First and foremost, the most noteworthy new feature added into gameplay is the ability to play as Sly’s adherents: Bentley and Murray (who refers to himself as “The Murray”). Each character has their own unique set of moves along with different skills (most of which you can obtain by purchasing). Playing as three different characters will drastically effect gameplay. While Sly can climb up poles to access tall buildings, Murray and Bentley will have to find another way to rooftops. Conversely, it takes longer to defeat enemies while playing with Sly, as appose to Murray. What’s Bentley's special technique? You really won’t find this character to be much useful until midpoint of the game. Although when the game starts off this character may not be the most useful, he certainly is the most admirable. Throughout the game, you will find that he has the most unique attacks as well. From shrinking enemies, to knocking them out on conscience, Bentley certainly has the best attacks, but when its all said and done, Sly is the coolest.

The storyline in Sly 2: BoT is much more appealing then its predecessor‘s. Although the game didn’t really manage to give full explanatory detail on the whole “Clockwerk” theme, your goal is to recover missing pieces of this statue, stolen by the Klaww gang. However, the main theme is simply non-existent when you focus on side stories. Each episode (i.e. level) consists of a different theme. One level may have you spy in on a ferocious lion selling illegal spice to bust his rendezvous, while other stories will be more heartfelt, and have you play as poor Bentley trying to get his captured buddies back. Each level environment plays a huge role in the game’s overall storyline. While one level may take place in Paris, others will consist of you immediately fleeing to Arabia. There are a variety of different levels and sub-levels that will take place to work in conjunction with the game’s storyline.

In addition to having more levels, each level is much larger than the original game’s. There are a plentiful amount of sprites that you can interact with, and an endless amount of mischief you can get into. While pit-pocketing guards for keys, money, and random treasure may be fun, tantalizing guards by constantly shooting them with a sleep-dart is also a good laugh.

Throughout each level, the game consists of different mission objectives that you must complete before moving on to the next level. The mission markers are hidden in random places throughout each level. While some may be tedious to find, others will simply be right in front of you. Each mission offers a taste of variety. While one mission requires you to take photos to plan your next scheme, others may consist of you destroying buildings and enemy hideouts.

While level design is spectacular, character design and animation is simply flawless. Each character is a different type of animal or insect. From the ever-intimidating Rajan [lion] to Miss Curtessa [spider], characters really have a great sense of realism. Thanks to the marvelous voice acting, the characters seem as if they have a personality of their own.

Although each character may be creative, the boss levels that pertain to each of them are not. Most platform games have a variety of different boss levels. Rather it be you jumping on one platform to another, or you throwing things at a switch to detonate a bomb that destroys the enemy, platform games usually consist of very unique boss levels. However for Sly 2, the boss levels are too simplistic and sometimes dull. Most of the bosses in Sly 2 will require you to simply whack or hit the boss and dodge minor attacks (depending on which character must fight that particular boss). Although each boss level may take some time to learn, each one is beatable within one play through, meaning you won‘t have to take a break and then try again. One boss level that really got my attention was the third level: second boss, where you’d be placed in a ring with Rajan in a Street Fighter-like boss match. Other than that particular boss (that I did enjoy), the rest are lackluster to an extent. Due to the new life bar added, your characters won’t die within the ratio of one hit. So although there is plenty of room for improvements with the next Sly game, there simply was none here.

Although having nice boss levels became a missed opportunity, I cannot detain these facts from the total score. Sly’s overall presentation alone is very intriguing.