Sly, Bentley and Murray are back in yet another thieving romp through the cartoon inspired worlds of the Sly Cooper series. Sucker Punch proves with this latest entry that they know how to keep to their origins while adding enough new features here and there to make it feel fresh. Still, Sly 3 suffers at times from being a tad too familiar. Putting that aside, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is still is still one of the best action platform titles the Playstation 2 has to offer.
If you weren’t privileged to the ending of the last Sly adventure (shame on you), don’t feel too bad. Sly and his band of buddies saved the day as usual. This time though, it wasn’t without a bit of tragedy. Bentley was injured and is now restricted to a wheelchair. Murray, the pink, brawny hippo blamed himself for not being able to be there for Bentley and ran off leaving the gang behind. Sly 3 picks up with Sly aiming to put together a band of the worlds best thieves so that he can finally gain access to his family’s vault. This goal brings Sly to various locations all over the world while at the same time, getting him and his friends into a load of trouble.
As with the last game, Sly is not the sole playable character. The brainiac turtle Bentley is back with a rocket powered wheelchair and a seemingly endless supply of bombs. Along with that of course is his intelligence which lends itself to masterminding many of the gang’s heists. Murray is the fighter of the gang and uses his brawn to bounce, pounce, punch and roll through difficult situations. Not content with just these three wild characters, Sucker Punch has included a total of nine playable critters that have roles scattered about the game. Longtime fans of the series will rejoice in discovering that they will finally have the ability to play Carmelita Fox, the exhausting cop who has been chasing Sly since day one.
Gameplay is mainly unchanged since last time, with several hub worlds acting as the scene for most of the game’s missions. Sly, Bentley and Murray are stocked up in safe houses that are located within each world. You are able to choose which character you want to play and then look for missions that require that character. Other than that, the safe house acts as an area where you can purchase gadget and move upgrades. Each character controls wells and each features their own move set. It’s clear that Sucker Punch is trying to make the other characters just as enjoyable to play as Sly, but Sly remains the character with the tightest levels and abilities. Most of the new moves in the game have been put to practical use such as Murray’s ability to roll into a ball and bounce to incredible heights. Bentley feels much easier to control and maneuver (unfortunately) due to his wheelchair. Carmelita is a fun character to play every once and awhile, but her control scheme takes some time to get used to as its more shooter oriented.
The Sly Cooper games have always been known for their wacky and fun mini games and Sly 3 is no exception. High speed boat chases in the waters of Venice and taking to the skies in planes adds much needed variety to the ever present running and sneaking tasks. One feature that was highly publicized in the early days of Sly 3’s development was the addition of “3D” levels. Sly 3 includes 3D glasses that can be used (optionally) in certain missions. I haven’t found any practical usefulness for the feature, but nonetheless I was tempted to use the glasses whenever prompted just to see what (if anything) would happen. Just don’t expect anything to pop out and eat your annoying siblings.
Of the three main platform games that Sony releases, Sly is the one that seems more aimed at the younger audiences. So if you don’t find yourself laughing at all the jokes, don’t feel bad. If you feel the need to impress the younger ones around you, you’ll definitely know when the jokes are coming so don’t worry too much. The game is lighthearted and that’s just fine. It doesn’t take itself too seriously so its best if you don’t expect it to. All of the main characters are generally likeable and the voice work is exceptional as always. Carmelita once again sounds like her soul was snatched because she hasn’t been able to nail down a consistent voice actor and Sly sometimes sounds as if he is on heavy doses of sedatives. But looking beyond that, the audio presentation is slick, especially when complemented by a great soundtrack.
Looking almost identical to Sly 2 is definitely not a bad thing. The cartoon shaded visuals are back and impressive as ever. All of the characters are well animated and the environments they roam through are colorful and detailed. Considering this is the third game, it’s expected to see ramped up special effects and more explosions. Sly 3 handles this well and never overuses any one graphical touch. The framerate is still twitchy as it has always been with the series, but it’s definitely tuned better than Sly 2 and it never interferes with gameplay. As with the last two games, most of the cut scenes are handled with cartoon animation and are excellently produced. Sly 3 definitely shows how far Sucker Punch has come since the original Sly Cooper and you can only wonder where they will go next.
Sly 3 is an adventure of comfortable length that strays away from most “collectathon” stereotypes and places focus directly on the missions at hand. If one were to choose the biggest difference between Sly 3 and the previous games in the series it would be the sheer variety in its gameplay. The new mini games, stealth missions and playable characters make sure that the game doesn’t fall into redundancy. It’s nothing completely new or original and it’s not going to turn people who didn’t appreciate the previous games, but Sly 3 is plain fun from beginning to end.
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