Sly Cooper And The Thievius Raccoonus

''Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus'' (known as ''Sly Raccoon'' in PAL territories) is a 2002 stealth platform video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It is the first installment of the '' Sly Cooper'' series. The game was followed by three sequels, '' Sly 2: Band of Thieves'', '' Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves'' and '' Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time''. On November 9, 2010, ''Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus'', as well as its first two sequels, were released together as '' The Sly Collection'', a remastered port of all three games on a single Blu-ray as a Classics HD title for the PlayStation 3.

The game focuses on master thief Sly Cooper and his gang, Bentley the Turtle and Murray the Hippo, as they seek out the Fiendish Five to recover his family's "Thievius Raccoonus," a book with the accumulation of all of Sly's ancestors' thieving moves. The game was praised for using a variation on cel-shading rendering, which is used to create a film noir feel, while still rendered as a hand-drawn animated movie, though criticized for being too short.

Gameplay

''Sly Cooper'' is a third person platforming video game which incorporates stealth elements; as noted by an ''Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine'' retrospective, the game "tries to mix one-hit-kill arcade action with ''Splinter Cell'' sneaking". The player controls Sly Cooper, the title character, as he moves between each uniquely themed lair of the Fiendish Five and the sub-sections of those lairs, avoiding security systems and the watchful eyes of enemies. While Sly is equipped with a cane to attack his foes, he can be defeated with a single hit, and so the player is urged to use stealth maneuvers and the environment to evade or silently neutralize potential threats.

To assist in these stealth moves, the environment contains special areas colored with blue sparkles of light, identified in the game as Sly's "thief senses." The player can trigger context-sensitive actions in these areas, such as shimmying along a narrow ledge or wall, landing on a pointed object such as an antenna or streetlight, climbing along the length of a narrow pole or pipe or using the cane to grapple onto something. The player must avoid detection by security systems and enemies, otherwise, an alarm will sound and the player will either have to destroy the alarm, avoid or defeat foes alerted by the alarm or hide for several seconds until the alarm resets. The game uses a dynamic music system that changes depending on the state of alarm in the area: the music will increase in volume and pacing when Sly attacks or is detected, and then will quiet down as the disturbance goes away.

Each sub-section of a lair contains a number of clue bottles that, when collected, allow Sly to access a safe in the level that contains a page from the Thievius Raccoonus. These pages grant Sly new moves to aid in movement, stealth, or combat, such as creating a decoy or dropping an explosive hat. Defeating each of the bosses also gives Sly moves, and these abilities are typically necessary to pass later levels. Coins are scattered about the levels and are also generated by defeating enemies or destroying objects. For every 100 coins collected, Sly gains a lucky horseshoe that is the color blue and when you have two horseshoes, it turns to gold. It will allow him to take extra hits, or if he currently has one, an extra life. If Sly collapses and loses a life, the current sub-level will be restarted or at a special "repeater" that acts as a checkpoint; if the player loses all of Sly's lives, they must restart that bosses' lair from the beginning. Besides the regular gameplay, there are mini-games that include driving levels (based on Murray), shooting levels to protect Murray as he ascends certain levels, and a cyber-tank game representing a hacking attempt by Bentley. One notable boss battle includes a rhythm-based sequence similar to ''Dance Dance Revolution''.

Levels can be returned to at any time to gain additional coins or to seek out special moves. When a level is completed, all of the clue bottles are collected and the secret move is found, the player can then attempt a "Master Sprint", a timed sprint through the level to try to beat a set time. The player can unlock additional artistic content by completing all the levels in this fashion. For each level that has the "Master Sprint" completed, a developers commentary for that level is unlocked.

Plot

Sly Cooper comes from a long line of master thieves (the Cooper Clan) who only steal from other criminals, thus making them vigilantes. The Cooper family's heirloom, an ancient book named ''The Thievius Raccoonus'', records all the secret moves and techniques of every Cooper clan member. On his 8th birthday, Sly was supposed to inherit the book and learn all his family's ancient secrets, which was supposed to help him become a master thief. However, a group of thugs called "The Fiendish Five" (led by Clockwerk, the arch-nemesis of the family clan) attacked the Cooper household, killed Sly's parents, and stole all the pages from the ''Thievius Raccoonus''. After that, the ruthless gang goes their separate ways to commit dastardly crimes worldwide. Sly is sent to an orphanage where he meets and forms a gang with two boys who become his lifelong best friends: Bentley, a turtle technician, inventor, and talented mathematical hacker with encyclopedic knowledge who plays the role of the brains of the gang, and Murray, a huge hippopotamus with a ginormous appetite who plays the role as the brawns and the getaway driver of the gang. The three leave the orphanage together at age 16 to start their lives becoming international vigilante criminals, naming themselves "The Cooper Gang." Sly swears one day to avenge his family and track down the Fiendish Five and steal back the ''Thievius Raccoonus''. 2 years later, the Cooper Gang heads to Paris, France, to infiltrate Interpol headquarters to find the secret police file which stores details and information about the Fiendish Five. During the heist, they are ambushed by Inspector Carmelita Fox (towards whom Sly develops a romantic attraction), an Interpol police officer who is after the Cooper Gang. The gang manages to steal the police file and successfully escapes from her and the rest of the cops. With the secret police file finally in their hands, the Cooper Gang manages to track down the Fiendish Five.

Their first target is Sir Raleigh, a greedy aristocratic bullfrog who uses his mechanical skills to prey on sunken ships and steal buried treasures throughout the islands of Wales. After bringing down Raleigh and leaving him to be arrested by Interpol, the gang then heads to Mesa City, Utah, where Raleigh's old friend Muggshot, a muscular bulldog

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