The Cooper Gang's most mature outing is also their finest.

User Rating: 9.5 | Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves PS2
Pros:
Strongest Story In The Trilogy
New Team Gathering Objective Is Pretty Interesting
Visual Art is Fantastic
Great Music (As always)
Funnier Than The Two Previous Games Combined
Broader Variation In Mission Types
Lengthy, Enjoyable Campaign
Even Deeper Look Into Each Character of the Cooper Gang
Time Trials, Score Targeting, Etc. To Do After You Finish the Campaign
Satisfying "Conclusion"

Cons:
Detection Issues
Questionable Physics

So it's come to this. My final review of "The Sly Collection" for PS3. Once again, in case you were completely oblivious at this point and you really shouldn't be, I'm not reviewing the PS2 version; only the updated version found in "The Sly Collection" for the Playstation 3. I played the first two games and reviewed them separately; so, if you're interested, you can check out those reviews on my Gamespot account as well.

"Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves" is the final chapter in the PS2 era Sly Cooper trilogy. We once again return to infamous, yet humble Cooper Gang consisting of the leader, Sly, the brains, Bently, and the brawn, Murray. After the events of "Sly 2: Band of Thieves" are heroes are at first separated due to Murray's guilt of not being able to save Bently from being crushed under Clockwerk's beak. Because of this accident, Bently has become paralyzed from the waist down and must use a wheelchair in order to participate in the gang's mischievous adventures. With the gang trying to re-enter Murray into the gang, Sly and Bently discover that for centuries, the Cooper legacy has kept a secret vault hidden on a decollete island somewhere in the pacific; and that a insane baboon by the name of Dr. M is trying to claim the treasure for himself. Knowing of Dr. M's cruel and completely harsh capabilities, both Sly and Bently realize they are going to need some help with this operation. A demolitions expert, a deep sea diver, and a magical guru are just a few of the examples of the new Cooper Gang members about to join, and each and every one of them are vital to this operation being a success. With the help of his friends, Sly hopes to discover what lies in the vault and learn even more about his family's legacy and where he belongs in it's sense of honor.

There isn't a single part of me that doesn't mean what I am about to say: "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves" is by far the greatest adventure in the Sly Cooper trilogy. Although it's basically just a reworked tweek of "Sly 2: Band of Thieves" is does enough tweeks to gameplay, graphics, story,and locations to make it even more superb than it ever was before. I'll try to break down each tweek made in each category for you guys to understand a little better. The graphics are pretty much the same as before in Sly 2, but they do look a little clearer and more colorful than before. Not to mention the fact that the animation is also a lot less clunky or non-properly synchronized than before. I hadn't really noticed those faults in Sly 2, but when you play a better version of the game franchise you enjoy, you really begin to start to see things from a better perspective. Gameplay has some new found additions to it, such as disguises and larger mini-games to play around with in the Sly world. It's kind of funny to me that it took them that long to figure putting disguises into the Sly games, but better late than never I suppose. The story itself is quite stronger than Sly 2's was. Sly 2 had a very well done and interesting story for the fans to run along, but Sly 3's is a lot less predictable because of the fact that you're searching for new gang members to help you bust open a vault. These new characters bring a sense of refreshment back to the Sly universe. After all, solely as the three Sly gang members may have been a little repetitious if they were simply going to take the same ideas used in Sly 2, and just implement them in Sly 3. Thankfully, Sucker Punch decided on a new direction and it works wonderfully. Location variation and well orchestrated music has never been a down side to the Sly world, and there's absolutely no change here. There's enough change is location type to keep the game interesting, and plenty of soothing and fitting music to go along with it. Not to mention the fact that this entry in the trilogy is a lot funnier than either of the other two games, thanks to each new character having a quirk or strange character image about themselves that adds to the already highly built mountain of Sly world's humor. All of this team effort and brotherhood demonstrated among the members of the Sly gang just shows how meaningful and well established everything and everyone is to them. They may go out and pull off huge heists, try to stop a long hateful Cooper enemy, or even discover more about who the Coopers were, but through thick and thin, they stay together through it all; because that's what brotherhood means to them, and Sucker Punch as well.

Perfections found in Sly 3 aside, I do have also have to focus my attention on the cons as well; this isn't a perfect 10/10 afterall. I did find myself becoming frustrated with the core mechanics of balancing on central points this time around. You know, where you have to press X to jump then hit O to land on a highlighted area to properly balance yourself on it? Well it's a lot more troubling this time around. Some boss battles require you to grab on to highlighted areas that use the same gameplay technique, but these situations are almost always above other highlighted areas. So, the player ends up jumping to the point they didn't intend to jump to. This may not sound that bad, but it becomes pretty frustrating when it happens time and time again. Especially when your coming really close to finishing a boss battle, and this simple mistake costs you the victory. Yea..when that happens, things begin to become very very very irritating. On another note, I did find the questionable physics returning from the Sly 2 world, into the Sly 3 realm. This time, it's with the RC cars that Penelope controls. They often times roll and hamper the player's ability to continue the race or finish destroying objectives. Again, when things like this happen, things begin to become irritating. Then again, these sort of things have seemed to occur a lot in the Sly universe; maybe these are unchangeable or something? I mean, you think Sucker Punch would have at least looked into these problems from the previous games; so why do they still exist? Oh well, I'm sure problems like this will either become less obvious or disappear in Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time (Which I'm stoked about!!!!). Problems in gameplay aside, I found "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves" to be the most superb experience in the Sly trilogy, and feel it easily deserves the score it's getting.

Graphics:
Graphics are more of a tweek on the graphics "Sly 2: Band of Thieves" greatly updated from the first Sly game, but they do gleam with more color and artistry than ever before.

Gameplay:
The core mechanics still exist that worked so well in the first two Sly games; and thanks to new additions in variation such as disguises, the gameplay remains fun without feeling stale.

Sound:
Music changes style from location to location; properly fitting itself with the type of environment the Sly gang is exploring next. Not to mention the voice acting is still spot on and cleverly deployed. In other words, it's still one of the greatest aspects of the Sly world.

Story:
The strongest and most creative story-line of the trilogy. New characters keeps things interesting, and a further exploration of the Sly legacy are just a few of the reasons why it's so well done.

Replay Value:
Moderately High. There are new time trials and score objectives to play around with after finishing the game. There aren't any bottles to collect in this version; so really the time trials feel more like a better replacement to what the bottles offered in replay value. It's the one you're more likely to come back to out of the three Sly games; since trophies are a little harder to get in this Sly game.

Final Verdict:
To bring everything to a close, "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves" is the most superb and enjoyable Sly experience yet. There's enough to do to keep the game interesting, and enough variation to keep the gameplay fresh. So overall, I recommend Sly 3 the most strongly out of the 3 games in the Sly series. It has everything the first two did right, and updates them to the point where the makes the game easier and more fun to play. It's not perfect, but it's amazing nevertheless.

BUY (If you hadn't figured that out at this point)
9.5/10 or 5/5