Sanzaru gave us a sneak peek at some new Sly 4 content at Gamescom today, demonstrating how the new title is a traditional Sly game with a next-gen sheen.
This shot of Murray shows the enhanced graphics of the new game -- check out the lighting, bloom and draw distance.
The Sly Cooper series is beloved by many as some of Sucker Punch's finest games -- and some of the PS2's best games, in fact. The news that developer Sanzaru Games, not Sucker Punch, would be at the helm of the latest game concerned some, but Sony weren't worried -- when Sanzaru showed up unannounced with a prototype of a new Sly game back in 2008, the publisher knew that they had the right studio for the job on the case while Sucker Punch were tied up with the inFamous series. Anyone who's played the Sly HD collection, which Sanzaru were also responsible for, will agree.
Sly 4 keeps the fundamental Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic of the series intact and uses the power of the PS3 to add more in the way of detail. Sly the character has evolved a little -- he's aged, got tougher and fitter and also appears to have grown a small pointy beard. Meanwhile the game world still looks characteristically Sly-ish, with distorted, wacky shapes and good use of color, light and dark -- there's just more of it to see at once thanks to enhanced draw distances and textures.
Because Sly 4 has been designed specifically for the PS3 rather than being an upgraded port, Sanzaru has been able to add a lot more to the game. Levels are bigger and there's a lot more verticality to the environments -- past Sly games tended to take place on two distinct "tiers" but Thieves in Time has a number of strata to explore, each offering a different perspective on the sprawling locales.
Structure-wise, Sly 4 keeps the approach of the second and third games, which is to have a quasi-open world "hub" level with occasional more focused missions as appropriate to the narrative. Completing missions will also frequently require the assistance of Bentley and Murray, both of whom are playable.
The biggest twist on the gameplay is the addition of costumes which provide Sly with special abilities. A Japanese samurai costume, for example, allows him to absorb fire damage (quite why is anyone's guess) while an Ali Baba-style costume gives him the ability to slow down time. The costumes are there to allow a greater variety of environmental puzzles, but also to encourage replayability -- in order to uncover the game's many secrets, players will have to return to past levels with additional costumes available to them.
Boss fights are back, and they're old-school platformer "pattern recognition" affairs. Because of the added power of the PS3, though, Sanzaru have gone to town on the environmental destruction during these confrontations. By the end of a boss battle, the environment will generally be a smoldering pile of ruins, providing a greater sense of satisfaction when the villain finally yields to Sly's skills.
The fact that Sly 4 is sticking so tightly to the past games' formula will delight fans of the series, but it could also be something of a concern -- those who didn't grow up with this particular era of platformers may not find the gameplay to be to their taste.
Changing it too much would get rid of the essence of Sly, though, so the approach Sanzaru is taking -- traditional gameplay with a next-gen coat of paint -- is likely the best way forward.
Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Wednesday, August 17, 2011