Menace from the North, eh! (alternatively Menace in the North, Eh?)[note 1] is the seventh episode of Band of Thieves, and the main antagonist is once again Jean Bison.
Plot[]
The Setup[]
Sly notices that things are not right in Canada. Random acts of violence are popping up like weeds, and the Northern Lights were not right. The lights are brighter than ever one night, and then gone the next. Back in Nunavut Bay, Sly heard Jean Bison talking to Arpeggio and assumes they're behind everything. The gang tracks him down to an abandoned lumber camp, by following the Northern Lights and discover that Jean is in possession of the Clockwerk talons, which he is using to cut down a vast amount of trees.
Sly said that the talons have got to go. Both to finally get rid of Clockwerk and save the environment from Bison's twisted sense of progress. Sly stated that the world doesn't need space for another strip mall.
Recon the Sawmill[]
Bentley has Sly take recon photos of the area:
- Bear - Patrolling the center area, stay away.
- Jean Bison's House - Near the large water wheel, guarded.
- Sawmill Blades - The source of the rolling logs, near Bison's house.
- Boat - Down the track from the sawmill blades in the sea, on the opposite end of the Safehouse.
After Sly has taken the aforementioned pictures, Bentley tells him to go to the lighthouse. The front door is locked from the inside, so Sly must find another way to sneak in by crawling through a small gap at the bottom. Inside, Sly finds Jean Bison and his battery charger and takes a few more photos:
- Spinner - Spinning quickly around the room, hard to capture.
- Front Door - Directly across the room from Sly, blocked by a chair.
- Battery Charger - Above the spinner, charges the Northern Light Battery.
- Jean Bison - Wandering the room, after shooting all of the previous photos.
After taking the shots, Sly listens to Jean Bison talking to himself. Bison is in a need of participants for his Lumberjack Games and plans to post the Clockwerk Talons as a trophy to attract competition. The Cooper Gang decides to take a part in the games.
Bearcave Bugging[]
Sly began the mission by crawling into a nearby bear cave, where he needed to steal six transmitters off of sleeping bears. However, with the devices being tagged in their mouths, Sly needed to pickpocket each one while they were yawning.
Having acquired all six, Sly exited the cave and began the next task: placing the transmitters in specific locations around the hub. Meanwhile, Bison addressed his guards via the loudspeaker about last month's tree-cutting progress and commended them on their efforts.
Once the final transmitter was in place, the array was up and running, allowing the gang to listen to Bison's conversations.
Laser Redirection[]
In order to free the log chopping book from the block of ice, Sly must melt it with a laser. To do this, he must head inside the sawmill and redirect a laser to the outside. The switch is on the other side of a wall, so he must make his way around to it, avoiding the guards and security systems along the way. Once he gets to the other side, he flips the switch and redirects the laser out the window.
Sly then heads back outside for the next part. Bentley has given crystals to Sly to store in his pouch so that he can place them wherever the laser stops. This allows the beam to be bounced to a new position. Once he gets the laser to point at the iced wall, it melts, freeing a mammoth, which rushes into the water and goes into a deep freeze again. Sly grabs the log chopping guide, and they are ready to study it.
RC Combat Club[]
Murray himself cannot enter the combat club without a disguise, so Bentley sends in Sly to steal a moose head located on the edge of an upper platform. After a few spire-jumps and flashlight dodging, Sly manages to give Murray the mask. Sly walks out, and Murray walks up to a guard and challenges him to a match.
Once he wins the match, the guard claims he is out of money, but Murray does not mind this, as he only wants the location of the Northern Light Battery. Since the guard lost fair and square, he gives it to him.
Boat Hack[]
Thanks to Murray's informant from the RC Combat Club, the gang has located the silo carrying the Northern Light battery, which is right by the lighthouse. It is up to the three of them to drain the energy from the silo by attaching grappling hooks from each of the three local boats.
Sly must get on top of the silo to attach the hooks. Murray must tag along with Bentley so that he can throw him onto each boat. Once on board, he hacked each boat's steering controls in order to get them in position for Sly to attach the hooks. After the three hooks are attached, the power from the battery drains, and it is safe for them to move in.
Lighthouse Break-In[]
Sly, Bentley, and Murray must work together to break into the lighthouse and sever the power flow to the Northern Light Battery. In order for Bentley and Murray to get in, Sly must climb up to the top of the lighthouse and enter through the hatch. Sly must make his way down to the bottom and silently defeat the guards along the way, as well as avoid the spotlights. While he does this, Bison once again comes on the loudspeaker to tell his men that the Lumberjack Games are approaching and encourages them to practice.
Once Sly gets to the ground floor, he smashes the chair barring the door and lets Bentley and Murray in. Bentley must hack the control computer to reverse the energy flow, while Murray lifts the main circuit breaker. This will allow Sly to climb up the power lines and overload the system from the top.
Old Grizzle Face[]
In order to get an eagle egg, Murray must destroy all the local oil mains. As Murray's fists can't punch through metal, the gang uses another technique: a blind, nerve-dead bear with an extraordinary sense of smell. If he catches the scent of fish, he will come running. To lure the bear, Bentley will put explosives into the water to blow the fish sky high so they can land near Murray for him to pick up. Then, he must toss the fish at the oil mains so that Old Grizzle Face can destroy it.
Thermal Ride[]
In order to overcome Jean Bison in the Lumberjack Games, the gang must acquire an eagle egg, located on an iceberg half a mile from the lumberjack camp. To get there, Sly must paraglide into the drafts created by the flames originating from the oil main destruction, but must not get too close to the flames or he will become barbecue for Old Grizzle Face. He must also avoid the Canadian eagles flying towards him as he flies towards the iceberg.
Once Sly reaches the iceberg and steals the egg, he must now hop onto some buoys to get back to shore and safely bring the egg back to the safe house. Once done, the gang is all set for the Lumberjack Games.
Operation: Canada Games[]
The Cooper Gang heads over to Jean Bison to enter the Lumberjack Games with the intent of winning the Clockwerk talons, with Sly keeping a low profile to keep Bison from recognizing him.
Bison is glad to let fellow lumberjacks into the games, as long as they pay the entry fee. The gang pays, then takes their places. The first event is a power-chopping contest, which Murray enters. He chops the log and receives three tens from the judges. As Bison attempts the contest, Bentley sneaks up to him and places the eagle egg, which the gang had stolen earlier,[1] in his pocket, dodging angry eagles all along the way. After he places the egg in Bison's pocket, the eagles attack him, causing him to get three zeros from the judges. Threatening them, the judges give him three tens.
The second contest is an ice wall climbing contest. Sly takes his position and climbs the wall, using wall hooks and his climbing canes within the time limit, receiving three tens. As Bison climbs, Murray shoots three grappling hooks at him, which pull him off the wall. He again receives three zeros and again threatens the guards, changing their scores to tens.
The spinning log contest now takes place, with Bentley at the helm. He jumps from log to log as they go below the water, lasting out the clock and adding three more tens to the Cooper Gang's score. As Bison takes his turn, the gang discusses his cheating ways, and realize that no matter how they sabotage him, he would intimidate the guards into still giving him a perfect score. Sly comes up with the idea to lure the guards into a cave, where they will beat them up and take their clothes and places at the judges table.
Sly uses the Alarm Clock gadget to lure each of the guards away, hiding in a barrel as they go into the cave. After luring all three guards into the cave, the disguised gang members take their places at the table and give three zeros. Bison warns them, but then realizes that they aren't the judges he hired. He then tells them to just take the talons, and throws his cane (with talons attached) at them, knocking them all out.
Brains Over Brawn[]
The gang woke up from unconsciousness and found that they were sealed inside the sawmill control room. Bentley suspected that Jean Bison locked them in there for interrogation later, and insisted they escape right away. There was a pipe sticking out of the wall, which Bentley managed to squeeze through, allowing him to escape the room. Meanwhile, Murray went over to a small metal door to open it up, while Sly, in case Bentley needed his help, operated the sawmill controls.
As Bentley dropped down onto the floor, he was confronted by Bison. Bentley claimed he just came down to get his glasses, but this didn't fool Bison at all. Bison then explained that while the gang was unconscious, he and his men raided their safe house and found all their Clockwerk parts, and managed to sell them and the talons to Arpeggio, much to Bentley's horror.
After Bison called him a "stew-pid" turtle, Bentley decided to settle it once and for all and prove how smart turtles can be. The two engaged in battle. At Bentley's command, Sly activated the switches that linked to the fire, sawblades, and log traps. During the battle, Bison called in his men for assistance and eventually began chucking dynamite. Bentley successfully took him down, leaving him exhausted on the ground, confused as to how a turtle of his size managed to do so. Sly and Murray then freed themselves and met up with Bentley on the ground floor. Sly commended Bentley on taking down Bison and Murray for freeing them.
One of Bison's men then came on the intercom to inform Bison that Arpeggio's blimp was due to arrive in exactly one minute. Since the gang was determined to reclaim their Clockwerk parts, they couldn't miss the blimp. The silo battery was not that far, so with no time to lose, they went outside and made a run for the silo. Once they stowed away inside, the blimp arrived.
The Getaway[]
After the gang shut themselves inside the Northern Light battery, they sat in pitch-black darkness for a few long minutes. No one talked for fear that Jean Bison's men might discover where they were hiding. Time seemed to have stopped, and then they felt it. They are being lifted up to Arpeggio's fortress blimp.
The gang's mood is now somber. All of their hard-earned Clockwerk parts are gone. Looking around, Sly knows that they have failed. He is all twitchy and ready for any action. Bentley tries to make sense of the situation by drawing up meaningless plans, while Murray takes it the worst: he sits there sobbing when he sees the Cooper Van float away over the horizon on a block of ice. That van is nothing but his life. Sly knows he has to find a way to make it up to him.
Map[]
In this episode, the safe is in the smaller sawmill, and the combination is 5-8-3. Upon opening it, the Lightning Spin move is received.
Trophies[]
PS3/PS Vita[]
| Image | Name | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
|
Moose Head | Steal the moose costume for Murray in "RC Combat Club". |
|
Gold Medal Winner | Defeat Jean Bison. |
PS4/PS5[]
| Image | Name | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
|
Shocking Moves | Open the vault in this episode. |
|
Is This the End of the Cooper Gang? | Complete all jobs in this episode. |
|
There's Nowhere to Go | Destroy 5 outhouses. |
|
Attack of the Giant Bentley! | As Bentley, shrink 4 guards at once with the Reduction Bomb. |
Trivia[]
- On the title screen, following Bison's shadow downwards, Bison himself can be seen in the distance.
- There is a well-known glitch in this level, which makes the player to replay the episode from the job, "Laser Redirection." It occurs when the player enters the mill, which was the starting point of "Laser Redirection," after completing said mission. This has been fixed in The Sly Collection.
- Dimitri Lousteau, the Contessa and Rajan's defeat is referenced by Bison during some of his conversations heard at the safe house.
- It is implied that Arpeggio's blimp has picked up several Northern Light batteries before as Bentley mentions in his first slideshow that his blimp is coming to pick up another battery. Bison also says in one of his conversations that Arpeggio is always lowering his blimp over him.
- The Cooper Van is notably parked much further away from the safe house than in other episodes, being located in a small cave within a rock formation to the right of the safe house on a large ice sheet.
Notes[]
- ↑ The title card states the former; the episode select menu and Job Help menu states the latter.