Summary
One of the best PS2 games is coming toPlayStation Pluson June 11. The Premium tier of Sony’s subscription has a catalog of games that builds upon the PS4 and PS5 roster seen in the other tiers, with streaming for PS3 games and Classics titles covering thePS1, PSP, and PS2 era via emulation, making games from every era accessible to players on modern consoles.
Many PS Classics titles come with additional features through their emulation, including upgraded graphics, a quick save feature, the ability to rewind, custom video filters, and trophies, bringing beloved titles from past generations closer to an experience that modern gamers expect.
As per thePlayStation Blogpost that announced PlayStation Plus' new June 2024 games as part of its annual Days of Play promotion,Sony confirmed that one of these titles would be Sucker Punch’s action-adventure stealth title,Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.Sly Cooperwas released to high praise back in 2002, and the original PS2 version of the game currently boasts aMetacriticscore of 86, with an 8.7 user score.
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Sly Cooper Is One Of The Best Games Of The PS2 Era
And Its Visuals And Gameplay Still Hold Up
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonusfollows the titular Sly Cooper and his gang, Bentley the Turtle and Murray the Hippo, as they seek out criminals known as the Fiendish Five in a bid to get revenge for his family of master thieves, the Cooper Clan - of which he is the last surviving member - and recover the pages of the “Thievius Raccoonus,” a book containing all of the Cooper Clan’s thieving moves. In terms of gameplay,Sucker Punch’s title combined the 3D platforming of its contemporaries, such asSpyro the DragonorCrash Bandicoot, with the stealth tactics ofSplinter Cell, making for a unique combination.
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus’gameplay urged players not to get spotted - Sly is a thief, after all - by using his senses to observe the environment and sneak around. To add extra tension, enemies could take Sly out in one hit, making players think about their approach. With this in mind,the PS Classics emulator’s rewind tool will certainly come in handy for new players when traversing the game’s stealthier sections.
Unlike many games from the PS2 era,Sly Cooperstill holds up visually thanks to its stylized, Film Noir-esque atmosphere and cel-shaded art style, which resembles a hand-drawn animated film. The game was nominated for “Excellence in Visual Arts” at the 2003Game Developer’s Conference, but it lost out to the firstKingdom Hearts.
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Could Sly Cooper’s Sequels Join The PS2 Classics Roster Soon?
The PS2 Trilogy Was Remastered For PS3
WithSly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonusbeing the first in the series, this poses the question of whether the game’s sequels could receive the same treatment in the future. After initially releasing the fellow Sony-owned stealth titleSyphon FilterandSyphon Filter 2on PlayStation Plus in 2022 following the introduction of the tiered subscription, more games from that series have been added, with the only one not present as of the time of writing being the fourth,The Omega Strain, so it’s possible that Sony may look to get the wholeSly Cooperseries on PlayStation Plus via its Classics emulator over the coming years.
The PS2Sly Coopertrilogy, which included sequelsSly 2: Band of ThievesandSly 3: Honor Among Thieves, was remastered and released asThe Sly Collectionon PS3 and PS Vita in 2010 before the release of 2013’sSly Cooper: Thieves in Time.ThisPS3 remastered version was on PlayStation Plusin the past, albeit via streaming, a feature that has had issues over the years depending on internet connections and whether the streaming function is available in specific regions. With the new emulated version of the firstSly Cooperbeing available offline through the emulator, it would be great to see the other games in the series get the same treatment, even ifThieves in Timewill likely still have to be streamed as a PS3 title unless a PS4/PS5 remaster is released.
Seeing more of the brilliant PS2 generation of games coming to PlayStation Plus is great, especially with some of the modern emulation features in tow.Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonusis one of the best games of that era, so players should definitely pick it up when it joins thePlayStation Pluscatalog on June 11, regardless of whether they’re newcomers or fans of the classic.
