Episode 90: Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Sly 2: Band Of Thieves released at a special time in 3D platforming history: the GTA era.  In much the same way that Ubisoft would eventually set the (dismal) standard for open worlds, Grand Theft Auto 3 went on to define how 3d action games should be made.  The three big platforming names of the PS2 - Jax and Daxter, Ratchett and Clank, and of course, Sly Cooper, all radically shifted their macro level design in the wake of GTA’s popularity.

What does that mean?  It means we’ve got an open world, instead of the more linear levels of Sly 1.  It means that we’ve now got 3 playable characters to spice things up instead of just playing as Sly.  And it means that we’re moving the focus away from platforming to instead give players a hundred different things to do - minigames galore!

But does this wide and splashy approach to a platformer yield a more compelling experience than the more focused and restrained platformers that came before it?  Or did GTA make Sly 2 take a turn for the worse?

On this episode, we discuss:

• In what ways does Sly 2 utilise its open world, both narratively and mechanically?  Is it there just for the sake of it, or does it more than justify its existence?
• Has the storytelling and atmosphere of Sly 2 improved over Sly 1?  Does the move away from a more abstracted type of platforming actually matter?
• Does Sly 2 delight with its focus on novel minigames, or does this come at the cost of deeper and more engaging mechanical gameplay?

We answer these questions and many more on the 90th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Sly 2 OST: Peter McConnel

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Listen to Pat’s appearance on the Retro Hangover Podcast for Duke 3D here!

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Use Bobtff under interlacing settings in your emulator for the cleanest visuals