People think this game is easy?

[Lianco]

I understand the trophy list is very easy, it basically requires you play each level thoroughly and not just beeline right to the end but the rest of the game? People say this game can be completed in a few hours and I guess that's true but it doesn't really seem to me like it would be a comfortable few hours, it'd be a dedicated half a day for sure. I was having a lot of fun and then the first minigame came out of nowhere with the crabs and the treasure chests and it just struck me as really odd. The difficultly just spiked to an unreasonable level that didn't really fit well with the rest of the game and it caught me off guard. They just increase and get worse over time. The vehicle controls are awful and everything else is just stupid filler with not enough time; kamikaze chickens? Okay. I can't think of a single minigame I enjoy in any way. The fact they stay around for the sequels shows to me that they didn't think they were a teething pain of a new series but a core feature. I borderline hate Bentley now because whenever he shows up I just know it's gonna be a painful gimmick mechanic that doesn't fit in with the rest of the game. I thought they were in the game because Sly 1 is a very obvious Crash inspired game but that game can pull it off where this one can't. A life system and a 1 hit KO is a terrible idea, I know Crash did it too, but that's exactly the point. I never really played Crash as a kid, it was too annoying, maybe I'd do better now. If they ran out of budget or something, maybe don't have every world need a 7 key requirement; heck, the final area of the game is basically a gauntlet run, it's so bizarre. I also think the game has some input delay, the O button would just not work sometimes, especially in the Mz Ruby fight and then the boss fight just glitched ended. The fact you have to do all of that fight without taking a single hit is insane. And I'm not bad at rhythm games, I play Hatsune Miku. Maybe a PS3 issue.

 

People wonder why this series isn't as highly regarded as Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter but it really isn't that hard to see why. The quality is just not there. Not to say the game doesn't have any, it's just interrupted very often by amateur game design and seeing as how this is made by Sucker Punch, I guess that explains it. I bought this to play a stealth/platformer game, not have half the game be taken up by annoying and irrelevant minigames. If they were short, one off distractions that you didn't really have to put any thought into then that would be fine but they destroy the pace of the game to a halt. I dreaded going to a new world because of what minigames there were most likely going to be. Ratchet and Jak have mini games but they're either short, optional, tonally consistent or, shockingly, actually fun.

 

Yeah someone may say 'git gud' but they weren't difficult in a fun way, they were just aggravating. I'll never replay this series at this point because it just would not be fun at all. I'm honestly surprised a friend of mine loves this series because he rages at the slightest thing, maybe he grew up with it. Don't really expect anyone to read this, just wanted to put my thoughts somewhere and see what people think. I'd just get downvoted in the Sly subreddit for being a troll or something so I think I'll put it here lmao. 

[da-Noob123]

I don't remember Sly 1 being difficult except for the Ms Ruby fight. Just be glad you don't have to do any time trials for any of the trophies. I have no idea how people beat those. 

 

If you are going for all 3 games in the original trilogy I think 3 was the hardest because of the level challenges. At least as far as I can recall. 

[Jelly Soup]

Certainly has that old PS2 difficulty learning curve, but it's not really that bad. It's very much a practice-makes-perfect kind of game.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jelly Soup

[meecegoatsalot]

11 minutes ago, da-Noob123 said:

If you are going for all 3 games in the original trilogy I think 3 was the hardest because of the level challenges. At least as far as I can recall. 

 

You are right there but even still I would say 3 was still easy in comparison to many similar games.

 

OP while I agree on the mini games not always being the best I would say they are no worse than the motorbike levels in crash bandicoot and they do break up the gameplay a bit. I think the plat took me around 9 hrs of gameplay and the majority of that was fun for me.

[AK-1138]

You're right, this is the Dark Souls of Sixth Generation Furry Saturday Morning Cartoon Sneak 'em Up Collectathon Multiplatform Remasters.

[Lord_Bane999]

I think honestly the game is considered easy for the same reason the Jak and Daxter games are considered easy to most. Majority of players probably either played them originally on PS2 that they know the ins and outs of the games and most optimal routes.

[SnizelPS]

Well, better be ready because the 1st game has the least amount of mini games...

Sly 3 is about 50% mini games ?

 

[Viper]

It's been some years since I played, but I was saying the same thing at the time. People made it out to be stress free Platinums and it was anything but. Sly 2 was even worse. 

 

I still to this day haven't played Sly 3 (or 4) because it's apparently even worse than 2, and I just keep going another direction when I think about playing it. 

[Lianco]

10 hours ago, da-Noob123 said:

If you are going for all 3 games in the original trilogy I think 3 was the hardest because of the level challenges. At least as far as I can recall. 

I was thinking about it because it'd be nice to have them all together in my trophy list but I don't know about it now, especially before Christmas and the fact I bought New Horizons on Friday. I'm not really having as much fun as I thought. I said to myself I'd play them as soon as I woke up today but I prioritised literally everything else. I didn't expect any comments!

 

10 hours ago, Jelly Soup said:

Certainly has that old PS2 difficulty learning curve, but it's not really that bad. It's very much a practice-makes-perfect kind of game.

Can't say I agree, it's not like GTA SA's plane missions or Sonic Riders Challenge mode. It felt like sheer luck that I managed to win those horrendous driving games. There's some conspiracy that you auto win after the third real try. 

 

10 hours ago, meecegoatsalot said:

OP while I agree on the mini games not always being the best I would say they are no worse than the motorbike levels in crash bandicoot and they do break up the gameplay a bit. I think the plat took me around 9 hrs of gameplay and the majority of that was fun for me.

I don't really understand the 'break up the gameplay' argument. Do you not want to play a stealth platformer game? I didn't buy Dishonored to have half the game be replaced by a kart racer; I didn't buy Call of Duty to have half the game be replaced by a rhythm game; I didn't buy Mystery Dungeon to have half the game be replaced by Tetris. I buy a stealth game to play stealth, I buy a shooter to play a shooter and I buy a dungeon crawler to play a dungeon crawler.
You mean 9 hours in total for Sly 1?
 

10 hours ago, AK-1138 said:

You're right, this is the Dark Souls of Sixth Generation Furry Saturday Morning Cartoon Sneak 'em Up Collectathon Multiplatform Remasters.

Don't agree, Dark Souls isn't hard because it's cheap or has irrelevant game modes, it's hard because it plays by a very strict set of rules and doesn't deviate from it. DS has some cheap moments, sure, like a boulder rolling down some stairs that will most definitely hit a new player, but Sly is just cheap. I'll stick to good collect-a-thons like Spyro. 

 

10 hours ago, Lord_Bane999 said:

I think honestly the game is considered easy for the same reason the Jak and Daxter games are considered easy to most. Majority of players probably either played them originally on PS2 that they know the ins and outs of the games and most optimal routes.

Yeah I guess that's a fair point, it would be hard for me to judge Ratchet by any fair newcomer thoughts because I've played it dozens of times as a child, but my point stands that I was surprised a friend of mine liked it due to his tendency to rage, I'll ask him about it next time I see him. He didn't even make mention of the mini games because I'm sure to him they're just normal gameplay. It still seems very weird. 

 

10 hours ago, SnizelPS said:

Well, better be ready because the 1st game has the least amount of mini games...

Sly 3 is about 50% mini games 

 

Should I just quit now or...?

 

8 hours ago, Viper said:

It's been some years since I played, but I was saying the same thing at the time. People made it out to be stress free Platinums and it was anything but. Sly 2 was even worse. 

 

I still to this day haven't played Sly 3 (or 4) because it's apparently even worse than 2, and I just keep going another direction when I think about playing it. 

Yeah I agree, a 2/10 trophy list seems weird to think about when you actually play the game and see the difficulty of it. I'm probably in the minority though that would say that they prefer Sly 1 to its sequels. I liked the idea of an open worldish type gameplay of the 2nd one but seeing what they did with it? Nah. I wanna see if I can plat the other 3 before the end of the year or at the very least, Christmas, but as said above, we shall see. 

[Jelly Soup]

4 hours ago, Lianco said:

Can't say I agree, it's not like GTA SA's plane missions or Sonic Riders Challenge mode. It felt like sheer luck that I managed to win those horrendous driving games. There's some conspiracy that you auto win after the third real try.

 

Oh, the DRIVING PARTS.

Yeah, those suck hard. Poorly calibrated, loose controls, rubberband AI. 2 & 3 have driving sections as well, but it's much more manageable, for the most part.

[AJ_Radio]

Go play Jak 2, then come to me and tell me Sly Cooper 1 still isn't that easy.

 

The first Sly is piss easy compared to what Jak 2 and Jak 3 had you doing.

[hittheroadbucky]

I got the plat in this last year and I don’t really remember struggling too much with it. There was one boss fight near the end that I had to replay a few times but nothing major. But then again I did have the game when I was younger and played it a lot then, so that could contribute to it. It took me way longer than a few hours though, pretty sure I was a few days ?

[Titanomachy_75]

It was pretty easy game to each its own. As Spaz said come to me about JAK 2 lol 

[JJ-LoveBomb07]

Not only do I completely disagree, but Sly 2 is leaps and bounds ahead of sly 1. The series only got better. And sly 1 is super easy. The camera adjusts to the direction you need to go. The enemies are easy just learn the patterns, and don’t rush! 
 

Also it’s insanely small game. Worth the time. If you aren’thaving fun, you should play a different game. But sly is funny, fun, and beautiful

Edited December 13, 2020 by JJ-LoveBomb07

[Lianco]

5 hours ago, Spaz said:

Go play Jak 2, then come to me and tell me Sly Cooper 1 still isn't that easy.

 

The first Sly is piss easy compared to what Jak 2 and Jak 3 had you doing.

Yeah the game is relatively easy by itself but I'm talking about the fact that I've seen so many people on YouTube and in forums saying about how this is a totally easy game with a stress free platinum that you can get in just a couple of hours and that is totally not the case at all. You need to be switched on if you're playing these. And yeah I've played the Jak and Daxter series, that's why I used it as an example. 

6 hours ago, Jelly Soup said:

 

Oh, the DRIVING PARTS.

Yeah, those suck hard. Poorly calibrated, loose controls, rubberband AI. 2 & 3 have driving sections as well, but it's much more manageable, for the most part.

The driving controls for the Murray races are exactly what you said, they control in such a weird way. You can get good at them after a while but they just control so strange. You basically need to cut corners and then just boost, very strange. Well, I had issues with that tank section in 2 but then managed to do it without making a mistake in about 5 seconds, now THAT was strange! Well, I hear that 3 has a section that got people stuck for 30-40 minutes lmao. 

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by Lianco
moved text around

[Jelly Soup]

53 minutes ago, Lianco said:

Yeah the game is relatively easy by itself but I'm talking about the fact that I've seen so many people on YouTube and in forums saying about how this is a totally easy game with a stress free platinum that you can get in just a couple of hours and that is totally not the case at all. You need to be switched on if you're playing these. And yeah I've played the Jak and Daxter series, that's why I used it as an example. 

The driving controls for the Murray races are exactly what you said, they control in such a weird way. You can get good at them after a while but they just control so strange. You basically need to cut corners and then just boost, very strange. Well, I had issues with that tank section in 2 but then managed to do it without making a mistake in about 5 seconds, now THAT was strange! Well, I hear that 3 has a section that got people stuck for 30-40 minutes lmao. 

 

 

In my case, for that last race in 1, I ended up getting ticked off with it and focused on trying to ram the other cars. Worked fine when I redid the earlier race years later. Seems the AI is more focused on following a set path and only really notices you if it's forced to. Then when it's forced it, it still tries to return to it's set path. Very strange. For 3, the part that really gets people up in arms is the pirate battles (AI seems to always have the advantage and the hitboxes suck) and the diving part (where you're suddenly forced into a first person mini-game with new mechanics, a tough boss and basically no way to dodge).

[Lianco]

1 hour ago, Jelly Soup said:

 

In my case, for that last race in 1, I ended up getting ticked off with it and focused on trying to ram the other cars. Worked fine when I redid the earlier race years later. Seems the AI is more focused on following a set path and only really notices you if it's forced to. Then when it's forced it, it still tries to return to it's set path. Very strange. For 3, the part that really gets people up in arms is the pirate battles (AI seems to always have the advantage and the hitboxes suck) and the diving part (where you're suddenly forced into a first person mini-game with new mechanics, a tough boss and basically no way to dodge).

I always thought the races in 1 were pretty random. I remember some restarts would have some cars crashing and rolling and then other times they’d take my boost and sometimes they wouldn’t. 
 

Oh that sounds fun ? guess I have that to look forward to tomorrow, I saw a trophy about pirate ships. Great fun... like how they were in KH3. Totally not a drag!

[EcoShifter]

Late submit- Difficulty spikes are a common thing in games, but they're usually not what defines a game's difficulty. Sly Cooper having some difficulty spikes isn't surprising, especially considering Jak and Daxter, a game that (came first and) has for almost two full decades been constantly labeled as an easy game, has at least some. But it doesn't change the fact that overall Sly Cooper is not a "piss easy" but relatively easy game. Classic 3D platformers like Sly (and those that came both before and after it) are also pretty notorious for the difficulty of their mini-games/multi-genre elements'. 

 

20 hours ago, Lianco said:

I was thinking about it because it'd be nice to have them all together in my trophy list but I don't know about it now, especially before Christmas and the fact I bought New Horizons on Friday. I'm not really having as much fun as I thought. I said to myself I'd play them as soon as I woke up today but I prioritised literally everything else. I didn't expect any comments!

 

You should probably give up then, because while the sequels are more entertaining games, they have more of the differing gameplay sections you won't like, especially S3 ?. The worse part about the series for me will always be the unskippable cutscenes. The games have moderate, or slightly longer, length and a lot of cutscenes, so for literally every single one of them—pre-renedered, in-engine, and the constant hideout related ones—to be unskippable from the first game to the fourth game is unbearable, especially when double dipping their platinum trophy. (I can't do it again, even if I were paid.)

 

Quote

Yeah I agree, a 2/10 trophy list seems weird to think about when you actually play the game and see the difficulty of it. I'm probably in the minority though that would say that they prefer Sly 1 to its sequels. I liked the idea of an open worldish type gameplay of the 2nd one but seeing what they did with it? Nah. I wanna see if I can plat the other 3 before the end of the year or at the very least, Christmas, but as said above, we shall see. 

 

2/10 is too low, but it's also below moderate. The focus on hub levels' design is actually alright. It's like a middle-ground between openworld and open levels. The end of the year is half a month away. Unless you persist through it, you might not reach that goal, especially if you're not liking the series. Some of the unique gameplay sections in S2 and S3 are obnoxious.

Edited December 14, 2020 by EcoShifter

[AJ_Radio]

5 hours ago, Lianco said:

Yeah the game is relatively easy by itself but I'm talking about the fact that I've seen so many people on YouTube and in forums saying about how this is a totally easy game with a stress free platinum that you can get in just a couple of hours and that is totally not the case at all. You need to be switched on if you're playing these. And yeah I've played the Jak and Daxter series, that's why I used it as an example. 

Sly 1 is the most pure platformer in the series. Sly 2 & Sly 3 has those unskippable cutscenes, plus there are some annoying missions you have to do as Bentley and Murray. Although the ‘arcade missions’ as Bentley were fun. 
 

Even if you’re not good at platformers, Sly 1 is still easy. It’s just not TellTale or Ratalaika levels of easy. You don’t need a brain to finish those.

[THEULTRAMEMELORD]

I used debug menu to get my plat.

[Jelly Soup]

18 hours ago, Spaz said:

Although the ‘arcade missions’ as Bentley were fun.

 

This, so much. I've been meaning to get the Vita pack for years.

[Elvick_]

Sly isn't as regarded as Jak and Ratchet just because there was no spring board from Crash or Spyro for them so it wasn’t pushed as heavily. Sony knew ND and Insomniac could deliver from their past partnerships. The fact Sly is still brought up in spite of them starting behind is a testament to its quality... you being bad at something easy doesn’t make the game bad, it makes you bad. lol

 

the game is piss easy, you don’t even have to 100% for the platinum. Sly 3 requires some effort as it requires 100%, 4 requires the most. 1 and 2 don’t require much at all. 

[jakachu]

I personally think it was easy and enjoyable, it's still my fastest platinum at 8 hours with some idle time.

Tho I guess that could be because I played it alot as a kid and pretty much knew the whole game out of memory by the time I played it on ps3.

[Lianco]

On 13/12/2020 at 11:07 PM, EcoShifter said:

Late submit- Difficulty spikes are a common thing in games, but they're usually not what defines a game's difficulty. Sly Cooper having some difficulty spikes isn't surprising, especially considering Jak and Daxter, a game that (came first and) has for almost two full decades been constantly labeled as an easy game, has at least some. But it doesn't change the fact that overall Sly Cooper is not a "piss easy" but relatively easy game. Classic 3D platformers like Sly (and those that came both before and after it) are also pretty notorious for the difficulty of their mini-games/multi-genre elements'. 

 

 

You should probably give up then, because while the sequels are more entertaining games, they have more of the differing gameplay sections you won't like, especially S3 . The worse part about the series for me will always be the unskippable cutscenes. The games have moderate, or slightly longer, length and a lot of cutscenes, so for literally every single one of them—pre-renedered, in-engine, and the constant hideout related ones—to be unskippable from the first game to the fourth game is unbearable, especially when double dipping their platinum trophy. (I can't do it again, even if I were paid.)

 

 

2/10 is too low, but it's also below moderate. The focus on hub levels' design is actually alright. It's like a middle-ground between openworld and open levels. The end of the year is half a month away. Unless you persist through it, you might not reach that goal, especially if you're not liking the series. Some of the unique gameplay sections in S2 and S3 are obnoxious.

Nah it's not late, I'm the one making a thread on a game as old as this lol, I didn't expect any responses in the first place! Again, I think it just took me by surprise. All pretext of this being a pure stealth game goes out the window by the third game. By the third game I just sort of forgot about it and enjoyed it more after that. Some sections were still pretty rough. But then I did things like that final gauntlet in Sly 3 on my first try and that 'infamous' pirate ship mission I did on my second try, messed up that first one.

I've done it now though, some of the Sly 3 challenges were pretty hard but I'm surprised by how fast I did them all in the end. 

 

On 14/12/2020 at 1:40 AM, Spaz said:

 

Even if you’re not good at platformers, Sly 1 is still easy. It’s just not TellTale or Ratalaika levels of easy. You don’t need a brain to finish those.

Well that was mostly my point and the thing that people have misinterpreted the thread about. I hear everyone saying about easy this is and that you can turn your brain off and just chill out but I just don't think that's true. Now yeah, in the grand scheme of things, the game is easy and so is the trophy list but the actual game is a little bit harder than you may think from looking at it. 

 

On 14/12/2020 at 1:57 AM, THEULTRAMEMELORD said:

I used debug menu to get my plat.

 

I knew it had a debug mode but not in the way that you could unlock trophies with it, like Jak 2?

 

On 14/12/2020 at 8:26 PM, Elvick_ said:

Sly isn't as regarded as Jak and Ratchet just because there was no spring board from Crash or Spyro for them so it wasn’t pushed as heavily. Sony knew ND and Insomniac could deliver from their past partnerships. The fact Sly is still brought up in spite of them starting behind is a testament to its quality... you being bad at something easy doesn’t make the game bad, it makes you bad. lol

 

the game is piss easy, you don’t even have to 100% for the platinum. Sly 3 requires some effort as it requires 100%, 4 requires the most. 1 and 2 don’t require much at all. 

 

It's the fact that I'm 'bad lel xD' again, it's the constant insistence from basically every reviewer I've seen that the game is an easy, turn off your brain and chill out to and I just don't think that it is. I'm surprised I've never seen anyone mention the minigames in any review; I guess people just see it as a core gameplay experience. I would say Spyro is easy but even then it has those flying missions but only has 1 area completely dedicated to that concept. Even the side characters are basically a one-and-done experience.

 

I wrote a Sonic Forces guide and I gave it 5/10 because I feel that anything lower would undersell the fact that some of the time trials and other challenges are actually pretty tricky and I wouldn't want to give the impression that the game was really easy. A 2/10 makes me think of something like Life is Strange where you really dont even need to pay attention to get the plat. But beyond that, I think that this may be the time when the trophy list difficulty is separate from the game's difficulty. 

 

On 14/12/2020 at 8:33 PM, jakachu said:

I personally think it was easy and enjoyable, it's still my fastest platinum at 8 hours with some idle time.

Tho I guess that could be because I played it alot as a kid and pretty much knew the whole game out of memory by the time I played it on ps3.

 

Yeah I think this may be the reason. I played Spyro, Sonic and R+C growing up and while looking back on it, Spyro and R+C certainly do have their fair share of minigames but it never felt like it hindered the experience, there was one part of R+C 2 that stopped me playing for a while as a child and while the series may have more minigames than I initially thought, I grew up with them so it just feels like part of the game experience now; which is how I guess most people think about this series. I still found the Crash side levels hard though, but I was in single digits at the time. I guess being an overly critical adult playing a game like this for the first time doesn't help ? 

 

I will always say that 1 was my favourite though, I think.

In any case, I've got the plat for all 3 and the mini games to 100%, (now those were a 1/10 even if my sixaxis didn't work completely correctly, but I'm glad I still could do it anyway because of an awesome 3rd party controller, never had any luck with actual PS3 controllers, crap plastic and I'm not even sure if I did it right) and it was a fun trip; I've had time to reflect since making this which was when I almost finished Sly 2 lmao. Will play 4 later next year. Time for the holidays. Have a good one. 

[DiamondAN-94]

In my case for the ps3 it was pretty easy but I also grew up playing the sly series and got to know everything about it. Overall the only bad part about sly 1 is the stupid races and protecting Murray missions. Now the vita is entirely different. That experience was awful ?