walk on tightropes and ledges, and pickpocket guards. He can also wear costumes that you unlock as you progress through the story that are used for overcoming obstacles like fire, or open certain doors.

Bentley Rambo!

Bentley has his gadgets equipped on his wheelchair. In certain parts of the game, he will take part in three different hacking mini-games. First is the traditional hacking mini-game, System Cracker, where you go from a bird’s-eye view and shooting against a lot of targets. You can also switch different codes to open firewalls. The second hacking mini-game is Alter Ego, where Bentley resembles Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or John Rambo, and it’s a side-scroller where you, of course, shoot random targets and fight a mini-boss at the end. The last, and certainly my least favorite is the Spark Runner, where you have to move an electric ball from Point A to B… with the SIXAXIS controller!!

Didn't the usage of SIXAXIS controls die out?

I thought the SIXAXIS controls were really unnecessary. At least in games like Tools of Destruction you can turn off the SIXAXIS controls, but not here. They are mandatory to complete certain mini-games. Anyways, if you liked the hacking mini-games, you should purchase Bentley's Hack Pack (Never heard of it? Blame Sony's marketing).

Next up we have Murray, I mean, “THE MURRAY!!”  the most-action packed character. He’s not a stealthy person, but he’s good for brawling against enemies, or picking up objects and throwing them to destroy something, or someone.

Next, we have Carmelita. Her gameplay revolves around shooting with her shock pistol. I think she’s the most underused character in the game and I wish there were more missions where you play as her.

Lastly, we have the ancestors. Each ancestor you meet has a special unique ability that Sly himself cannot do. Rioichi, for example, can jump over long distances and Sir Galleth can launch himself really high while climbing.

Now on to the collectables. There’s the main currency in the game: coins. You use the coins to buy abilities for Sly, Bentley, Murray, and Carmelita, reminiscent of the abilities you buy in Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage. You can also switch some of the abilities. For example, if you want to use Murray’s Fists of Flame (always my favorite Murray weapon), you go to the gadget grid to switch to the Fist of Flames.

After their unexplained absence in Sly 3, the clue bottles return. Collecting all 30 in each episode will let you open a vault that contains a special power-up. Like Sly 2, they don’t feel as rewarding, that’s why I often do not find all 30 bottles in each episode on my first playthrough.

The second set of collectables are the Sly Masks. They are hidden throughout each hub world and mission and the more Sly Masks you collect, the more stuff you unlock in the Unlockables menu. They remind of me of the Precursor Orbs from the Jak and Daxter series, specifically in Jak II.

The third set of collectables are the hidden treasures, which return from Sly 2. Treasures are scattered throughout each hub world. Some can be found in plain sight, while others can be found using the costumes you’ve unlocked in the game. Once you pick up a treasure, you have a limited amount of time to take it to the Safe House. If you run out of time, fall to your death, or get harmed by guards while carrying it, you will lose the treasure and have to try again. Collecting all treasures in each hub world will unlock the hub world’s arcade machine.

In addition, if you also have the PS Vita version of the game, you can connect it to your PS3 and use it like a pair of x-ray goggles to find the hidden collectables, which I thought was pretty darn cool.


El Jefe boss fight.

Lastly, we go into the boss fights. You have to follow a pattern, reminiscent of the Crash Bandicoot bosses, and find the right time to strike against them. Almost all the bosses test your skills on the costume you obtained in their respective episode. Nothing much else to say, but they’re really well-done, except the final boss, which was just a series of quick-time events.

If I have to name any problems I have with the game:

1. As I mentioned before, the SIXAXIS controls for some of the minigames were really gimmicky and unnecessary.
2. Murray and, mostly, Carmelita were really underused.
3. Loading times can be irritating.
4. Why did they switch the Binocu-com controls?! Using the right stick to move and the left stick to zoom... what were they thinking?!
5. The aiming mechanics are a real pain in the tail. Oftentimes, I have to go to the options menu to invert the controls to fit my style of play. And also, couldn’t they make the aim button much simpler to use? I’ve played a lot of games with today’s third-person shooter mechanics and by instinct, you press the L1 button. That’s fine with Carmelita, but not with Sly in the Archer costume. It’s especially frustrating when in one minigame, I have to hit a lot of targets and gain a certain number of points before time runs out.
6. The cliffhanger ending (I'll get to that in a moment).

And here’s something they should put in the next Sly game. A lot of sandbox games have side missions that you can do any time when you’re not doing a story mission. I’m not sure if it’ll work with Sly, but didn’t the Assassin’s Creed series, which are also open-world stealth games, have side missions? You could earn a certain number of coins after completing a mission. That can save players the trouble of having to constantly pickpocket guards for loot that is worth a lot of coins. It would be like earning Experience Points in Infamous after completing a side mission.

Lastly, without going into spoilers, the game ended on a cliffhanger. That was a pretty risky move, Sanzaru. I mean, at this day in gaming, game franchises that are under the radar are most likely not going to continue because of mainstream games that have a lot more attention than they deserve. If this game does not sell well, the series will be up there with Shenmue and Viewtiful Joe as one of those franchises that will most likely not have a new sequel to wrap the story up.

I’m not saying Thieves in Time should have been the final game in the series. Sly Cooper just made a comeback and he’s not going anywhere for a while. There are some opportunities to expand the universe, as well as continue developing the relationships between the main characters. If Sony indeed plans on ending this series and the Ratchet & Clank series on the PS4, they better end them on a high note.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is a great game. It has the characters we all know and love, and includes new characters that are just as loveable. It has a large amount of replay value that will keep you occupied for a while. It definitely has the upper hand as my Favorite Game of 2013, along with BioShock Infinite.

I gotta congratulate Sanzaru Games for keeping the Sly series strong, that I think they deserve the developing duties of the next Sly game, since Sucker Punch is making a new Infamous game on the PS4. Now that Ratchet & Clank and Sly feel right at home on the PS3, we need another certain game franchise to make a comeback. You know which one I'm talking about...

Where are you guys?