The inspiration for this topic comes mainly from the hate/hate relationship that Player One and I currently have with Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Although, during Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus it often felt as though you were simply playing the same level over and over again (if I had to do another racing stint with Murray, I'm pretty sure I would have thrown my controller out the window), the platforming elements in the individual missions were varied enough that the overall experience was enjoyable. Not only that, but the superb (and incredibly difficult) variation of the final level of the game was enough for me to forgive the fact that throughout the game you would die if you got hit by an enemy (I mean, the game usually felt so bad for me that it would give me pity horseshoes, but even those went pretty quickly in the fight with Clockwerk.)
However, Sly 2 has tried to change up the elements that were established in the first game to add variation but have only succeeded in sapping the life out of the game. Every time I play Sly 2, I swear I lose about ten braincells, half my EXP, and 10 patience points. I believe most of the problem stems from the sheer amount of missions that the player is forced to do in order to complete a level. I'm all for trying to give a more open world feel to the games, but I would have appreciated a more comprehensive experience. Every task that I'm given to complete in the game feels monotonous. Instead of the vast amount of platforming in the first game, the focus in Sly 2 is on stealth and melee brawling. However, the stealth controls are clunky and the enemies, ridiculously overpowered, so in later levels, whenever you're caught (which is almost every single time you try to scale a roof), you're almost guaranteed to get killed (and/or demolished, destroyed, thrown off of the building into a river, and trampled by an elephant).
I also believe that some of the issues come from the useless segments where the player is forced to play as Murray or Bentley. Unlike the first game, where these were special experiences and guaranteed a complicated and rewarding variation from the usual platforming mundanity (save the racing segments. I hate the racing segments), in the second game these specialized levels feel like a form of punishment. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that most of Bentley's segments are ill-conceived minigames, and that Murray's brawling is only amusing the first time around. Perhaps one of the worst moments of the game, for me, was fighting a boss battle with Murray. The hippopotamus does not have the finesse of Sly and as a result his melee controls are incredibly hard to master for quick reactions to the boss's attacks. Eventually the encounter came down to trial and error, and I was only able to beat it when I had memorized everyone of the boss's attack patterns.
Player One and I have been valiantly struggling through this game for the past few weeks, and we haven't yet hit the halfway point. Personally, I think the major milestone that turned me off from the game was the fact that for several of the later bosses you have to go through two levels in order to finally defeat them. That means double the amount of useless missions, frustrating controls, and infuriating stealth sequences before you can even think about progressing to another stage of the game. It's just kind of ridiculous, if you ask me.
Essentially, the matter of beating Sly 2 has come down to a matter of pride. As a gamer, I want to prove that I'm worth my salt by beating this game, but I'm not going to enjoy the experience. Dear readers, have you ever played a game that you've beaten only out of sheer stubbornness? I would love to hear how you managed to brave the ordeal, since right now it looks like it's going to be a battle to the death with Sly 2, and I'm not sure if I'm going to win.
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