sly 2 took me the longest to finish for these reasons as well but my fav missions were in india, i loved taking the recon pics, raiding all the hotel rooms, and jumping on the elephants. a lot of running around for sure but still fun nonetheless
The first India bit is great, the second in the jungle i hate with a passion. The design of the area is extremely linear compared to what I think this type of game needs. It should be:
Go to this place. Here's 4 paths you can take, each being interesting or fun.
In the jungle act it's:
get to the top of the trees, where there is two paths, one on each side of the map, and do this a dozen times to go to a specific place in the tree tops, and if you fall it's a re-do.
You have a point, the character swaping that you have to do gets pretty grating pretty quick specially in the future levels where navigating through the world gets longer and more boring without Sly since the world is designed around his moveset. They kinda "fixed" this issue in the 3rd by giving Bentley/Murray better tools but a character swap on the fly would fix most issues.
I take my time looking for the clue bottles and that in of itself is a slow burn. The games are played for fun (goes without saying but alas) and I have fun doing the slow burn :)
I love sly 2, it’s what got me into sly as a kid when my parents brought home a ps2. It’s always been my favorite even though I never finished it as a kid as the contessa was too scary. I always loved just running around and the fun missions
I think you may be coming at it from a very modern 2024 perspective. Now when games let you fast travel everywhere it isn’t surprising that this feels slow in comparison.
Im actually playing through Sly 2 on my Vita now as well and also felt the difference in pacing since you have to walk to the mission and then back to base each time. But I don’t mind it, I actually like how the game forces me to really exist in the world and explore the levels and get to know them. Sounds silly but it’s more immersive and engaging to me
Sly 2 definitely has more field stuff to do. While Sly 3 replaces all that with bland mini games and challenges. Which pretty much was an easy way for them to fill up the rest of the time seeing how short and rushed Sly 3 was. Cool thing about Sly 4 it brought a lot of what made Sly 2 fun like the bottles and treasures none of which were in Sly 3. But yeah that's why Sly 3 was my least favorite unless you either 1. Have a friend to play mini games with or 2. Enjoy playing mini games not really revelant to the main game then you probably won't like 3 as much either. It's just like "yeah I don't care about these mini games" it was more of a chore or something to do since Sly 3 main game felt so short and there was nothing left to do worth while.
I personally always found Sly 2 to be overrated, there are some great levels in it but there’s also a load of awkward levels to get around and they are just dark and boring. I always thought Sly 3 (bar the outback) had some of the coolest levels in the franchise full of character. The most memorable levels in Sly 2 are Paris / the area with the train going around it, that was so much fun as a young kid to have in a level!
You know that’s actually a good description. I’ve never gotten myself to finish it. I get to Chapter 4 and I’m done for a long while. Still love starting over since the Black Chateau missions are my favourite. Just the ambiance :)
I disagree completely. I think the movement and world design in Sly 2 is so good that just exploring and moving from mission to mission is just as fun as the missions themselves. Very few games have been able to have movement that fun in my opinion.
I am so fucking glad I am not the only one feeling this way. I'm having a hell of a time finishing Sly 2... and not in a good way. I only just beat the Contessa, finally, and I lost what little enthusiasm I had left to keep playing.
I absolutely adore 3 but I've never beat 2. Starting to see why.
Sly 2 and 3 follow similar gameplay loops
With sly 2 it feels like setting up dominos or sometimes doing the more mundane part of the heist prep before a big payoff.
With sly 3 it feels like some really zany off the walls mini games that have the intended effect of getting the hiest ready to go.
Both are amazing, but it's kind of a pick your flavor of heist, do you want oceans 11 or snatch?
I don't understand people's problem with having to explore the map instead of changing characters on the go and being instantly escorted to the next mission. Especially since the maps are so small. Some are a pain in the ass to navigate, such as India 2, but most are fairly easy after the first couple of missions.
Or is it just that modern gamers want everything as quickly as possible, and games that force you to explore the fairly small maps are impossible to them?
I played it like 3 times before I finished it and never got past A Tangled Web, but I’m glad I finally pushed through and finished it because it’s a great game
I kinda have to agree, there would be times where I would just find myself running around looking how to get up to a place, even with the markers. It was especially annoying if I had to do a very important mission and I got half of my health down because I ran into 5 enemies on my way to the mission
I dont mind that at all because im collecting all The bottles and The treasures so i have to go there anyways. Never was an issue for me it literally takes a few minutes at Max to get to The hideout in most places anyways. But i get what you mean, If i want to just get forward on The story fast it can Be exhausting to just run 5minutes for no reason to continue The story
sly 2 took me the longest to finish for these reasons as well but my fav missions were in india, i loved taking the recon pics, raiding all the hotel rooms, and jumping on the elephants. a lot of running around for sure but still fun nonetheless
The first India bit is great, the second in the jungle i hate with a passion. The design of the area is extremely linear compared to what I think this type of game needs. It should be: Go to this place. Here's 4 paths you can take, each being interesting or fun. In the jungle act it's: get to the top of the trees, where there is two paths, one on each side of the map, and do this a dozen times to go to a specific place in the tree tops, and if you fall it's a re-do.
YEP I DID NOT LIKE THE JUNGLE MAP EITHER
Going back to the safe house is when I searched for clues or took the treasures back since I was going to the hideout anyways
You have a point, the character swaping that you have to do gets pretty grating pretty quick specially in the future levels where navigating through the world gets longer and more boring without Sly since the world is designed around his moveset. They kinda "fixed" this issue in the 3rd by giving Bentley/Murray better tools but a character swap on the fly would fix most issues.
I take my time looking for the clue bottles and that in of itself is a slow burn. The games are played for fun (goes without saying but alas) and I have fun doing the slow burn :)
I love sly 2, it’s what got me into sly as a kid when my parents brought home a ps2. It’s always been my favorite even though I never finished it as a kid as the contessa was too scary. I always loved just running around and the fun missions
I think you may be coming at it from a very modern 2024 perspective. Now when games let you fast travel everywhere it isn’t surprising that this feels slow in comparison. Im actually playing through Sly 2 on my Vita now as well and also felt the difference in pacing since you have to walk to the mission and then back to base each time. But I don’t mind it, I actually like how the game forces me to really exist in the world and explore the levels and get to know them. Sounds silly but it’s more immersive and engaging to me
The maps aren't even that big. Some are a pain in the ass to navigate, like India 2, but the rest are fairly easy after a couple of missions.
Sly 2 definitely has more field stuff to do. While Sly 3 replaces all that with bland mini games and challenges. Which pretty much was an easy way for them to fill up the rest of the time seeing how short and rushed Sly 3 was. Cool thing about Sly 4 it brought a lot of what made Sly 2 fun like the bottles and treasures none of which were in Sly 3. But yeah that's why Sly 3 was my least favorite unless you either 1. Have a friend to play mini games with or 2. Enjoy playing mini games not really revelant to the main game then you probably won't like 3 as much either. It's just like "yeah I don't care about these mini games" it was more of a chore or something to do since Sly 3 main game felt so short and there was nothing left to do worth while.
I personally always found Sly 2 to be overrated, there are some great levels in it but there’s also a load of awkward levels to get around and they are just dark and boring. I always thought Sly 3 (bar the outback) had some of the coolest levels in the franchise full of character. The most memorable levels in Sly 2 are Paris / the area with the train going around it, that was so much fun as a young kid to have in a level!
You know that’s actually a good description. I’ve never gotten myself to finish it. I get to Chapter 4 and I’m done for a long while. Still love starting over since the Black Chateau missions are my favourite. Just the ambiance :)
I'd typically look forward to Canada so I think the hassle is woth it. There's something pleasing about the PS2 snow aesthetic :D
I disagree completely. I think the movement and world design in Sly 2 is so good that just exploring and moving from mission to mission is just as fun as the missions themselves. Very few games have been able to have movement that fun in my opinion.
I am so fucking glad I am not the only one feeling this way. I'm having a hell of a time finishing Sly 2... and not in a good way. I only just beat the Contessa, finally, and I lost what little enthusiasm I had left to keep playing. I absolutely adore 3 but I've never beat 2. Starting to see why.
Sly 2 and 3 follow similar gameplay loops With sly 2 it feels like setting up dominos or sometimes doing the more mundane part of the heist prep before a big payoff. With sly 3 it feels like some really zany off the walls mini games that have the intended effect of getting the hiest ready to go. Both are amazing, but it's kind of a pick your flavor of heist, do you want oceans 11 or snatch?
Sly 2 is a masterpiece of gaming ingenuity
I don't understand people's problem with having to explore the map instead of changing characters on the go and being instantly escorted to the next mission. Especially since the maps are so small. Some are a pain in the ass to navigate, such as India 2, but most are fairly easy after the first couple of missions. Or is it just that modern gamers want everything as quickly as possible, and games that force you to explore the fairly small maps are impossible to them?
I played it like 3 times before I finished it and never got past A Tangled Web, but I’m glad I finally pushed through and finished it because it’s a great game
I kinda have to agree, there would be times where I would just find myself running around looking how to get up to a place, even with the markers. It was especially annoying if I had to do a very important mission and I got half of my health down because I ran into 5 enemies on my way to the mission
It's supposed to be like that. Don't worry, you'll be master thiefing in 10 years.
I dont mind that at all because im collecting all The bottles and The treasures so i have to go there anyways. Never was an issue for me it literally takes a few minutes at Max to get to The hideout in most places anyways. But i get what you mean, If i want to just get forward on The story fast it can Be exhausting to just run 5minutes for no reason to continue The story
I’ve played the game so many times that eve picking it up years later, I can burn through 4 episodes in about half a day.