The Sly Collection: PlayStation 3 Review

In a move similar to that of the God of War 1 & 2 re-release last year, Sony has decided to revamp the Sly Cooper series of games from the PlayStation 2 era. This Sly Cooper collection contains all three games in the series, all updated to support high definition graphics, PlayStation Move features, and 3D Stereoscopic support for those of us who have 3D TV. All three games were well received by both the gaming press and gamers in general when they were first released and it will be interesting to see if they have stood the test of time.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

 Born into a family of the world’s greatest thieves, Sly Cooper was given the Thievius Raccoonus, a family heirloom that is passed down from generation to generation containing all of their best-kept secrets. When a gang of ruthless villains steal the Thievius Raccoonus it’s up to Sly and his mischievous friends, Bentley and Murray, to reclaim the heirloom and restore honor to the family name.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves 

Taking place two years after Sly Cooper defeated Clockwerk for the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly Cooper and gang embark on a mission to rob the Museum of National History of Clockwerk’s parts. Upon arrival, Sly and friends discover the parts of Clockwerk are missing and embark on a quest to ensure Clockwerk is never reassembled.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

 The gang returns in the largest caper yet. Sly, Bentley and Murray assemble a crew of near friends and old enemies. Together, they attempt to unlock the one great secret Sly’s father kept from him for years – the Cooper family vault. With the tireless Carmelita Fox on his tail and a jealous and maniacal Dr. M attempting to loot the vault, it’ll take a team of skilled thieves to pull off this world class heist.

Features:

Three PlayStation 2 classic hits on one Blu-Ray Disc

Remastered in high definition for superb visual graphics and crisp picture quality

PlayStation Move enhanced mini-games

3D enhanced for a thrilling gameplay experience

Trophy support for all three games

Luckily enough we have always been a fan of developers Sucker Punch’s Sly Cooper games. The platform gaming was always easy to get to grips with, but it still had just the right amount of difficulty spurts to stop the game from being too quick to complete. Each title differs from the last, with the first being a very linear platforming game, which has a lot of replayability, as you are desperate to collect all the little extras throughout the game. The second is a much more open, mission based title, which is probably our favourite of the bunch. The third and final game is an action-adventure title that tries to do a bit of everything.

Good news and bad news for fans of the series is that little has changed gameplay wise, so the same great platforming and adventures are here, but so are the little niggles such as the in-game camera and some small irritating quick deaths. These little irritations are nothing compared to the great fun you will have though and with each title lasting at least 8 hours, there is a lot of gaming on show here.

As you progress through the three titles, you unlock some PlayStation Move based mini-games. These work quite well and are a good distraction from the platforming side of the main games. There are three shooting games and one which has you controlling a helicopter.

Graphically the game has held up well which is probably because of the cartoon, cel-shaded based graphic design. You can even see the improvements made in each release of the game chronologically as you play through them, as the graphic design just gets better and better. It will never blow new titles out of the water, but for Sly fans, this is near perfect for a revamped game.

The Sly Collection also adds 3D Stereoscopic support and luckily enough we have a Sony KDL-40HX803 TV to test it on. While the 3D features are not as great as we have seen in titles such as Super Stardust HD, it does add some depth to the three games, although it is very subtle. It's not an important feature, but it is a nice addition to have if you want another game to play in 3D, especially with the lack of 3D titles around at the moment.

Sound has been improved with Sony adding full 5.1 surround sound support to the whole collection. Most of the voice work is great, although there are some duds in there just as there are in many titles in this genre. Music is ok, but nothing to write home about and can sometimes sound a little dated, which is to be expected.

Overall we really enjoyed going back to the Sly Cooper series, the games have managed to date very well in both gameplay and graphics. The niggles that were in the PlayStation 2 originals are still there, but we’re not sure fans of the games would have wanted to see major changes to the camera or gameplay as it wouldn’t feel like a Sly Cooper original if that happened.

So the end result is that if you loved the original titles, you will love this HD remastering on the PlayStation 3. The graphics look great in HD, the stories and characters are still loveable and the addition of PlayStation Move and 3D features adds some modern twists to the pack.