Sly 2: Band of Thieves

One of my first reviews, and favorite games was Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.  I am now going to review the sequel, Sly 2: Band of Thieves.  Sly 2 continues the story of Sly Cooper, a master raccoon thief, who only steals from other thieves.

STORY
A while after the events of Sly 1, The Cooper Gang discovers that Clockwerk(antagonist from prior game) can come back if the pieces of his armor are re-assembled.  Gathering up information on the whereabouts of the armor, they find that a Black Market circle called the "Klaww Gang" has split the pieces up amongst its members.  The Gang then embarks on the perilous task of sneaking and snooping to steal the armor, and to stop it from getting in the wrong hands.


GAMEPLAY
So some elements of the game remain the same as the previous title.  There are now 8 worlds instead of 5.  The hubs have been made larger and more of a freeroam area, this is also where the collectible bottles are located.  The biggest addition is the ability to play as Bently the Turtle, and Murray the Hippo.  They have their own missions required to win the game.  Bently uses bombs and his crossbow to take out bad guys before he gets up to them.  Murray uses his brute strength, not stealth to get the bad guys.  Sly still uses stealth and climbing as his main form of gameplay, although some of the skills he acquired in Sly 1 are not present.  Buying new abilities is through the use of "thiefnet" a website used to sell loot(collectibles from the free roam world), buy gadgets and abilities.  Overall having played the original series and being in the process of playing Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, this is my favorite of the series. 


GRAPHICS
Cell shaded, cartoon graphics make this look like a playable cartoon and is really cool looking.  In my personal opinion cartoon styled games like this or Lego Batman don't need to have PS3/PS4 graphics to be awesome, but for those of yall who may have ditched your PS2 a few years ago, or never had one but have a PS3, an HD version on a single Disc with the other 2 Games has been released, with trophy support.  A download of each single game(at higher cost) is available through the PSN.


CONTENT
Not that bad, there is some flirting between Sly and Inspector Fox.
Cartoon violence is present, but is similar to that of Tom and Jerry cartoons of yesteryear.  Stealing/Thievery is the main point of the game, but Sly only steals from other thieves because he sees stealing from ordinary people as not being honorable.
This game is rated E, and I would say that age 6-7 could play this with no problem.


CONCLUSION
This is quite a fun game, despite its flaws.  Another thing is length, this is the longest game of the PS2 trilogy, but is kind of short compared to many newer games.
If your looking for a game to binge on for the weekend, or you just want to play games that you missed from the ps2 era, download it from the PSN or find a copy for PS2.
Overall I say...
 
                                  8 Out of 10


DETAILS
For PS2, PS3
Released in 2004/2010
Rated E by the ESRB
Developed by Sucker Punch Productions
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment