Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Developer(s)	Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Series	Sly Cooper
Engine	Sly 2: Band of Thieves
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 (HD) PlayStation Vita (HD)
Release date(s)	September 26, 2005 Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves PlayStation 2 NA: September 26, 2005 EU: November 18, 2005 The Sly Collection PlayStation 3 NA: November 9, 2010 AUS: December 2, 2010 EU: December 3, 2010 JP: January 27, 2011 PlayStation Vita AUS: April 16, 2014 EU: April 18, 2014 NA: May 27, 2014
Genre(s)	Platform, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is a platform stealth video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions for the PlayStation 2 in 2005. It is the third game in the Sly Cooper franchise. Sly 3 has optional 3-D stages, and comes with a pair of 3-D glasses inside the manual. Despite receiving lower ratings than its predecessor, the game received generally positive reviews from the gaming press and was as well-reviewed as the original game.

On November 9, 2010, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves was released on PlayStation 3 as part of The Sly Collection. Japan originally did not see a release of this game, until the Sly Collection was released on January 27, 2011 for the region.

Gameplay

New variations in the game include additional playable characters besides those of Sly, Murray and Bentley. Firstly, Inspector Carmelita Fox is a playable character in some of the mini-games and a few times in the main game. Secondly, some new characters have been introduced, including a shaman named The Guru and a mouse named Penelope. Finally, characters from previous titles, such as Dimitri and the Panda King, are playable as well.

Furthermore, Bentley and Murray have the ability to pick-pocket in this game. Murray hoists stunned or unsuspecting guards above his head and shakes them down for coins and loot. The coins must be picked up off the ground after the guard is shaken. Bentley uses a fishing rod-like magnet to reel in coins and loot. When the magnet attaches, Bentley moves away from the guard to pick the pocket. Pickpocketed loot no longer needs to be sold back at the safe house. The amount an item is worth is added immediately to the coin count. Special treasure is absent from the over world.

The game also contains 3-D sections. 3-D glasses have been distributed with each new copy of the game, and are used in certain parts of the game. However, 3-D effects are optional, allowing the player to view the levels in standard 2-D instead. Some levels are playable in 3-D from the beginning, while other levels require the 3-D feature to be unlocked. The 3-D effect is focused upon certain objects in the background rather than the characters themselves, minimizing the necessary blue/red separation and making it easier for observers without 3-D glasses.

Sly 3 features new gameplay elements and skills, such as safe-cracking, searching for clues and objects in paintings, aerial combat, disguises, pirate ship battles, and conversations. However, the removal of clue bottles and vaults was unpopular with players.

To increase replay value, an offline multiplayer mode is included, along with challenges and extra movies unlocked for specific game completion percentages. The multiplayer games are: Cops and Robbers, Hackathon, Bi-Plane Duel, and Galleon Duel. Challenges are missions that are set with specific standards, along with a Treasure Hunt mission for each world attained at the end of the game.

Plot

Set one year after the events of Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly Cooper, Bentley, Murray, and other unidentified characters attempt to open the Cooper Vault on Kaine Island. Unfortunately, they are intercepted by Dr. M, the owner of the island. Murray and Bentley escape, but a monster grabs Sly. During this scene, Sly's life flashes before his eyes, and the game flashes back.

Sly learned that the Cooper Vault was hidden on Kaine Island from one of his father's colleagues, McSweeney. The vault contains the accumulated wealth of the Cooper Clan built up over the centuries. Sly went to find the vault, only to discover that M had built a fortress on the island in an attempt to get at the wealth hidden in the vault. Sly needed additional experts in order to get past Dr. M's extensive security; he needed the Cooper Gang back in action.

First, Sly and Bentley seek Murray, who had left the team due to guilt for causing Bentley's leg injury, which would end up paralyzing him. They learn about a mob boss, Octavio, who operates in Venice, Italy, where Murray was. Sly finds Dimitri in a cell at the local police station. He agrees to find Murray if Sly helps him escape. Sly finds Murray, while evading Carmelita Fox. Murray had become a trainee for a peace-loving figure known as the Guru in order to become more peaceful. Murray refuses to rejoin Sly and Bentley until the canals are clean, the task the Guru gave to him. Sly and Bentley take down Octavio, who had been polluting the canals with tar as part of a scheme to threaten the city into liking opera again. After putting together some plans, they destroy Octavio's comeback recital, but Octavio injures Bentley, making Murray so mad that he quits his training and battles Octavio and defeats him. Octavio is arrested, and Murray rejoins the team.

Murray misses the Guru, so the gang flies to Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Australia, to find the Guru, but construction by miners has taken over the land. Sly finds the Guru, but the Guru won't leave his cell until he has his mystical moon stone and staff. Sly recovers them, Bentley gives them back to the Guru, and the Guru breaks out. He agrees to join the team if Sly and the gang help remove the miners from his land. To do so, they have to destroy the Mask of Dark Earth, an evil demonic mask that makes its wearer a vicious giant and more powerful. While Carmelita goes after Sly, the Mask of Dark Earth gets stuck to her face, and she starts growing at an uncontrollable rate. Sly has to climb up her bootlegs and remove it. After the mask is destroyed by Carmelita's mercenaries, the Guru joins the Cooper Gang.

In need of a robotics combat expert, Bentley meets a Dutch mouse named Penelope online. She agrees to join their team if they can take down her boss, the Black Baron, an expert flier who has his own flying competition, which he had never lost. The gang travels to Kinderdijk, Holland, Netherlands, where they enter Sly in the flying competition. While there, they meet Dimitri, who agrees to tell them where to find the competition roster if Sly agrees return the favor. Muggshot, Sly's former enemy in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, is also flying in the competition, but Sly gets Carmelita to arrest him. After the gang sabotages other teams, Sly beats the Black Baron, who then battles Sly on the wing of a plane. Penelope is revealed to be the Black Baron in costume, and Sly wins the competition. Penelope tells the crew that her reason for being the Baron was because she was too young to enter flying competitions at her current age. Penelope joins the gang without hesitation.

In need a demolitions expert beyond Bentley's abilities, the team recruits Sly's former enemy, the Panda King. After discovering that he had forsaken his life of crime, they confront him, and he agrees to join if they help him rescue his daughter, Jing King. General Tsao had kidnapped her and planned to force her to marry him. Murray locates and recovers the old team van, aided first by Penelope and then by the Panda King, who recognizes the bond Murray shares with the van is the same he shares with his daughter. Sly must defeat Tsao and get Bentley's laptop back, which Tsao had stolen. After finally rescuing Jing King, Carmelita arrests Tsao and escorts him to jail. The Panda King joins the gang.

Later, Dimitri e-mails Sly to remind him the favor he owed him back in Holland, so Dimitri buys tickets for the whole gang for a cruise to Blood Bath Bay in the Caribbean Sea. After learning that his grandfather, Reme Lousteau, had his diving gear and treasure he had collected stolen by Black Spot Pete, they attempt to get it back, but find that Captain LeFwee, another dangerous pirate known as the smartest man on the seven seas, had stolen the treasure map. After stealing a ship, they sail to find Reme Lousteau's treasure and gear, and successfully recover it. However, LeFwee ambushes them during the heist and kidnaps Penelope. They prepare to and attack LeFwee, and Bentley manages to outwit him. Bentley is injured during the getaway, and Penelope battles LeFwee and knocks him into the harbor, where he is eaten by sharks. Then, Dimitri joins the team as their frogman, and Bentley and Penelope become a couple.

The game then returns to the present day, where Sly is struggling to escape from one of Dr. M's monsters. Sly realizes that he has been cowardly towards Carmelita and regrets never acting on his affections. Carmelita arrives on the island with armed guards and battles Dr. M, intending to capture both Sly and Dr. M. She defeats the monster, but allows both Sly and Dr. M to escape. The gang works to retrieve Sly's cane, which is the key to the vault, battling Dr. M multiple times in the process. During these events, Dr M. reveals that he used to be partners with Sly's father, but did not feel that he was treated fairly.

After fighting security, they finally break into the vault, where Sly sees the history and wealth of his ancestors. Meanwhile, Dr. M breaks into the vault and battles Murray and Bentley first before following Sly. After a one-on-one battle with Dr. M, Sly emerges victorious. After the fight, Dr, M once again compares him to his father, but Sly insists that everyone is an individual, and that he is just himself. Carmelita arrives to arrest them both. However Dr. M shoots a blast towards her, and Sly jumps in front of her as a human shield. Carmelita defeats Dr. M and checks up on Sly. He appears to suffer from amnesia, which Carmelita exploits to pretend that Sly is her partner (called Constable Cooper). Together, they escape, and Dr. M is killed when the entire vault becomes unstable and collapses. The rest of the Cooper Gang finds Sly's cane and calling card next to an alternate opening into the vault. When Sly never returns, the gang splits up, except for Bentley and Penelope, who continue their relationship.

Dimitri becomes a rich scuba diver; the Panda King returns to China and starts living two doors down from Jing King, while he screens all her future husbands (so far, she is still unmarried); Murray went on to complete his training with the Guru and later became a professional race car driver with the team van; Guru, after finishing training Murray, teaches his mystic art to a group of rock stars; and Penelope and Bentley have created a new vault to contain the Cooper wealth that is shielded by lasers, and built a time machine. In the end, Sly is seen holding hands with Carmelita on a balcony, when Bentley spots them. Sly looks straight at Bentley and winks. This shows that Sly had faked his amnesia to start a relationship with Carmelita.

Reception

Critical reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 84.18%[1] Metacritic 83/100[2] Review scores Publication Score Edge 7/10[3] EGM 8.5/10[4] Eurogamer 8/10[5] Game Informer 7.25/10[6] GamePro [7] Game Revolution B[8] GameSpot 8.4/10[9] GameSpy [10] GameZone 9.3/10[11] IGN 8.1/10[12] OPM (US) [13] The New York Times (favorable)[14] The Sydney Morning Herald [15]

Sly 3 was well received, having aggregate scores of 83 out of 100 on Metacritic^[2] and 84.18% on GameRankings.^[1]

Sequels

Brian Fleming of Sucker Punch Productions stated in an interview that "We're broadening ourselves a little bit, taking on some new challenges," but also noted that "I think it's extremely likely that you'll see us return to the 'Sly Cooper' franchise at some point in the future. Nate Fox, one of the game designers for Sucker Punch Productions, also stated in a phone interview when questioned about it that he'd love to make another Sly game, adding to the possibility of a sequel. "^[16] An Easter egg found in the Sucker Punch game inFAMOUS shows a movie called "Sly Cooper 4" on the building's marquee; there is also a Sly Cooper symbol on Cole's backpack and back of his pants. Upon completing all three games as part of the Sly Collection for the PlayStation 3, a movie option is enabled within the game's menus. The movie is a short video showing Sly's silhouette lurking in tall grass, followed by a Sly 4 logo, with Cooper's trademark cane used as a question mark, teasing the possible sequel. Kevin Miller, the voice actor who voices Sly, has also confirmed that he has been contacted about voicing Sly in Sly 4, furthering its possibility.^[17]

The sequel, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, was finally revealed at Sony's E3 conference 2011, but is not being developed by Sucker Punch, but by Sanzaru Games.

Thieves in Time was released on February 5, 2013 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

Other games

The Sly Collection (titled as The Sly Cooper Collection in Japan and The Sly Trilogy in Europe and in some parts of Australia) is a remastered port of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves for the PlayStation 3 on a single Blu-ray Disc as a Classics HD title. The game was released on November 9, 2010.^[18] The Collection updates the graphics, including support for the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation 3, new mini-games that can be played using the PlayStation Move^[19] or standard controller and additional title supports such as Trophies.^[20]

PlayStation Move Heroes^[21] is a 2011 Action-adventure video game developed by Nihilistic Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on March 22, 2011, and utilizes the PlayStation Move. It is a cross-over of the Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper franchises to form a total of six main characters.^[22]

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released by Sucker Punch and Peter McConnell for Sly 3, below is a track listing of the tracks on the CD.^[23]

See also

• Stereoscopic video game
• List of stereoscopic video games

References

External links

• Official website
• Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves at MobyGames
• Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves at Metacritic