Sly 2: Band of Thieves E3 2004 Impressions

Sly 2: Band of Thieves revisits the now-matured raccoon larcenist Sly Cooper and his cohorts, Bentley and Murray, as they team up on heists and work to prevent the return of the previous game’s nemesis, Clockwerk. We spent some time with Sucker Punch and its work-in-progress at a recent E3 showing, and we were able to glean information on a couple of new characters and some additional gameplay elements.

One of the new characters we saw was Rajan, an Indian spice lord with the sleek and fearsome appearance of a tiger. Rajan’s riches allow him to indulge in the collecting of some rather interesting items, and one of the items he’s managed to get his paws on happens to be the wings of the currently disassembled Clockwerk. When he arranges to display his prize at a swank gala, Sly and his friends move in to pilfer the wings. They accomplished this with some careful teamwork. First, Bentley placed explosives to blow up a bridge and create a distraction for the guards; then Sly (in disguise) whirled foxy Interpol agent Carmelita in an entrancing dance. You’ll follow Carmelita’s lead in this sequence, using timed button presses to correctly execute moves, much like in a rhythm game. The dance occupied the tiger’s attention so that Murray could lower himself on a line and snitch the Clockwerk parts right off their high perch and out from under their owner’s nose.

Another new character we saw was Nila, a fresh-faced young upstart just starting her career in Interpol. While Carmelita has been devoted to the capture of Sly Cooper and has a narrow, focused approach, Nila comes in to the investigation with a clean slate and a new, broader view of events. Apparently, the two agents will end up conflicting with each other in a good-cop/bad-cop manner.

On top of the special abilities that each member of the band of thieves possesses, there will also be minigame portions of levels that further expand the gameplay experience. In addition to the rhythm sequence previously mentioned, there will be moments when Bentley gets to man a gun turret to repel incoming fire and when Murray gets to hijack a helicopter and rain chaos from the skies.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves seems to be coming along at a great pace, and you can expect to see the thievius raccoonus and his pals infiltrating store shelves later this year. For more information about the game, please check out our previous coverage.