Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2)

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is a platform / stealth game developed by Sucker Punch in 2005 as a sequel to Sly 2. Basically, it picks up where the last game left off: the gang is war torn from their battle with Clockla, and Murray leaves the gang to go on a spiritual journey because he blames himself for Bentley's permanent injuries. Thusly, Sly and Bentley track his journey to Venice to get him to rejoin the gang. The reason for this is that Bentley and Sly learn about the existence of the Cooper Vault, a hidden fortress where generations of Cooper thieves have stored their greatest treasures. The problem is that a sinister genius, Dr. M, has claimed the rights to the island it's on and has been trying for years, but uselessly, to break open the door. While opening the door by force may be impossible, it is still practically impossible for Sly to get up to the vault and use his cane to get in. As such, he'll need a band of experts, his friends included, to pull off the greatest heist of all time.

Ironically, I first heard about this game when I saw it on the back of the instruction manual for Sly 2 (so I guess a wormhole is about to appear and take me to another dimension...no I guess not, I'm still typing). At first, I wasn't too interested in it, but I loved the second game so much that I'd see if the third was any good. Probably another one of those embarrassing third sequels, right?

Wrongo! This is easily the best game in the series so far. I don't care how many more sequels come out, this one will always be my favorite. Weirdly, I was totally expecting this game to be underwhelming, but it just went above and beyond the work of the third game, in gameplay, world and level design, and just all-around enjoyment.

Firstly, let me tell you about my favorite part of this game; in the previous title, you could only ever play as Sly, Bentley and Murray. If you're just wandering around the world, that's the case in this game, too. But, there are quite a few missions along the way where you can play as characters in the gang, like Penelope's different vehicles, the Guru with his psychic powers, Dimitri in his swimming levels, and even the Panda King (remember him? Yeh, course y'do cause yer all smart), who can deal the most delicious destruction you've ever seen. Plus, there are some instances where you can play...wait for it... as Carmelita Fox. Yes! Finally we can see what it's like playing as Carmelita. What's more is that when you're going back through some of the worlds, she's wandering around just like in World 6 of Sly 2! Awesomeness. That's all it is.

However, do not make the mistake of thinking that playing as the classic trio is taken away from. This is what I thought, but their moves have been improved twofold. Bentley has all manner of cool rocket packs and gadgets now that he has his wheelchair, Murray has the Bubble Bounce in addition to everything he had before, and Sly has really cool purchasable levels of charged attacks, which are seriously great to have.

Another thing I like about this game is that every one of the 5 replayable worlds has its own individuality. In fact, that individuality shines when you're going through the story missions. For example, you can use the pirate ship and sail the high seas in World 5, and World 3 has some fantastic flying levels. It's all just very exciting and will keep you coming back.

Now, there is one crown jewel that I'm saving for last here. In the last game, once you finished the story, the story was finished. You couldn't go back and enjoy some of the cool missions. In this game, however, you can go back through individual missions, do bonus missions (plus multiplayer minigames, but those were underwhelming), and you can use cheat codes to almost rewind and play through the "Days" of each world, so that you get the selectable missions, the interactions, etc., that you had when you were going through the first time. I was very pleasantly surprised by this, and it really kept the game from getting old too fast.

Basically, I cannot recommend this game enough. Out of 100%, it gets 110%. There are all sorts of fantastic features in play that I haven't even mentioned, and if you can play this game, you will love it. Just as a gamer, you will enjoy all this game has to offer. Please, just look into getting this game. I believe it can be played with the PS3, because it's backwards compatible, so definitely give it a try, you will prize that decision.