Sony sent us a playable demo of the Sly Cooper sequel and after spending some time playing the game it is quite apparent that its subtitle Band of Thieves is very appropriate. Outside of a mini game or two, Sly’s partners of Bentley and Murray provided most of their support from Sly’s base or van. In Band of Thieves, however, they’ll be actively involved in the missions both in supporting roles and as controllable characters. This makes for more varied gameplay and dynamic puzzles as each character brings his own unique talents to each mission. Sly is still a super thief of course, and has a full set of stealth and attack moves drawn from his family’s book, the Thievius Raccoonus. Bentley is best suited to computer hacking, but when Sly needs him he dons a pith helmet, grabs his knockout dart crossbow and some time bombs, and (somewhat) bravely does his part. Murray is more brawn than brains but is all heart and is always willing to help Sly when heavy things need to be smashed, lifted, or thrown.

Murray lends a hand.

The demo provided a mix of missions from the game that gave us a chance to see all three characters in action. The first mission was a museum heist in which you control Sly the entire time but receive some much needed support from Bentley and Murray. Sly is up to his usual tricks of sneaking around, finding other ways to get into places besides the front door, and getting to the prize. Bentley came onto the scene when needed to hack the museum’s laser detection grid and disable the alarms. Murray proved useful by lifting a huge gate blocking Sly’s way. This mission was a good preview of what to expect in the game as all three characters will work together to complete missions. At some points in the game as the characters split up to complete different tasks, you’ll take control of them in succession as they each do their part. At times their tasks will be concurrent in the story, so you’ll get to see the same part of a heist from different viewpoints and how each team member fits into the overall plan.

The second mission required Sly to tail a suspicious character through city streets filled with guards. This mission did a good job of demonstrating that in Band of Thieves there will be more than one way to complete a mission. In this case, you can stick to the streets, trying to stay out of the light while avoiding guards and the attention of your quarry. While doable, this can be a tricky feat to pull off. However, observant players will notice that they can use an awning to jump up onto a nearby rooftop. From up high it is easy to tail your target all the way to his secret hideout without ever drawing a glance from a guard.

Other missions in the demo gave us a chance to control Bentley and Murray directly. Bentley’s task was to infiltrate a disco after hours and use bombs to cause a giant mirror ball to come crashing to the floor. Why? To make the sign on the front of the building come crashing to the ground, of course! Anyway, Bentley doesn’t have the moves that Sly does so he needs to rely on his weapons. His crossbow armed with sleep darts comes with a sniper scope that lets him zoom in on his targets and fire a precise shot. Once the guard is out cold, Bentley can get rid of him by swinging the crossbow like a bat or by dropping one of his little time bombs. The time bombs came in especially handy on this mission as they did a great job of brining down the mirror ball’s support beams.

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