Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

Sanzaru Games takes over for Sucker Punch for "Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time", the fourth entry in the series. While they did a fine job updating the original trilogy to HD, they stumbled a bit on this one. The story is good and holds a lot of promise- pages are vanishing from the Thievius Raccoonus, and the gang realizes someone has gone back in time and is eliminating the Cooper clan from history. Bentley builds a time machine, and away our heroes go, traveling to places like feudal Japan, the Old West, England in the middle ages, and even to prehistoric times. Each area is set up in episodic fashion, containing 7 to 9 missions each. There's quite a variety in the missions overall, but some mainstays remain, like recon and following the bad guy. Sadly, the controls are among the flaws that mar the fun in these levels. When they work, they work well, but all too often they are unresponsive, leading to frustration and cheap deaths. Some bits go on for too long, and boss battles are repetitious and range from okay to downright annoying. Speaking of annoying, the character of Bentley is especially annoying in this game. He was never my favorite character from the previous three games, and there is just way too much of him here. The hacking bits range from frustrating (using the Sixaxis controller to move a ball along the grid) to okay (a digital tank blasting through) to a somewhat fun side scrolling shooter. Each of Cooper's ancestors have their own unique abilities, but their use is restricted to their levels and to their respective parts in the final chapter. The game does wrap up the story nicely, leaving just enough opening for a sequel. The disc I played did have a few glitches, which consisted of characters being hung up in the environment and one freeze which necessitated restarting my PS3. Nothing that made the game unplayable, but they occurred, and when paired with the other flaws made things less fun. This is a rental at best, even for series fans.

Playing this game has brought back some fond memories of the PS2/Game Cube/Xbox era (i.e. "last gen").

Yeah, it has got its fair share of "everyone" humor (hence the "E" rating) that might throw off a more mature audience that is ignorant of the quality of the Sly Cooper series of games, but for those of us who played the three offerings last gen, "Thieves in Time" is a well received throw back.

If really want the full Sly Cooper experience, pick up "The Sly Collection" and play through the first three installments before jumping into "Thieves in Time". If you can tolerate the last gen graphics, you should be pleasantly surprised.

When I heard this game was coming out I was stoked!... And then I bought the game.. The game mechanics are ok, but to me Sly feels slower in maneuvering above the rooftop, and when you land from a height, they slow the game down instead of landing lightly and moving on. The environment is nice, well detailed, but I don't like that they changed the clue bottle sound from that nice loud clink-clink, made it much harder to find them. And the different ancestral abilities are nice, although you don't really use them outside of missions and item acquistion. The fighting system is really slow and not very fun, even with Murray. The boss battles kind suck, they rely on dodging attacks and then counterattacking when the boss signals you can. But its the storyline that made me ragequit and sell the game on Ebay. I'm not trying to spoil anything, but in the first three games the main baddies were driven by rage, Dr M was a bit greedy too but he mainly felt unappreciated as member of Slys fathers gang. In this game, the motivation is greed, pure and simple. And the worst part for me is the plot twist in episode 4. Again, not trying to spoil anything, but what happens and why it happens just left me feeling hollow and then enraged. So basically, if your curious rent it, then afterwards, do like me and pretend this game doesn't exist as part of the Sly Cooper story.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great game as indicated in the score, but make no mistake, it's a kids game. And that's not a bad thing.

It's got a beautiful art style, environments look great, it's discounted and yet is worth full price and more considering you get the Vita version with it.
This is a nice throwback to adventure/platforming games that have since disappeared from gaming and it's great to see it come back and executed so well.
But, lets face it, if you're an adult, the characters are just too obnoxious, voices too over the top and the experience, although pleasant and refreshing, is a bit too simple. Again, that's not to say there's anything wrong with this formula, just know what audience you're in before giving it a try.

great fun game

I'll played all three of the previous games, loved them and unfortunately lost them. This sequel was amazing. New game play options and abilities that keep even the more tedious sections interesting. The time travel elements are a good touch though to veterans of the series some sections will be familiar and a few pieces of the story will jump out and slap you, thus ruining the surprise. Sly's ancestors are fun to play with for the most part and they have some interesting abilities. I just wish a bit more design and character development would have taken place with them, because most of them play just like Sly with a different skin and a power up.
Over all though great game with a killer ending.

I had recently received this game and was very excited to start playing this game because I am a big fan of the orginal 3 sly games. I was a little nervous that this game was going to disappoint because it was made by a different company then the orginal 3. To my suprise this game looked and played better then the first 3. The orginal voices are back for the characters as well as some new characters such as slys ancestors. The graphics are beautifully done with japan and other worlds looking as if you were at the places during the time period. The controls are simple to use, move with the control stick jump with the x button and attack or pickpocket with the circle button. The storyline is very engaging and fun with sly traveling through time to rescue his ancestors and restore the theives raccounas. I would highly recommend this game to sly cooper fans or fans of action adventure games. I would hope that there will be more sly cooper games to come.

Let me say off the bat that this is a good game and Sanzaru games did a good job of reviving the franchise and keeping it true to the subject material. The levels in general feel like a Sly Cooper game (albeit with a more graphically intense engine that took some getting used to), and the good guy characters are all interesting and fun. I really only have 2 complaints about the game overall.

1. The Villains are Rather Weak

Now when I say weak I do not mean it as in that they are easy to beat (although one or two of them are). I say weak in the aspect of they just aren't as interesting or enjoyable as villains in the franchise have been in the past. They just don't have the presence that the other villains did in previous installments. Draw from that what you will considering they are all anthropomorphic animals, but if you look at the back-stories of previous villain as opposed to these, they could have been better. I did enjoy one villain about mid-way through the game but that's about it.

2. The Story Arc's Payoff Leaves Things to be Desired

The writing was on the wall since the ending of Sly 3 that there was going to be a game like this. For the large majority of the story and game, they do it very well. The only problem comes at the ending level/ cinematic. I won't spoil it for you (because i'm not that kind of gamer) but I will let slip that whatever wasn't predictable left something to be desired.

All said, this is most definitely a Sly Cooper game. It stays true to the subject matter and gameplay formula to the largest extent and I recommend it for both veterans and old fans. I just have a particular attachment to this series as it was one of the first games I ever got for the PS2 and I have seen everything develop in it throughout the rather impressive run. I just feel they changed some stuff that didn't need to be changed.

I think if I had to rank the four games in the series this one would probably be tied with the first one for second f

i like it

oooooooooooooooooooooh

From the time of Bob Cooper to Sir Galeth this game is jam packed full of surprises. An excellent twist from the original bestselling trilogy. A game that is easy to play but difficult to beat this game comes to us as a masterpiece stolen from the masterminds at Sony. This game will have you on the edge of your seat from story start to game completion end. Pour hours of time into the game and you will start to see the personalities and qualities of the Coopers expand and become real. This is a game to be shared through all ages and especially all times.

The Sly Cooper Trilogy was my entire childhood. I have been wanting a 4th game to come out for a few years, and it never did until this.
Now let me just say that this game is NO way perfect. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it doesn't even compare with its older counterparts. However, this can be assumed with the fact that this was created by 'Sanzaru Games' instead of 'Sucker Punch'.

Summarized, if you never played the previous games in the series, this game will range on a scale from '1-to-bad' for you. If you have played them, then it'll be a pretty good game (it just takes a while to get used to all the new CGI for every character).

it had a great story line and gameplay but i cinda felt traped in a place

I like the game it was fun but just too easy for me, the other Sly's were more challenging like when following the bosses in Sly 2 and 3 it was more challenging to find a way to tail them than just be above them and listen to every word they say. Also with the guards there weren't many and if you got caught it was too easy to get away, I like a good chase every now and again and just like I was playing tag by myself. The pickpocketing was different I like that each item was in the hundred's range but sad that it was easy to make money. Please in the next one because everyone knows there will be later sometime, think about what to do next and don't make it too easy. Also be creative!

Too much murray and bentley, not enough sly cooper. Should have stuck to the roots in that aspect. Looks very good for a sly game, great character interactions and relations. Decent replay value because you can go back to any level and get all the collectables if thats your thing. Worth a quick rent, but thats about it.