The return of the thief (raccoon) gentleman.
PS Vita tested version.
sucker Punch he never stopped loving his first child. Yes, it is true that it is not quite the first, but let's face it: who remembers Rocket?
We can therefore safely say, without fear of denial, that Sly Cooper, the raccoon thief who traces some characteristics of the infamous Lupine the Third, was the title on which Brian Fleming and his friends built their fame. And that's probably why Easter Eggs keep appearing in inFamous that recall the symbol of their cute rascal.
But it is not only Sucker Punch who does not forget Sly and his gang: not even Sony, as well as PlayStation fans, has never forgotten Murray, Bentley, Carmelita and the mysterious Thievus Raccoonus. Thus, while a new era of the Sony-Sucker Punch union begins with inFamous Second Son and PS4, the Japanese house has entrusted Sanzaru games the honor of bringing the first three remastered chapters of the series to a portable console. They will have managed to do justice to this great icon PlayStation?
The perfect number
La Sly Trilogy traces, giving it new life on PS Vita, the entire narrative arc involving the events of Sly Cooper: the trio composed of Sly, the thief, Bentley, the turtle mind of the gang, and the "arm" Murray, move on the scene and is masterfully explored over the course of the three chapters created by the guys from Sucker Punch. Nothing at the plot level is left to chance and it is not difficult to imagine that from the beginning the story of the Cooper family would have to find full fulfillment right through these first three chapters of the series. The characters are gradually characterizing themselves better and better, we know their past more and more and we see them flanked, finally, by a pretty good series of supporting actors.
Even the game structure has undergone a maturation during the three chapters, which from the immature but already very interesting platform mechanics, mixed with stealth phases, of the first Sly Raccoon, has seen gameplay grow through the refinement of a more open-in world Sly 2: Band of Thieves; finally we come to the third chapter, The honor of thieves, where the game is declined at the highest level in all its possibilities, thanks to the consolidation of the good that had been seen in the excellent Sly 2. The Sly trilogy, therefore, through the mixing of different genres, still offers us today a very enjoyable 3D platformer, which easily finds its prominent place in the PS Vita library, lacking in titles of this genre.
Ups and downs between one rope and another
The technical realization of the Sly Trilogy for PS Vita seems to want to follow the verticality typical of the game, released in its first incarnation in 2002 for PlayStation 2. On the one hand, we thus have the peaks of the collection reached in the phases played, with a framerate that is practically always stable in all three chapters ( less in Sly Raccoon) and a good graphic conversion of characters and settings (even in this case, however, we cannot explain the absence of an anti-aliasing filter in the first chapter). On the other hand, we find ourselves dealing with some often unwatchable interlude scenes, excessively compressed, dull and left at the old 4: 3 format. Also this time we point out that the quality increases as we approach the end of the story, but it is really difficult to explain why there is this aversion to giving an adequate look to the first chapters of the conversions carried out by the Sanzaru Games.
The three chapters contained in the collection are then divided into two blocks: in the first block we have Sly Raccoon (Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus in the United States) e Sly 2: Band of Thieves, which in the retail version share the same game cartridge, while in the digital version they are enclosed in a single installation. In the second we have Sly 3: Honor of the Thieves, which exists only in digital format and can be downloaded via coupon from the PS Store even by those who purchase the retail version. As in the case of the God of War Collection (and other similar Sony-branded collections), the title is sold at a budget price and enjoys cross-buy functionality: with 29,99€ (€ 24,99 if purchased from the PS Store) you can take home three great titles, with the opportunity to download the digital version of the corresponding PS3 collection at no additional cost. Also this time, however, the cross-save functionality is missing, which we would have liked so much, as well as the possibility of obtaining the PS Vita version if you have the Sly Trilogy HD in retail format. The corss-buy is in fact valid only for those who have purchased the trilogy in HD for PS3 from the PlayStation store.
Final comment
La Sly Trilogy it is in our opinion one of the best conversions currently available on PS Vita. If in general it is still difficult for us to understand why some aspects of the remastered games are so badly neglected, in particular we can only congratulate Sony for having reproposed one of its historical icons so well in terms of playability. The cross-buy then represents, once again, an extra gear to justify the purchase, thanks also to an excellent overall duration of the package: the longevity, in fact, is around 10-15 hours of play to complete. of each chapter of the series.
| For | Cons |
|---|---|
|
- Good conversion in game ...
- Many hours of content at a reduced price (with cross-buy)
- Sly 2 is one of the best 3D platformers of the PS2 era
|
- ... but the poor quality of the interlude scenes is inexplicable
- The cross-save is missing
- Why not use a few more filters in Sly Raccoon?
|
| Overall rating: 85 |
