Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

"A weak finale to the series"

Sly 3 would appear to be the grand finale of this trilogy. Does it live up to the other two titles? Does it bring something fresh and new, or is it the same ole same? Read on!

After the events of Sly 2, Murray has left the group and Sly and Bentley are trying to find him and convince him to rejoin them. Besides that the game starts off in the future, and after an incident it flashes back to them starting their hunt for Murray. So you know where the game is going but learning how they get there. Seems like Sucker Punch has been watching way too many Hollywood films as of late. It's a decent plot but truly I hate where it goes and by the end I didn't care what happened one way or another. It does conclude the trilogy though so that is a plus and let's hope Sucker Punch can come up with something new.

Sly 3 still uses the cell shaded graphics but this time it jumps onto the 80's trend of 3d graphics. Some stages will require the use of the 3d glasses which are included with the game. While it doesn't do a whole lot it does look cool in spots. It's a gimmick but the use of them in the final Sly level is top notch, almost making it worth while. Too bad the game caused me headaches during those 3d moments. The levels all tend to look the same as well, I do believe generic is the perfect term for these over worlds.

Sound wise the game is about the same. Some voices seem to be different. I really didn't care for any of them but I guess they worked. Sound effects are pretty basic comic book sounds. Music is very mediocre this time around.

The control this time is a mixed bag. While everything at it's basic center is easy to use, jumping, gliding, fighting and all of that, it's the other skills that are done poorly. Bentley's little hook shot cam thing gave me so much trouble I wanted to scream.

If you've played the other two games then nothing has changed, except some things are missing. The game is split into 5 chapters. Each has an over world. Well sort of, some just pushes you along a path. On the chapters with an over world you can select the character to play as, if they have a mission at the moment. Enter the over world and make it to that characters light and the mission starts.

The problem is that the missions all feel the same and are tedious. In the first chapter alone I was highly annoyed with the follow X person mission because everything felt random, so random that certain ways weren't possible at times because items had vanished.

Some of the mission types are varied, due to the different characters but I really didn't enjoy it that much. The final chapter is like that in the original game, a bunch of mini games, not as hard but not very good either. Heck, even the boss fights are bland compared to the other games in the series.

Also missing are the bottles in the stages and to be honest the stages are much smaller this time around. To be fair the game replaced the bottles with this lame treasure map thing but why change the good and then make everything else the same and only add in 3D levels?

Replay Value is low, mainly due to the lack of bottle hunting. The game is again about 10 hours long but this time there just isn't much to do once you beat the game.

Would I recommend this title to anyone? Not really. If fans want to see what happens at the end then check it out. Otherwise stick with one of the other games. This is the weakest entry yet and it's mainly due to the fact that it's just the same ole thing as the last thing and while I do like a series to maintain a solid game play factor, some changes are needed for spicing things up. Sly 3 doesn't do that.

Story - 6/10
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 6/10
Control - 7/10
Game Play - 6/10
Replay value - 2/10

Final Score - 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/07