Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus For the Playstation 2 A new adventure game is welcomed with open arms to the Playstation 2. Sucker Punch does a fine job of with their first game. Game Info- 1 Player DVD-Rom Adventure game 49KB on the memory card Story- You play as Sly Cooper, a master thief. His family is a long line of thieves, who collect their secret thieving techniques in a book known as the Thievius Raccoonus. Well, it seems that some years ago, a group called the Fiendish Five stole the Thievius Raccoonus, leaving Sly on his own. Sly hooked up with a couple of friends, named Bently and Murray. Sly ended up becoming quiet the amazing thief, and now he's on a quest to recover his family's lost secrets. Gameplay- Hope you like 3rd- person adventure games. You run around defeating enemies, collecting coin, and finding keys. In each level there are sub-levels, where you will need to find the key at the end of the level to unlock the door to the boss. Sounds easy ? Nope. One hit kills you, unless you manage to collect 100 coins, then you get a Lucky Charm, which allows to to take a hit without dying. Collect another 100 and you can take yet another hit before dying. Before you think the levels are all the same, they aren't. There's a couple of car races; there's a few levels where you drive a jet-ski type vehicule, equipped with weapons; there's even a level where you enter a computer to break down some code, played very much like Asteroids. It brings a welcome change from the normal levels. Scattered around each level are Clue Bottles. Collect them all and you'll be able to open the safe in that same level. The safe's can contain pages from the Raccoonus, which will teach you new Master Thief techniques... Or the safe will contain blueprints for the levels, which will reveal where there are hidden items. You'll also get a page for defeating a boss. Plus a cool cutscene. Littered throughout each level are the enemies. This game is all about stealth. Find your way past the enemy without being seen, then you can kill them without trouble. There are certain enemies that you can't sneak by, but they aren't too hard to dispose of. Some levels also have security devices, such as spotlights and lasers. Trigger the alarm, and the next time you get seen by the spotlight, you're dead. Fortunetly, you can shut the alarm up when by destroying it. The bosses have certain patterns, which you'll have to study then exploit. You'll no doubt die a few times figuring out what to do. Graphics and Sound- Well, this game is cel-shaded, so it looks just like a cartoon. They did a very well done job with the various characters and backgrounds, making this perhaps the best cel-shaded game ever. You'll keep asking yourself whether it is cel-shaded or if it actually a cartoon. The background music is pretty low, and you won't really notice it. The sounds the enemies make are excellent. And the voices for the main characters are well done. Replay Value- Tons of replay value here. You'll miss a Clue, miss a page, miss something, and you'll have to play the level again. Sucker Punch also sorta forced you to play a certain level again, making a safe open only after you've finished the game. Each level, also has a time trial. You'll have anywhere from a minute and a half to 4 minutes to finish the level. Sounds easy ? It ain't. You'll be playing a level for hours, trying to beat the time. It may be hard, but it is possible (More than once I've beat the level with only 0.2 seconds to spare). For completing a time trial, you'll be able to listen to the designers talking about that level. If you manage to find all the pages and nail all the time trials, you'll get bonus videos. Excellent ! Rent or Buy- Buy !! This game is amazing. It does seem short, but you won't really notice (I played it for 7 hours straight... And didn't notice how much time passed). The game is also was a pretty cheap purchase. Only rent it if you don't want to find all the game has to offer. My final score - 10/10 This is one game I'll keep in my game library forever. It's just too much fun to pass up on. Here's hoping that Sucker Punch pulls off a Sly Cooper sequel in the future.