4/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.

16hrs 10m Honor among thieves is the final instalment in the original trilogy by Sucker Punch, with only one more game produced 8 years later by Sanzaru Games. It begins mid heist as the trio are on an island trying to break into the Cooper vault whilst fighting off a mad scientist known as Mr M who has made it his life work to uncover the artefacts of Slys ancestors for himself. Sly is joined by several hidden characters as the gang have recruited since the last game. Flash back to the build up to the heist and the third game plays almost as a recruitment for this grand finale. Following the outcome of the fight with Clokla, Bentley has been left in a wheelchair and Murray, feeling great guilt that he wasn’t strong enough to save him from this, retreats into isolation to grow as a person. As we saw in Sly 2, the game consists of several episodes, with each offering a new location and a new boss fight. What is done different this time is that these don’t spill out over two episodes as some did previously, which I personally felt made some bosses overstay their welcome. As usual the settings are a joy as the team travel across the globe with each offering new game styles. You will dogfight in planes in Holland, stop the rivers of Venice from being flooded with oil and completely rogue to the franchise, act as a pirate. In what seems to be the most controversial missions as it divides opinion on wether it belongs in the game, I actually welcomed the change in sinking pirate ships with cannons, sailing the seas and using a map for clues to find treasure. As for gameplay there are some new stealth mechanics that Sly will utilise. In multiple missions Sly will dawn a disguise to blend into enemy territory. He will repeat back passwords via QTE, and he will use multi choice dialogue to sway a conversation the way that he wants, although disappointingly there was no repercussions for choosing the wrong response. The clue bottles that were collected to unlock vaults and learn new moves is gone now and everything is purchased through Theifnet, where you can no longer sell items and only receive coins from thieving. Bentley has a new gadget in the grapple cam, a remote controlled item that he can move around, use to bait enemies towards it and detonate on request. A feature I really liked was that cracking safes is done by finding codes hidden in paintings. Sly 3 actually has a lot of character development and we see some more insight into the personalities of the main characters. As sad as it was to see Bentley put into his new circumstances due to the actions of others, I felt that we really got to see him find his strength as he didn’t let his wheelchair limit his ability to step aside from the brain work and operate as a field agent. I’m not sure how common a playable character in a wheelchair was in kids games but I like to think that it would have helped other kids think positively and see Bentley as a hero. Sly 3 takes the franchise to greater heights and as with other trilogies like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot this tends to happen through new characters to avoid the games running out of steam. I did prefer some over others but what I did really like was that each new recruit felt like a worthwhile inclusion and all successfully justified their involvement with unique missions that highlight their skills, culminating in a fantastic team collaboration in the finale. After the final battle plays out and the tape rolls it felt like a satisfactory conclusion to the Cooper gangs story and the feeling of “one last heist” before setting off into the sunset really rang true. I will be sure to play Thieves in Time soon and see if the late addition undermines the original trilogy or adds to the franchise.