Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sly Cooper has some measure of veneration among Sony-centric franchises, so I figured it would be good to check it out from the beginning. Striking me immediately was something about the presentation - the anthropomorphic character design, the cheesy tunes and environments, and most significantly, the hit-or-miss voice acting - that just made me feel apathetic about the game's characters and world. Sly Cooper is the kind of character that might be "cool" to a kid, but is not nearly interesting enough for me to get into.

As for the gameplay, it is somewhat reminiscent of Banjo-Kazooie-era platforming: small hub areas connect individual stages, each with some ultimate goal (a key), hidden collectible items (hints) to unlock new abilities, and collectible currency (coins) for one-ups. A significant difference between Sly and other platformers is that here, you've only got one HP (unless you collect enough coins or get a pickup for an extra hit), which, combined with a checkpoint system, makes dying-and-retrying no less frustrating but somewhat more frequent than in most games.

The game supposedly emphasizes some stealth element, but, as far as I've gotten, not in the way of evading enemies; what few opponents there are, are pretty much unavoidable. There are, however, some alarm systems - spotlights, laser sensors, and so on - that Sly is better off sneaking around. Combat is simple, with a single attack button and one-hit kills (at least, up to this point). Though the hubs give a degree of choice in where to go next, the individual levels are very linear, with a clear path between the starting point and the final goal.

It's not necessarily a "bad" game, with only a few things I'd really gripe about (Sly's voice acting and the dumb enemies, for instance), but thus far it just hasn't impressed me.

Progress: 7%