Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is a platform stealth video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions for 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. The game received generally positive reviews from the gaming press. In 2010, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves was released on PlayStation 3 as part of The Sly Collection.
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves | |
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North American PlayStation 2 box art | |
Developer(s) | Sucker Punch Productions |
Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
Producer(s) | Brian Fleming |
Designer(s) | Nate Fox Rob McDaniel |
Programmer(s) | Chris Zimmerman |
Artist(s) | Dev Madan Suzanne Kaufman Paul Whitehead Travis Kotzebue Jordan Kotzebue Karin Madan Kathy Anderson Rafael Calonzo Jr. |
Writer(s) | Nate Fox |
Composer(s) | Peter McConnell |
Series | Sly Cooper |
Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Platform, stealth, action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
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 a year after the events of Band of Thieves, Sly Cooper, Bentley, Murray, and other unidentified characters attempt to open the Cooper Vault on Kaine Island in the Pacific Ocean. 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 about the Cooper Vault from one of his father's colleagues, Jim 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, who had become more hateful towards crimes since their last encounter. 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 of Dark Earth is destroyed by Carmelita's mercenaries, the Guru joins the Cooper Gang.
In need of a robotics combat expert beyond Bentley's abilities, he 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 has kidnapped her and plans 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. General Tsao steals Bentley's laptop and Sly is forced to confront and defeat him to get it back. After finally rescuing Jing King, Tsao summons a stone dragon which grabs Penelope. Sly defeats the dragon and saves Penelope before escaping with the gang while Carmelita arrests General 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 a pirate named 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, Captain LeFwee ambushes them during the heist and kidnaps Penelope. They prepare an assault on Lefwee's skull keep, which involves taming a giant squid called Crusher. Crusher and the Guru defeat Lefwee's men while Bentley frees Penelope. Bentley is injured during the getaway, and Penelope battles Captain 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 felt he was treated unfairly and wants to steal the Cooper fortune.
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 goes on to complete his training with the Guru and later becomes a professional race car driver with the team van; the 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
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 83/100[1] |
Publication | Score |
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Edge | 7/10[2] |
EGM | 8.5/10[3] |
Eurogamer | 8/10[4] |
Game Informer | 7.25/10[5] |
GamePro | [6] |
GameRevolution | B[7] |
GameSpot | 8.4/10[8] |
GameSpy | [9] |
GameZone | 9.3/10[10] |
IGN | 8.1/10[11] |
OPM (US) | [12] |
The New York Times | (favorable)[13] |
The Sydney Morning Herald | [14] |
Sly 3 was well received, having aggregate scores of 83 out of 100 on Metacritic.[1] Complex's Rich Knight called Sly 3 the best game in the series and the 20th best PlayStation 2 game.[15]
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 revealed at Sony's E3 conference 2011, but is not being developed by Sucker Punch, but by Sanzaru Games. It 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]
References
- "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- "Sly 3: Honor Among Thives". Edge. December 2005. p. 105.
- EGM Staff (November 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 197. p. 146.
- Reed, Kristan (October 14, 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
- McNamara, Andy (November 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". Game Informer. No. 151. p. 154.
- Ouroboros (October 5, 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves Review for PS2 on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on January 3, 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
- Dodson, Joe (October 4, 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
- Gouskos, Carrie (September 26, 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- McGarvey, Sterling (September 27, 2005). "GameSpy: Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". GameSpy. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
- Bedigian, Louis (September 22, 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves – PS2 – Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- Lewis, Ed (September 21, 2005). "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". IGN. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. November 2005. p. 92. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- Herold, Charles (October 15, 2005). "Battling Trouble on Both Sides of the Law". The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- Hill, Jason (November 10, 2005). "Entertaining adventure". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- Rich Knight. "The 50 Best PS2 Games Ever". Complex. Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
- Bishop, Todd (July 16, 2007). "Software Notebook: Sucker Punch turning to serious play". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
- Good, Owen (November 14, 2010). "Sly 4 Teased In Sly Collection Trailer". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 15, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2010.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 15, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Ryan Clements (June 15, 2010). "E3 2010: The Sly Collection Preview". IGN. Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
- Watts, Steve (June 14, 2010). "E3 2010: Sly Cooper Collection Features 3D Play". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
- Matt Bertz (October 8, 2010). "Sony Renames Heroes On The Move". Game Informer. Archived from the original on June 6, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- Reilly, Jim (June 15, 2010). "E3 2010: Heroes on the Move Announced". IGN. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
External links
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