Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves

As a reviewer, one of the things I really hate doing is gushing over a game. I try to be objective, I try to be fair and find the flaws and failures along with the subtle and not so subtle successes so that I can form a decent opinion for a title. I try. I really do.

But, you know, with Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, I'm just gonna go ahead and gush, if you don't mind. Because, as I look back on my experience with Sly 3, I'm finding a hard time to come up with anything that could be seen as bad.

So, let's begin in one' two' three'

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves just gets it right. Everything. The presentation, the visuals, the audio, the gameplay' it all just clicks to near perfection. There's diversity in the gameplay, and every aspect of the game has a beautiful polish to it that makes the whole experience seem seamless. The visuals are beautiful, boasting incredible animation and detailed worlds that are filled with life, and the voice-acting, too, is dead on.

It's great. It really is.

' but if you want to be nitpicky about it, Sly 3's main failing is that it doesn't try to re-invent the wheel. A big chunk of the game is standard platform fare, with minor innovations and renovations thrown in. The swashbuckling portion of the game, for example, plays similar to Sid Meier's Pirates!, but instead of using the same gameplay formula Pirates uses, Sly 3 adds a few features that takes full advantage of the gameplay mechanics of Sly 3.

The big draw that's been hyped to the high heavens is the sections of the game that utilize 3D glasses, making for an eye popping experience. Well, almost. To experience the 3D effect you'll have to don nerdy red and blue 3D glasses that distort the color on screen, almost to the point of confusion in a few spots. Sure, it'll inspire a few 'oohs'? and 'ahs'? from you, but unless you're really easily impressed, it's really not worth bothering with the 3D experience in the long run.

But, these failings are really minor in the grand scheme of things. It's been interesting to watch the Sly franchise progress over the past three years. What started out as a linear platformer with strong stealth action aspects has transformed into a sprawling platformer that still has the stealth aspects, but so much more. The first Sly cemented the gameplay formula, Sly 2 expanded on the foundation, creating an open and less linear environment to explore, and Sly 3 further develops that formula, refining it to near perfection. It doesn't re-invent the wheel or anything, but it sure made it a whole lot more fun.