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My running thoughts on Sly 4 (Level 4) *VERY VERY SPOILERY*
12 years ago
Level 4: Medieval England
Hmmm, Penelope got mentioned in the narration for the first time in a while, and the level is called "Of Mice and Mechs". I'm sure it's just a co-incidence.
I like these robo guards. Pretty creepy, yet funny. Not going to ask about the details of how one of them has kids, though.
Oh hey, it's Clockwerk is sitting on top of the Clock Tower. Neat.
WAIT WHAT?
That's a lot of giant robot hands. I sense giant medieval mecha in our future.
WHY ARE WE OKAY WITH CLOCKWERK BEING ON THE CLOCK TOWER? I'M ZOOMED IN, LOOKING RIGHT AT HIM, AND HE'S LOOKING RIGHT AT ME!
I have a bad feeling about this.
Nevermind.
Oh hey, just reached the level from the demo. Neat.
"Black tyrant", Galleth? A return of the Black Baron suit, perhaps? Twould fit with the inevitable return of Penelope.
Nope, just a robotic Black Knight with kickass action missiles and a battleaxe. It's probably a brainwashed Penelope inside, or something. Callin' it now. Voice isn't too deep through the distortion.
I'd be more impressed by Sir Galleth's ability to sneak up on people while wearing plate armor if the guards in these games didn't suffer from severe hearing loss and a lack of peripheral vision.
Aaaand Clockwerk's vacated his perch. That's unsettling.
Huh, apparently Barad-Dur was in England. Who knew? And Mecha Ghidorah lived at the top.
Carmelita 1, Mecha-Ghidorah 0. And she's hitting on another of Sly's ancestors. Fantastic.
Well I sure hope somebody picks up that phone. Because I fucking called it!
Well, the Penelope part. Guess she wasn't brainwashed. Just...evil. Goddammit, does every female in this series not named Carmelita have to turn out to be evil?
*INCOMING RANTY THING*
This whole Penelope thing is...really kind of bullshit in a lot of ways. For one, her characterization seems all over the place. One minute she's talking about her goal being to make money with weapons design, but then she's talking about changing the world with her inventions like she's some well-intentioned extremist. None of that was even hinted at beforehand. She never displayed any sort of obsession with money, or with doing much of anything beyond tinkering with machinery.
She talks about being angry at Sly for limiting Bentley's potential with the whole "honorable thief" malarkey, and in the end, she even tries to murder him in cold blood. Hell, in Sly 3 she had a crush on Sly for a while, and her opinion on him and his actions always seemed completely positive! Now we've got her talking about ripping off Sly's skin and making him into a rug. She was fairly ruthless in Sly 3, admittedly, but only when defending other people.
I suppose her opinion on Sly and the gang in general could have deteriorated between Sly 3 and 4, but you know what? If that's the case, they could have goddamn had maybe ONE line that could have shown her changing attitude. Instead, we just get evil-mad-scientist Penelope carrying on like Doctor Goddamn Doom out of nowhere with her army of evil robots and a giant super mecha. What the hell did she need that giant robot for in medieval England anyway, besides to provide an epic boss fight?
Bentley gets some character development out of the whole miserable situation, but really, Sanzaru? Was it worth destroying half of the good-aligned female characters in the series? We already had a tech-savvy villain believing that Bentley was squandering his potential in the last game.
Ugh. It's kind of depressing. At least we got a good boss fight out of it. I guess the problem is that when I like a series, I often get attached to the characters, so seeing this sort of character derailment happen is just...disappointing. Not quite Mass-Effect-3-ending level of disappointment, but still quite stupid. Of course, if later events in the game manage to redeem/explain this better, I may withdraw much of my objection.
Hmmm, Penelope got mentioned in the narration for the first time in a while, and the level is called "Of Mice and Mechs". I'm sure it's just a co-incidence.
I like these robo guards. Pretty creepy, yet funny. Not going to ask about the details of how one of them has kids, though.
Oh hey, it's Clockwerk is sitting on top of the Clock Tower. Neat.
WAIT WHAT?
That's a lot of giant robot hands. I sense giant medieval mecha in our future.
WHY ARE WE OKAY WITH CLOCKWERK BEING ON THE CLOCK TOWER? I'M ZOOMED IN, LOOKING RIGHT AT HIM, AND HE'S LOOKING RIGHT AT ME!
I have a bad feeling about this.
Nevermind.
Oh hey, just reached the level from the demo. Neat.
"Black tyrant", Galleth? A return of the Black Baron suit, perhaps? Twould fit with the inevitable return of Penelope.
Nope, just a robotic Black Knight with kickass action missiles and a battleaxe. It's probably a brainwashed Penelope inside, or something. Callin' it now. Voice isn't too deep through the distortion.
I'd be more impressed by Sir Galleth's ability to sneak up on people while wearing plate armor if the guards in these games didn't suffer from severe hearing loss and a lack of peripheral vision.
Aaaand Clockwerk's vacated his perch. That's unsettling.
Huh, apparently Barad-Dur was in England. Who knew? And Mecha Ghidorah lived at the top.
Carmelita 1, Mecha-Ghidorah 0. And she's hitting on another of Sly's ancestors. Fantastic.
Well I sure hope somebody picks up that phone. Because I fucking called it!
Well, the Penelope part. Guess she wasn't brainwashed. Just...evil. Goddammit, does every female in this series not named Carmelita have to turn out to be evil?
*INCOMING RANTY THING*
This whole Penelope thing is...really kind of bullshit in a lot of ways. For one, her characterization seems all over the place. One minute she's talking about her goal being to make money with weapons design, but then she's talking about changing the world with her inventions like she's some well-intentioned extremist. None of that was even hinted at beforehand. She never displayed any sort of obsession with money, or with doing much of anything beyond tinkering with machinery.
She talks about being angry at Sly for limiting Bentley's potential with the whole "honorable thief" malarkey, and in the end, she even tries to murder him in cold blood. Hell, in Sly 3 she had a crush on Sly for a while, and her opinion on him and his actions always seemed completely positive! Now we've got her talking about ripping off Sly's skin and making him into a rug. She was fairly ruthless in Sly 3, admittedly, but only when defending other people.
I suppose her opinion on Sly and the gang in general could have deteriorated between Sly 3 and 4, but you know what? If that's the case, they could have goddamn had maybe ONE line that could have shown her changing attitude. Instead, we just get evil-mad-scientist Penelope carrying on like Doctor Goddamn Doom out of nowhere with her army of evil robots and a giant super mecha. What the hell did she need that giant robot for in medieval England anyway, besides to provide an epic boss fight?
Bentley gets some character development out of the whole miserable situation, but really, Sanzaru? Was it worth destroying half of the good-aligned female characters in the series? We already had a tech-savvy villain believing that Bentley was squandering his potential in the last game.
Ugh. It's kind of depressing. At least we got a good boss fight out of it. I guess the problem is that when I like a series, I often get attached to the characters, so seeing this sort of character derailment happen is just...disappointing. Not quite Mass-Effect-3-ending level of disappointment, but still quite stupid. Of course, if later events in the game manage to redeem/explain this better, I may withdraw much of my objection.
What makes less sense is that he doesn't actually do anything but blink at me. Y'know, given the whole all-consuming hatred thing. You'd think one of these times he'd say: "Hey, that looks like a Cooper standing on that roof all vulnerable-like. I'mma fuck him up."
Spoiler:
nothing more though sadly, then an easter egg. I was hoping he'd be something.
Skipping over the spoiler bit I hear there is a secret mission for something like collecting all the treasures.
Ugh, now I have to come up with some workarounds that work... in theory. Even if they are in themselves stupid. Maybe it takes something stupid to counter something stupid. Dammit, Sanzaru! Why couldn't it have just been an obvious mind control chip or something?
1. Evil clone.
2. Mind contol chip.
3. Robot clone.
4. A wizard did it.
5. Penelope feels some regret and shows up with the sacrifice play to rescue Bentley.
6. Pseudo-possessed/influenced by the ghost of Doctor M/Neyla/Clockwerk, trying to get revenge on both the Coopers and Bentley. Ew.
7. Influenced/possessed by some sort of other evil spirit or artifact.
8. Alternate universe doppelganger.
Mind you, these are just the (bad) ideas that could result in eventual forgiveness for her. Urgh. At this point it'd be easier to justify Neyla joining the gang.
I am getting one majorly interesting idea for a story, now. Related to an old rejected idea I had, though with the events of "Of Mice and Mechs" it becomes more relevant. I'll have to jot down a rough outline and see how it looks.