Warning- massive spoilers for all 4 sly games ahead!
Also, that spells tit.
Sure not gonna exploit that.
Sly cooper, Thieves in time is the latest addition to the sly cooper franchise.
Created by Sucker Punch in 2002, the series garnered attention not only thanks to its
exclusivity with Sony, but for its solid gameplay and competent writing.
() They would go on to create the Infamous series, which achieved many accolades for
aspects inherent within the sly franchise.
Later on a HD collection was developed by flegdeling company Sanzaru.
While working on the collection, they created a tech demo for a fourth game.
Sucker Punch liked it so much that they handed over the franchise, and it is precisely here
that we plunge into the critique.
You see, my fellow Cheshire cats, when a game is renowned for the strength of its creative
team rather than its technical prowess you would think that said creative team would
want to ensure that quality control was consistent across the board.
You would think that the creators of Wii Ninja star thrower and Wii mystery piss train would
not be handed the reigns of such a prestigious title- but they were, and I guess on that
basis you may have perhaps already given up interest.
Actually the game received a lot of praise and being a fan I was rather excited- but
you know, I feel there's an awful lot of oversights being made that simply must be addressed.
This video will try and address the flaws within the game and look at exactly where
it falls short, meriting any positive aspects where they're found.
You will hear the words like 'in the original games', 'inconsistent' and 'TIT' an awful
lot.
Sly 4 picks up where Sly 3 left off- the gang having hung up their collective masks and
attempting to live normal lives.
Never the less, the gangs old genius Bentley discovers that Sly's ancestral heritage, the
thevius racconus's, is mysteriously being erased page by page.
You travel back to various time periods to set things right, help your ancestors and
discover the mastermind behind it all.
Lets start with the gameplay and work our way down from there.The inclusion of the ancestors
as playable characters means that the gameplay is incredibly varied, from the large assortment
of different character abilities to the different modes of play- the Bentley segments, which
actually have their own downloadable content, could easily engage you for the long haul
alone.
The foundation of the game is solid in terms of moveset- However, this becomes less impressive
when you realise that an awful lot draws upon the code from the first three titles, clearly
learnt from Sanzarus time spent on the HD collection.
As a result when something glitchy happens such as a button press not responding as smoothly
as you'd hoped, its rather jarring.
The environments are sprawling and the sheer amount of collectibles means you'll be playing
for quite some time after you've finished the story.
The worlds themselves vary in competence concerning practical game design.
Some are simply meatier than others, which feels imbalanced.
With so many modes and abilities there's just not enough room to enjoy them all and some
feel rather tacked on.
Though to be honest as pointless as this ability is I really can't get enough of the effect
it gives off.
Some structural elements seem to be poorly thought out.
In the original games when a mission ended you were left where you were, and if you wanted
to change character you had to go all the way back to the safe house manually.
In TIT they tried to solve this seemingly futile exercise in effort by instantly teleporting
you back to the safehouse.
In actuality this was a complete non-issue- it discourages you from exploring more during
the story mode and, given the atrocious loading times in and out of the safehouse, it becomes
something of a nuisance.
The lack of branching choices for missions is also a glaring problem, highlighting a
linear design and makes this switch back to safe houses feel, in the cases where you need
the same character consecutively, rather pointless.
The boss battles are probably the most satisfying part of the package.
The
developers deliberately decided to merge the strategical nature of bosses from the first
game with the stylings of the latter two.
Certain bosses aren't particularly fun or well designed but the challenge feels more
prevalent than previous titles.
For the most part the game isn't a chore to play and Sanzaru truly are solid developers.
That alone makes the game worthwhile.
Graphically and in-game animation wise the game is exceedingly well presented, and like
many others I absolutely agree that it's a welcome visual change of pace.
It's a massive improvement on the original games graphics which while wonderfully stylish
did have a few stilted teething problems.
However I feel that this overshadows a lot of shortcomings concerning the finer details
of tit.
In the first three titles the cutscenes were evocative of a comic book, using angular,
bold drawings to convey a style that differed from the in game graphics.
Sanzaru appears to have missed the point, swapping this out for full motion animation
which appears to consist of an unpleasant flat quality of line, compared to the bold,
appealing outlines of the originals.
The cutscenes were deliberately limited and to ignore that is a sign that Sanzaru doesn't
understand the artistic sensibilities needed for professional design.
They also tend to have the dialogue match exactly what's happening on screen, paling
in comaprison to the subversive conflict between narration and visuals in the originals.
It's a shame because occasionally they do take advantage of new styles in order to justify
these cutscenes, and when they do so it tends to be decent.
This is also the only time you will see Dimitri in the game and it's not only a pointless
inclusion but incredibly underwhelming.
I think they should have realised that they'd simply never top this.
Character design on the whole appears to be rather weak in general.
Carmelita is a very strong example of this, having gone from practical clothing to a skirt
and bikini
top.
Certain details drag us closer towards the uncanny valley in a way the original series
avoided so deftly.
Major enemies used to sport strong designs and colours to stand out from their minions.
By comparison Le Paradox's gang aren't so striking and asides Sherriff Toothpick aren't
particularly well themed, even taking intents to contrast into account.
They often resemble their existing counterparts a little too closely and when they don't they're
an incoherent visual mess.
Le Paradox himself is actually a welcome change from the threatening villains of previous
titles and is a wonderfully sleazy analogue of Sly Cooper himself.
There were a lot of specifics that were adhered to in order to make the games feel grounded
in some kind of classy flavour, right up to the named locations.
In the new game the levels are mostly generic time travel setpieces.
By far the worst offender is the Medieval England hub which isn't all that memorable.
The real issue is the script.
It pulls not only a lot of contrivances but also a lot of unfunny dialogue and forced
writing.
Often you'll hear a line that feels like too tenuous a justification for what's going on.
Some characters behave rather two dimensionally compared to their previous portrayals.
Penelope has been mentioned a few times by fans and while I feel it's a really compelling
twist, I don't think the character is given any realistic interpretation to this effect.
The series was always very good at performing the domestication of disbelief which is why
it just comes off as rather superficial in the hands of a lesser writer.
Truthfully she isn't alone as this story, packed to the gills with characters finds
little time to truly develop them all- if at all.
The humour, if you don't find the repeated use of 'Nailed it' funny will definitely grate
on you, particularly the huge number of referential jokes that cheapen the high class nature of
the franchise.
Entire levels feel like they were purely based around one gag and everything must adhere
to it.
Some parts are rather endearing but mostly it's just pretty monotonous.
In fact some segments which initially start out as a laugh actually end up feeling rather
embarrassing, and not in a good way.
(shake shake) You laugh now but your kids'll love it.
It's a shame this kind of stuff is lacking because the music is doing more work by comparison.
The composer, Peter Mcconnell, not only created the score for Psychonauts but also the latter
two Sly games and you can really feel his efforts here.
But you know what the biggest problem with TIT is?
That it's a game about time travel that doesn't ever utilise time travel beyond window dressing.
I mean I'm not expecting Wells or Steins Gate levels of depth to your time travel here,
but if you're going to make a game that features a back to the future reference right off the
bat, then you should at least include the basics.
If it's a stealth game why not make part of that be about affecting events from afar?
I would have preferred that to the way Sly's ancestory has been spelt out for me so far,
ruining much of the mystery of their antics.
I'm sure glad you made Sly's ancestor the fucking inventor of Sushi, much letter than
simply letting the character be a ninja from feudal japan, the world must know!
What about the rules of running into your past?
Surely Sly and his gang would change along with their altered past rather than remain
the same?
The whole thing is just so flimsy that it beggars belief.
If I had to sum it up in a word...that word would be fanfiction.
Seriously, when I was younger (and very stupid) the premise of this game was already grabbed
by the fanficcers.
Says a lot about its predictability.
In short I don't think we really needed a Sly 4.
Part of Sucker Punche's brilliance was their sense of closure.
Each game in the original series ended perfectly and as a result the sequels felt almost unexpected.
Sly 2's ending is a great example of this, which at the time I thought was one of the
best endings I'd encountered in a video game- that is until I finished Sly 3.
The fact that Sanzaru decided to hinge the entire game upon a silly gag that was never
meant to be taken that seriously in the third instalment says a lot about their lack of
imagination.
This could have been the game where we saw more aspects of the Sly universe rather than
try to re-tread old ground.
Even though the game is dickishly open ended there is now a lot of potential to create
something different to anything that has come before, perhaps
leaving the large groups behind and focusing on Sly's personal journey back home.
Okay, so maybe none of that made sense to you or you simply didn't agree, and that's
fine by me- I did enjoy the game for what it was and I merely hope Sanzaru pick themselves
out of the mediocrity by engaging with these criticisms.
They clearly care for the franchise, and I can't begrudge them that.
However I know that the more verbose of you will want to begin fisticuffs with me over
the art design and hey, that's fine, tell me how Carmelitas new look is a positive aspect.
It's not like I can screencap your deviantart page- either way, I doubt it'll end well for
anyone.