Sly Cooper: Masters of the Thieves

Sly Cooper: Masters of the Thieves is a 2022 upcoming video game developed by Sanzaru Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the fifth main installment in the Sly Cooper series. It was released on TBA 2022 in America for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation Flex. The game was teased in these versions, but it was not formally announced until several months later at the 2021 Electronic Entertainment Expo during Virtual Sony's presentation on June 12, 2021.

Set after the events of Thieves in Time, Sly has been stranded in ancient Egypt after battling Le Paradox. As his friends work to find him, they discover Penelope has returned with a new plot to eliminate Sly's ancestors as an act of revenge and to wipe out Sly permanently. Together, the gang works to save Sly's ancestors and stop Penelope once and for all.

Playable Characters

 * Sly Cooper
 * Bentley
 * Murray
 * Carmelita Fox
 * Penelope

Episode 1: Steal Like an Egyptian
Sly wakes up not knowing where he is. He soon discovers that he was sent back in time to ancient Egypt. He finds Slytunkhamen II, who is in the middle of a heist. Sly joins him, and the two rob the Pharaoh's treasure room. Sly says he thought Slytunkhamen was the Pharaoh of Egypt. The Egyptian thief reveals that a Norwegian polar bear named Isbjorn rolled into town one day and overthrow him as Pharaoh. Sly agrees to help take Isbjorn down.

In present-day Paris, Bentley has assembled Carmelita and Murray. Using a tracking device, Bentley uses traces of Sly's DNA to try and locate him, but it reveals he has been sent to the past. Stealing an Ancient Egyptian artifact, the trio time travel to find Sly. They eventually meet up with him, and a family reunion takes place. Sly tells them about Isbjorn and Bentley discover that Penelope sent him back in time to take over Egypt and destroy Slytunkhamen. But, Isbjorn couldn't stand the heat, so Penelope built him a cooling vest and a weather machine that the he plans to use to freeze Egypt. The gang decides to take him down.

After weakening the weather machine, the gang finds out he is hiding in a jackal-headed pyramid. They track him down, but he escapes to his weather station. Since it is floating in the sky, Bentley gets the idea to disable the gravity coils so the machine will fall out of the sky and crash to the surface below. After he, Murray, and Carmelita accomplish this, the station does fall to the ground. Isbjorn, in a fit of rage, freezes Sly's friends, so Sly takes him on. He defeats the polar bear and thaws out the gang. They then discover that a vampire bat named Vampyra is attacking the people of Scotland. Using Isbjorn's spear, they arrive in 15th century Scotland.

Episode 2: Scottish Bravery
The gang learns that Vampyra is an Irish drug queen who hates Scottish people. So when Penelope offered her the job of taking out Slaigh MacCooper, she jumped at the idea. When she arrived in Celtic Scotland, Slaigh attacked her. But after she sucked the blood of innocent people, Slaigh realized he was no match for the vampiric bat. He locked himself away in an old castle and has been living in isolation ever since.

Sly finds Slaigh in his castle and convinces him to join the gang and stop Vampyra. After going through Slaigh's "Cooper Trials" to see if Sly is truly a Cooper, Sly and the gang prepare to take down Vampyra. They learn that she plans to suck the blood of everyone in Scotland using an army of robotic "blood bots" that Penelope built for her. They steal all the blood and return it to it's rightful owners. Vampyra is enraged and she attacks them, however Sly defeats her easily, breaking her fangs in the process. Now that she can no longer suck blood, the gang leaves Scotland to head for the 17th century colonial Caribbean.

Episode 3: On Stranger Tides
The gang arrives and learns from the guards that Henriette has been thrown in prison. Sly saves her, and she remarks that only a true Cooper could have busted her out. She tells the gang that she was thrown in jail by Hector, a gold-loving octopus who came into town and declared himself "Pirate Lord". He stole the gold from all the pirates and threw her into prison. She also said she was in the middle of finding a cursed treasure and that they should find it before Hector does.

After obtaining a map and a ship, the crew sets sail for the island of the treasure, but not without battling through enemy ships and a Kraken. When they arrive, they follow the map and locate the treasure. Suddenly, Hector arrives and steals the treasure from the gang. They pursue the squid and the two pirate ships do battle. After sinking Hector's ship, Henriette retrieves the stolen treasure and the gang escapes. With Hector locked away and the treasure recovered, the gang leaves the Caribbean.

Episode 4: I See London...
Arriving in Victorian era London, Sly infiltrates the Queen's party to find Thaddeus Winslow Cooper III. Sly learns about Steranko, a Russian rhinoceros who is a rare treasure collector. After Penelope sent him back in time, he planned to steal the British crown jewels to add to his collection. Bentley says the only way they can protect the jewels is by stealing them first.

With a plan set, the gang must put it on hold as they discover that Steranko has kidnapped the Queen as a distraction so he can steal the jewels first. After rescuing the Queen, the gang arrives at the scene to late. As they are about to steal the jewels, Steranko arrives and nabs them first. Sly chases after him, and engages in a heated battle after catching up to him. Sly recovers the jewels and returns them to their rightful place. Thaddeus bids the gang adieu as the head for World War II Germany.

Episode 5: Between Enemy Lines
Caught up in the war, the gang is saved by Commander Gryffin, an American bald eagle who is the leader of a platoon of soldiers that were sent on a reconnaissance mission but were discovered by General Vul, a vulture and leader of the Nazis. The gang completes Gryffin's training course and become soldiers. Gryffin explains that Otto van Cooper was originally a German spy, but was captured by the Americans and was paid handsomely to work for them. Otto is being held in a German prison camp, and the gang rescues him.

After retrieving Otto's biplane, he uses his flying skills to eliminate German air forces. The gang is now able to storm the German headquarters, and they do with Gryffin's help. Sly defeats Vul, but it is revealed Gryffin was with the Nazis all along and was only working with the Cooper gang so that he could eliminate Vul and take his place as German commander. Sly tries to stop him, but he flies away. Luckily, Otto arrives and defeats him in air combat. While the war still rages on, the gang leaves because Gryffin was stopped.

Episode 6: Hatred Reborn
Thinking they are finished with the time travel, Sly becomes angered when Bentley informs him that Penelope is after his father in 1990's Paris. Using a locket his dad gave him, he and the gang travel back in time. Penelope is at the jail breaking out Pierre Le Paradox, the father of Cyrille. Sly attempts to stop her, but she succeeds. The gang realizes they must find Sly's father and take down Le Paradox.

After freeing Connor's (Sly's father) friends from imprisonment, Sly sneaks into Penelope's hideout and discovers that she is planning to build a second Clockwerk to take over the world. Shocked, Bentley realizes that there is no hope in bringing back Penelope, and that she is now a little insane. Then, Sly confronts Pierre, but is defeated and captured. Connor attacks Pierre and beats him in a fight. Connor demands that the skunk release his son. Pierre agrees, but stabs Sly, killing him. In a fit of rage, Connor kills Pierre. The gang is shocked to find out that Sly is dead. However, Bentley is not ready to give up yet.

Bentley, Murray, and Carmelita travel back in time to Connor and Pierre's fight. Assisting in Pierre's defeat, they stop him and prevent him from killing Sly. They travel back, and are relieved to find that Sly is safe. They tell him the whole story, but then Penelope arrives piloting Clockwerk Mark II. She travels to the present to take over the world.

Epilogue
The gang follows her to present-day Paris and attacks her command center in the air. They then do battle and Penelope is defeated. Clockwerk takes over his new body and abandons Penelope, flying into the night. Bentley tells Penelope that he was sorry their relationship didn't work out. Penelope is sent off to prison. The game ends with Bentley looking out a window. He whispers to himself that there's still good in "her", and the game ends.

Cast

 * Kevin Miller as Sly Cooper
 * Matt Olsen as Bentley
 * Chris Murphy as Murray
 * Grey DeLisle as Carmelita Fox
 * Annette Toutonghi as Penelope
 * Stephen Root as Connor Cooper
 * Nolan North as Pierre Le Paradox
 * Scott Weinger as Slytunkhamen II
 * Billy Connolly as Slaigh MacCooper
 * Jennifer Hale as Henriette "One Eye" Cooper
 * Christopher Birch as Thaddeus Winslow Cooper III
 * Udo Kier as Otto van Cooper and General Vul
 * Clancy Brown as Isbjorn
 * Nika Futterman as Vampyra
 * Christian Lanz as Hector
 * Fred Tatasciore as Steranko
 * Jason Marsden as Commander Gryffin

Reception
The game was generally well received by critics and fans alike. Critics especially praised the "Sly's death" twist, however some fans did not approve of it. However they were happy that he came back to life. GameInformer gave it an 9.0, stating that it was an enjoyable game and a vast improvement over Thieves in Time on Sanzaru's part. However, IGN was a little harsher, giving it an 8.5, saying that it was too similar to its predecessor and that the "Sly's death" arc could have been longer.

Trivia

 * This is the first Sly game to be rated T for more violence and a darker storyline.
 * Hector looks similar to Wash Buckler from Skylanders.
 * However, he was originally planned to be an orange tabby cat named Carlos, but was scrapped for being to similar to Puss in Boots.
 * Vampyra was originally two twin bats named Angus and Vampyra. But the double boss fight was to difficult to program, so Sanzaru merged them together.
 * An episode was originally planned in which Sly would travel to the future and meet his son. But Sanzaru wanted to focus on the ancestors instead of the descendants, so it was cut.
 * That episode would have been episode 6, and Hatred Reborn would have been episode 7.
 * Instead of Clockwerk Mark II, Penelope was supposed to build a giant mouse mech in early development stages.
 * Penelope is the second main villain that did not die at the end of the game; the first was Le Paradox in Sly 4.
 * In the end of the game, Clockwerk Mark II flies off into the sky without Penelope, hinting at a sequel.
 * Sanzaru stated that if there was a sequel, it would focus on Clockwerk Mark II creating a new Fiendish Five to kill Sly.
 * They also said that Penelope may return as a protagonist and be playable.
 * Sucker Punch Productions has shown interest in making the seventh game. They teased the idea of using the karmic system from one of their other games, InFAMOUS, as a new gameplay element.