Sly Cooper PC port is taking shape as project cane shows new gameplay

Sly Cooper has never had a proper PC release. More than 20 years after the first game appeared on PlayStation 2, that may finally be changing, although not through Sony. Project Cane is an unofficial attempt to get the original Sly game running natively on PC, and the latest footage gives us one of the clearest looks at the project so far. A new YouTube video shows A Stealthy Approach running through the developing PC version. It looks immediately familiar. Sly is moving through the same environments, using the same abilities and following the same route players will remember from the PS2 game. There is a catch, though. It isn’t finished. Project Cane is still deep in development, there’s no release date, and the footage shouldn’t be taken as a sign that a downloadable final version is just around the corner. What it does show is that the project has moved well beyond simply pulling apart old Sly Cooper files.

This isn’t just Sly Cooper running through an emulator

That’s the interesting bit. You can already play Sly Cooper on PC using PlayStation 2 emulation. Project Cane is trying to do something different. Rather than asking a PC to imitate Sony’s old console and then run the original PS2 software inside it, the project aims to rebuild enough of Sly Cooper’s original code and technology to let the game run directly on modern PC hardware.

In simple terms, it’s working towards a native PC version. The project involves reverse engineering and decompilation, with the developers examining how the original game works and rebuilding those systems for PC. The current codebase is still incomplete and includes tools for viewing levels and handling data taken from different versions of the game. Windows is the current target.

That doesn’t mean other platforms will never happen, but right now the focus is getting the project working properly on PC first. Project Cane also still relies on data extracted from the original PlayStation 2 game. This isn’t somebody rebuilding every level, texture and character from scratch. The project uses original game data while replacing or recreating the systems needed to make that content work outside the PS2. It’s a technical distinction, but an important one.

The latest video shows A Stealthy Approach in action

The newest gameplay demonstration focuses on A Stealthy Approach, one of the early sections of Sly Cooper. There’s no flashy reveal or carefully edited trailer here. It’s simply a playthrough, which is arguably more useful at this stage.

You can see Sly moving around the level, jumping between platforms and working through the familiar environment. That makes the video a decent snapshot of where Project Cane currently stands. Some of Sly Cooper is clearly working. That doesn’t mean all of Sly Cooper is working.

A native port needs far more than a level that can be played from beginning to end. Menus, audio, save systems, controls, rendering, scripts, cutscenes, compatibility and dozens of less visible systems all need to behave correctly before something like this can reasonably be called finished. Project Cane’s developers haven’t announced an ETA. For now, this is development footage rather than a release preview.

Sly Cooper first arrived on PS2 in 2002

If you weren’t around for the original PlayStation 2 release, Sly Cooper is a stealth-platforming series created by Sucker Punch Productions, the studio that would later make Infamous and Ghost of Tsushima. The first game launched in 2002. In Europe, it was released as Sly Raccoon. North America got the slightly more elaborate title Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.

You play as Sly, a raccoon thief armed with a hooked cane and a talent for climbing across places sensible people probably wouldn’t attempt to reach. The game mixed straightforward 3D platforming with light stealth. Guards followed patrol routes, security systems blocked paths, and Sly could balance on wires, climb poles, hide behind objects and use his cane to deal with enemies.

Bentley and Murray completed the main trio, with Bentley handling the brains of the operation and Murray usually providing the muscle. The story followed Sly as he tried to recover the missing pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, a book containing techniques passed down through generations of his family.

Sucker Punch followed it with Sly 2: Band of Thieves in 2004 and Sly 3: Honour Among Thieves in 2005. Sanzaru Games later continued the series with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time in 2013. There hasn’t been a new mainline game since.

Project Cane still has plenty of work ahead

That’s what makes Project Cane worth watching. It’s not a new Sly Cooper game, and it’s not an official Sony PC conversion. It’s an unofficial technical project trying to make the original game run natively on modern hardware. The latest A Stealthy Approach footage shows that the idea isn’t just theoretical anymore. Parts of the game are visibly running.

But Project Cane isn’t done. There’s no public release date, no final system requirements and no guarantee yet about what the finished version will support. For the moment, the best way to look at the new footage is as another progress report. Sly Cooper is running on PC through Project Cane. The native port is taking shape. It just isn’t ready yet.

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