Alright so Sly 3 is kind of a weird game.
Right off the bat there's one thing you're gonna notice about it - it's ugly.
I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but they tried to make this game look more cartoony, with brighter lighting and higher saturation, and it just makes everything look so garish. The pirate level especially was really bad, with its various tones of brown and green - though most of the game is brown and green, honestly. It just... doesn't look good, the first two titles masterfully blended these cartoony characters and environments with a soft, darker lighting that really made them ooze with atmosphere, while here most of the environments failed to make a strong impression.
The second thing you might notice about Sly 3 is that the story just isn't that great? I didn't really go too in depth with the story in my previous Sly Cooper reviews, but the narrative there was pretty stellar - especially in 2, which felt like a direct response to how cartoonishly simple the first game's plot was at times, retroactively enhancing it as part of this cohesive duology.
But Sly 3 doesn't really fit in, the major conflict of the series has been resolved by this point, so all that's left is to introduce a totally new, never-heard-of-before plot element that's totally been there all along and is gonna tie everything together in a nice little bow.
Sly's no stranger to contrivances, but those were usually reserved for the individual missions so they didn't have to spend too much time going over unimportant details, while the larger plot felt pretty coherent.
Now, though, we have to jump through so many hoops in order to justify this game's major conflict, said hoops including the reading of a comic book that introduces that conflict in the first place!
The story's thematic content also just doesn't really hit for me, it largely feels like a rethread of Sly 2 but with the subtlety of a sledgehammer this time, while not really bringing much new to the table.
There's other issues too which I'll get into as I dive into the gameplay.
Thankfully, there hasn't been another major restructuring of the mechanics with the jump from 2 to 3.
Sly 2's gameplay loop was already incredibly strong and it remains fun here too, however there are more than a few wrinkles on the cloth this time around.
The maps have become much smaller and simpler to navigate, as well as stripped of any incentive to explore them thanks to the omission of clue bottles and treasures. There are a lot more interior environments to compensate, most including linear platforming challenges - it feels like a compromise between Sly 1 and 2, which for me isn't exactly a good change, as I much preferred Sly 2's handling of its overworlds.
When half the missions aren't sending you away from the main map though they'll, more than likely, be asking you to do some other kind of menial task divorced from the core gameplay - Sly 3 loves its side content so much that it makes the main dish here feel a tad underbaked.
Despite being one of the three main playable characters, I can only think of maybe three or four missions in the whole game that involve regular Murray fisticuffs - which brings me nicely into my next talking point.
Sly 3's a game about putting together a gang, a much bigger gang than the one you had in Sly 2, however the way the game goes about doing this feels a bit, well, contrived.
If you're a true Sly connoisseur, and have been around the online discussions surrounding the series, it's likely you've come across a little video series on youtube analyzing the games courtesy of B-Mask.
In the video tackling this game he talks about how, in a lot of ways, it feels like Sly 3 expanding the gang in the way it does makes it seem like we're moving past Sly Cooper leading up to the cap off of this trilogy, however that's a sentiment I'm going to have to wholly disagree with.
There's certainly members of the original Cooper gang getting eclipsed in Sly 3, but it's not Sly Cooper.
The game never really brings up why we suddenly need an RC pilot expert on the team when... wasn't that Bentley's job in the last game?
Like he was the brains right? I always took that as meaning he was the guy that would handle all the gadgets, while Sly and Murray mostly relied on their physical attributes.
This is made even more perplexing when the following member to be recruited is... a demolitions expert? Which is another thing that Bentley did last time?
What does Bentley even do in this game? Like, poor guy, first you take away his legs and now he's out of a job too.
I guess he can always be there for the mandatory hacking mini-games and the all new Grapple-Cam sections... woohoo...
And while Murray doesn't really get any overlap with the new faces in the ways that Bentley does, he ends up getting overshadowed by Sly himself, who is now much better at handling close quartes combat - to the point where the game's fifth chapter is dedicated almost entirely to ground combat encounters as Sly and he takes on all but one of the game's major boss fights.
So what's Murray's job now, if not to beat people up? Well he can turn into a ball and jump really high! That's fun!
He also drives some vehicles - mostly tiny rowboats. Not the plane though, Sly gets that one.
There's two more new additions to the gang other than the ones I mentioned, and they do have some novel ideas, but they're so niche that they end up getting barely utilized throughout the game - almost like the winning formula was the one that was already in the game last time and they're just trying to fill up space however they can.
It sucks because the gang in Sly 2 felt so tight-knit and complete, each one excelled in different areas without overshadowing the others - Sly was great for sneaking around undetected, Murray was great at beating everyone to a pulp and Bentley was the only one that could easily deal with threats from afar with his various gadgets.
Across all of these different playstyles that game managed to be as varied as it needed to without resorting to too many one off gimmicks.
With Sly 3 though? Oh they're out in full force.
The new gang members aren't strong enough on their own to be considered fully fledged playable characters, so they have to be thrown into the mini game sidecar and tag along the main three on their various jobs in order to "spice things up"
What sucks about this is how it affects the story - in a game that's trying to have Sly move on from the Cooper lineage and realize that the true value in all of his conquests came from his friends, his real family... the game itself just chooses to diminish the role they play as a part of that family in favor of a bunch of new faces, with none of said new faces being able to equally eclipse or at stand alongside Sly himself.
It's not the best look, especially with how I feel it's simply going over what Sly 2 already did in its ending but in a much more drawn out way.
The narrative justification for the various jobs has also taken a hit.
Whereas before everything you did in a given chapter served a clear purpose and was eventually paid off in the third act heist mission, Sly 3 opts for a lot more "mights" and "mays" when going over Bentley's plans - it often feels less like you're going over a detailed set up for a heist and more like you're going down a checklist of mandatory meaningless tasks before the game lets you start the real plan. In some cases this kind of dynamic, on the fly story structure actually works to its benefit, but more often than not it makes a lot of the game's more meandering activities feel like filler in the grand scheme of things.
I've been kind of ripping into this game but, you know, it's still fun.
It's still Sly Cooper, always a good time avoiding spotlights and pickpocketing guards just to slip up onto the rooftops at the last second to remain undetected.
It's just incredibly disappointing going into it after how much of a smashing success Sly 2 was at solidifying its identity, this one feels too muddled and confused in comparison, not entirely sure what Sucker Punch was trying to accomplish here.
Right off the bat there's one thing you're gonna notice about it - it's ugly.
I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but they tried to make this game look more cartoony, with brighter lighting and higher saturation, and it just makes everything look so garish. The pirate level especially was really bad, with its various tones of brown and green - though most of the game is brown and green, honestly. It just... doesn't look good, the first two titles masterfully blended these cartoony characters and environments with a soft, darker lighting that really made them ooze with atmosphere, while here most of the environments failed to make a strong impression.
The second thing you might notice about Sly 3 is that the story just isn't that great? I didn't really go too in depth with the story in my previous Sly Cooper reviews, but the narrative there was pretty stellar - especially in 2, which felt like a direct response to how cartoonishly simple the first game's plot was at times, retroactively enhancing it as part of this cohesive duology.
But Sly 3 doesn't really fit in, the major conflict of the series has been resolved by this point, so all that's left is to introduce a totally new, never-heard-of-before plot element that's totally been there all along and is gonna tie everything together in a nice little bow.
Sly's no stranger to contrivances, but those were usually reserved for the individual missions so they didn't have to spend too much time going over unimportant details, while the larger plot felt pretty coherent.
Now, though, we have to jump through so many hoops in order to justify this game's major conflict, said hoops including the reading of a comic book that introduces that conflict in the first place!
The story's thematic content also just doesn't really hit for me, it largely feels like a rethread of Sly 2 but with the subtlety of a sledgehammer this time, while not really bringing much new to the table.
There's other issues too which I'll get into as I dive into the gameplay.
Thankfully, there hasn't been another major restructuring of the mechanics with the jump from 2 to 3.
Sly 2's gameplay loop was already incredibly strong and it remains fun here too, however there are more than a few wrinkles on the cloth this time around.
The maps have become much smaller and simpler to navigate, as well as stripped of any incentive to explore them thanks to the omission of clue bottles and treasures. There are a lot more interior environments to compensate, most including linear platforming challenges - it feels like a compromise between Sly 1 and 2, which for me isn't exactly a good change, as I much preferred Sly 2's handling of its overworlds.
When half the missions aren't sending you away from the main map though they'll, more than likely, be asking you to do some other kind of menial task divorced from the core gameplay - Sly 3 loves its side content so much that it makes the main dish here feel a tad underbaked.
Despite being one of the three main playable characters, I can only think of maybe three or four missions in the whole game that involve regular Murray fisticuffs - which brings me nicely into my next talking point.
Sly 3's a game about putting together a gang, a much bigger gang than the one you had in Sly 2, however the way the game goes about doing this feels a bit, well, contrived.
If you're a true Sly connoisseur, and have been around the online discussions surrounding the series, it's likely you've come across a little video series on youtube analyzing the games courtesy of B-Mask.
In the video tackling this game he talks about how, in a lot of ways, it feels like Sly 3 expanding the gang in the way it does makes it seem like we're moving past Sly Cooper leading up to the cap off of this trilogy, however that's a sentiment I'm going to have to wholly disagree with.
There's certainly members of the original Cooper gang getting eclipsed in Sly 3, but it's not Sly Cooper.
The game never really brings up why we suddenly need an RC pilot expert on the team when... wasn't that Bentley's job in the last game?
Like he was the brains right? I always took that as meaning he was the guy that would handle all the gadgets, while Sly and Murray mostly relied on their physical attributes.
This is made even more perplexing when the following member to be recruited is... a demolitions expert? Which is another thing that Bentley did last time?
What does Bentley even do in this game? Like, poor guy, first you take away his legs and now he's out of a job too.
I guess he can always be there for the mandatory hacking mini-games and the all new Grapple-Cam sections... woohoo...
And while Murray doesn't really get any overlap with the new faces in the ways that Bentley does, he ends up getting overshadowed by Sly himself, who is now much better at handling close quartes combat - to the point where the game's fifth chapter is dedicated almost entirely to ground combat encounters as Sly and he takes on all but one of the game's major boss fights.
So what's Murray's job now, if not to beat people up? Well he can turn into a ball and jump really high! That's fun!
He also drives some vehicles - mostly tiny rowboats. Not the plane though, Sly gets that one.
There's two more new additions to the gang other than the ones I mentioned, and they do have some novel ideas, but they're so niche that they end up getting barely utilized throughout the game - almost like the winning formula was the one that was already in the game last time and they're just trying to fill up space however they can.
It sucks because the gang in Sly 2 felt so tight-knit and complete, each one excelled in different areas without overshadowing the others - Sly was great for sneaking around undetected, Murray was great at beating everyone to a pulp and Bentley was the only one that could easily deal with threats from afar with his various gadgets.
Across all of these different playstyles that game managed to be as varied as it needed to without resorting to too many one off gimmicks.
With Sly 3 though? Oh they're out in full force.
The new gang members aren't strong enough on their own to be considered fully fledged playable characters, so they have to be thrown into the mini game sidecar and tag along the main three on their various jobs in order to "spice things up"
What sucks about this is how it affects the story - in a game that's trying to have Sly move on from the Cooper lineage and realize that the true value in all of his conquests came from his friends, his real family... the game itself just chooses to diminish the role they play as a part of that family in favor of a bunch of new faces, with none of said new faces being able to equally eclipse or at stand alongside Sly himself.
It's not the best look, especially with how I feel it's simply going over what Sly 2 already did in its ending but in a much more drawn out way.
The narrative justification for the various jobs has also taken a hit.
Whereas before everything you did in a given chapter served a clear purpose and was eventually paid off in the third act heist mission, Sly 3 opts for a lot more "mights" and "mays" when going over Bentley's plans - it often feels less like you're going over a detailed set up for a heist and more like you're going down a checklist of mandatory meaningless tasks before the game lets you start the real plan. In some cases this kind of dynamic, on the fly story structure actually works to its benefit, but more often than not it makes a lot of the game's more meandering activities feel like filler in the grand scheme of things.
I've been kind of ripping into this game but, you know, it's still fun.
It's still Sly Cooper, always a good time avoiding spotlights and pickpocketing guards just to slip up onto the rooftops at the last second to remain undetected.
It's just incredibly disappointing going into it after how much of a smashing success Sly 2 was at solidifying its identity, this one feels too muddled and confused in comparison, not entirely sure what Sucker Punch was trying to accomplish here.