A lotta people've been wondering since Penelope's in my fan works if I'd be changing Thieves in Time entirely, and the answer is sort of. I've already got a version of the loveable mouse who's a timelord and another one who's helping Slick out. But the real question on everyone's mind is, what did I think of the 4th game? To that I say the game was solid…in gameplay. I got myself a PS3 finally and tried playing the first level but couldn't get into it from getting motion sick from the blur effects. Though my sis wanted to play the game the most, and after she struggled with the effects, we both got used to it and completed the whole thing. We had plenty of laughs over Murray, Grizz being the blackest bear, and the Coopers you get to play as. And by the end, we were left wondering if we'll ever get a 5th game or reboot much like Ratchet and Clank. We thought gameplay was ok, but after playing a second time, we began to think more about the story. And it's a complete mixed bag.

We all know about the character assassination of Penelope by now, but what a lot of people don't talk about is the rest of the plot. Like, I feel like it just sorta comes and goes. It's essentially time traveling to past eras of Cooper's history to stop villains from taking over, but for some reason, the ramifications of them to me never felt quite as heavy as, say, Jak 2 when you jump forward into a complete hellhole. Or perhaps the huge reality bending stakes of Rift Apart. The characters to me spoke way too much (especially Tennessee who I had to mute cause he wouldn't stop talking), and some acted slightly off. Like Sly's essentially a huge dick leading to Carmelita being eternally mad at him and everyone around him for the rest of the game, even if they don't know who she is. Some of what they do like straight up trusting Demetri with the Thievous Raccoonous didn't really add up even if he's reformed (though it was hilarious). And the animated scenes are no different, cause, while they're pretty well done, felt too long and may have hurt the game's budget instead of doing what the past games did and try a comic-book style approach between episodes. Let us not forget, compared to the other games, this one is incredibly short, but it is FULL of cutscenes with tons of exposition.

Another thing I'm not sure is a nitpick or a genuine critique is something my sibling and a friend pointed out. There's no female Coopers. Though I don't think I'd wanna see any in this game considering we have fully done belly-dancing minigames where you play as Murray or Carmelita shakin' their ass like it's controlled by a vibrator. Granted, the past games had minigames where you dance or sing at least once. They were usually tense and made sense for the level they were in. This, on the other hand, happens twice and feels like it could've been traded for an in-game cutscene or a different method of distraction. If Murray's cosplaying adventure wasn't taken out (cause it was honestly pretty hilarious and unexpected), at least Carmelita's could've been out of respect. To me, this feels like whoever was making the game forgot this is Sly Cooper. Not the Jak games. But even they didn't have you play as Tess or Ashelin trying to swoon over a bunch'a dudes.

If there's one thing I can say I did like besides the gameplay itself, it's gotta be Murray and Demetri. I already mentioned them and even though I just said you could take out the minigame of Murray's cosplay, I think the idea itself is absolutely him. It's goofy as Hell. Not only that, but throughout this entire game, no matter what's going on, he seems to be the most consistent out of everyone. Everyone else, even his boy Bentley, feel like they don't wanna be there with how I described them earlier. Not Murray. He's just vibin' 24/7 and hams up every line he's given. And Demetri, even though I said probably wasn't the best choice for the role he has here, is STILL being this silly dude from the 3rd game. Granted, he doesn't have any speaking lines (I'll bet cause the game by this point couldn't afford another actor), but his expressions and interactions with the rest of the cast is perfectly in line with his character.

Now I don't wanna sound like I could do better because some people honestly like this game's writing for what it was. But for me, I think I'd make an entirely different story altogether. Kinda, sort of a reboot/sequel in the same way Doom 2016 was going off of Doom 64 instead of following Doom 3. Do I hate the game overall? No. I just think it could've been a lot better with the writing and some of the direction the developers were going for like I said with the abundance of talking and cutscenes.

Anyway, that's my mini-review of a game I played. Nuff said. Buh-bye ^^