Game Reviews Volume 2

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2, PS3, PSVita)

After a significant hiatus in funds coming into my bank account, itmeans I simply can't afford any new games that are out. Admittedlythere aren't really that many anyway as they are all being delayed asper the usual this generation but the point remains and alas I had togo digging around in my sordid, overcrowded backlog of games that'sliterally reaching the several hundreds at this point.
Along my way I stumbled, literally, into the Sly Collection for PS3.I remember reviewing the first two games a couple of years back, whenI was just a wee nipper of a critic with barely an ounce of knowledgeas to what actually made games good (or at least the knowledge toproperly communicate it anyway); and so I decided why the hell notgive Honor Among Thieves a go.

So I had to go back and re-read my reviews of Sly 1&2 beforewriting this so I got a good idea of how I felt about the previousgames in comparison to this 3rd entry and I have to sayit's pretty much the same. I always thought I quite liked the lasttwo Sly games but evidently I had quite a few issues with themregarding repetitiveness, poor storytelling and bad voice acting.Luckily Sly 3 fixes most of these problems but in doing so creates awhole host of other ones. Look Sucker Punch, I know that making gamesisn't easy but is it really that hard to take what works well andjust you know, roll with it and improve on it rather than just coverit in gasoline and light it on fire?

Anyway, Sly 3 takes place some time after Sly 2...how much time Ican't remember but that's not the point. The game opens with Slybeing captured by an evil scientist (who is also a monkey) called Dr.M. The good doctor is trying to break into Sly's family vault, Sly ofcourse has the only key which is his trusty cane. Long story shortSly is grabbed and brutally murdered by the monkey...or so I hoped soI would have spent the last 12 hours of my life more wisely.

No instead Sly goes about telling the audience, through extremelylong and usually pretty boring levels, how he, Bentley and Murraygathered together a team of master thieves to take on Dr. M. What heneglects to tell us though is why Dr. M is even a villain, ifanything you're the villain because you broke into his privateproperty to get to the damn vault.

Yes Sly 3 in all it's wonder of trying to set up a cool Oceans Elevenstyle thief recruitment story actually forgets to set up the story asto why Sly needs help getting to the vault as well as why the mainvillain is actually a villain in the first place. Of course we getsome last minute monologue exposition from the doctor himself in thefinal mission but it's far too little and way too far into a story Iliterally could not have cared less about!

That being said each 'episode' in this Sly game has its own selfcontained story this time round. Now some of these actually arepretty good so I'll give the game credit where it's due. Chapterssuch as 'A Cold Alliance' featuring previous games villain turnedally Panda King, will go down as one of my favourite Sly levels inthe entire franchise (it's not a long list). That being said, forever Cold Alliance there was a 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' which alsomade it into my significantly longer Sly levels that bored me todeath list.

Of course the typical cast returns with Sly, Murray, Bentley andCarmelita Fox but expect some other old faces to return as well asnew ones.

As for the gameplay, Sly 3 pulls no punches in absolutely notchanging the formula up from Sly 2 at all which in some regards in agood thing and in others is very disappointing. Yes prepare for evenmore hub world exploration, multiple objective based, repetitivelystructured missions across various continents. Despite the fact thatyou're building a team of thieves you're only ever able to play asthe main trio for most of the game. You are occasionally given theopportunity to use the other members of your crew if the missiondeems it necessary for no other reason than they needed to work outhow to crowbar in more pointless gameplay mechanics somehow. Whetheryou're hypnotising enemies as the Guru, using a relatively smallcollection of RC toys as Penelope or doing some god awful divingsections as Dimitri, expect your gameplay expectations to beshattered into a million pieces as these new bits fail to eversurpass the fun of traversing the environment as Sly.

Speaking of environments the levels are much less interesting nowbecause they have to accommodate for wheelchair access. Oh yeahspoiler alert for Sly 2; Bentley is now in a wheelchair becausekilling off a main character in a kids game would be too traumatisingfor the little darlings, but sticking him in a wheelchair andoccasionally making jokes at the expense of his limited mobility isabsolutely fine apparently. Anyway, as such pretty much every rooftopin the game has some sort of ramp leading up to it meaning that youdon't even need to actually traverse the environment anymore, it'sall just made up of convenient inclines dotted between some buildingsor death pits.

Again you're able to purchase a wide variety of new moves for themain three characters from the safehouse using the coins you'll pickup along the way, or as I did by spending a good few hours repeatedlymugging everyone, to make my virtual bank account look pretty good incomparison to my real one in an attempt to make myself feel betterabout job prospects for graduates in today's economy.

You're unlikely to ever use these moves though as they all needbutton combinations and considering every character's button layoutis pretty different (for example to pickpoket as Sly you pressCircle, as Bentley you press L1 & move backwards, as Murray pressTriangle, Circle, then repeatedly tap Circle, then tap Square#waytoomanycombinations) you've got enough controls to rememberwithout adding another 30 extra or so on top of that.

You've also got some postgame content in the form of challengemissions, because apart from the massive difficulty spike at the endof the game it's pretty easy for most of the game. Plus you have afew extra things to do in the pirate ship combat portion of the gamewhich, if you're into that thing, is reasonably well designed.

Visually Sly 3 looks about as good as Sly 2 did, no worse but nobetter. It ages well thanks to the cel-shaded art style but compareit to more modern iterations of the same style and you can see howprimitive it is in comparison. I also played it in 3D (because thatwas apparently a thing for the HD remasters last generation) and itwas actually pretty well designed compared to my more recent outingin 3D gaming with Killzone 3.

Now after re-reading my review the bad voice acting was something Iharped on about quite a lot and whilst none of the Sly 3 match theTroy Baker's or Merle Dandridge's of modern gaming, they are prettygood in comparison to the previous titles so I suppose some kind ofslow clap is deserved for their success on the third attempt.

After all this you must think that I absolutely hate Sly 3, andwhilst a part of me will agree with you there, there are a fewshining examples of a great game throughout its runtime. It'scertainly not a game I will ever recommend in a hurry, but for thoseone or two moments of actual greatness I would say it's probablyworth playing once before burning. I guess I might as well finish theseries off now, see you at Sly 4 everyone (sigh).

Sly3: Honor Among Thieves – 5/10

+GoodPremise

+OccasionalMoments Of Genius

+VisualsHold Up

+ACold Reunion

-PrettyMuch Everything Else

-Dimitri'sSections (They Deserve Extra Hate)