Visually excellent, well polished with a lot of potential, but somewhat hollow.
The treasures, which in a game about a thief you would think would be fairly important, aren't that exciting and the rewards you get for going to the effort of collecting them are fairly poor, both for the treasures on their own and for collecting the whole set. It's often the case where you can earn more money by simply picking enough pockets to find the more valuable items the guards are carrying, which is a shame as in previous Sly games the hub world treasures have been worth an absolute fortune, making them worth the effort. Some of them are also bordering on slapstick, seeming like desk ornaments rather than priceless historical treasures.
The items you get from picking pockets are also slightly . . . weird. In previous games you'd get things that actually seem worth stealing like gold watches, necklaces, gold bars, jewels, good old fashioned classic "loot", but in this one their all just novelty items that don't really look or seem like they would have any actual value. I'm not going to lie what kind of master thief would want to steal belt buckles, chopsticks, scorpion tails, or tribal penguin masks? I used to love selling my items on thief-net after sneaking around and stealing them all out in the hub worlds, and I wouldn't be too sad about that feature being removed if the things I stole actually looked like they would be worth anything.
The upgrades you buy off thief-net are of very limited use; with perhaps a few good ones thrown in from previous instalments like Sly's paraglider and so on, and don't really add much to gameplay, especially for Murray and Bentley. With the gadget grid gone, the ability to customise has been reduced, and the upgrades you get for these two seem like slap-on upgrades instead of useful abilities.
The costumes Sanzaru talked about so much suffer a similar fallback. The game isn't that much better with them. They don't add a whole lot to the experience, other than more incentive to revisit levels to finish collecting the treasures, and their clearly orchestrated requirement in boss fights. They seem almost cheap in their concept.
The missions aren't as well put together as in the other games, and there are times when after finding out what you've got to do you're sat there thinking "really?" "what?" or "why?" You don't really get to be as "thiefy" in the missions, and they can feel like just a string of mini-games put in there to kill time and keep you occupied without adding to the story.
That said, the overarching story is a good one when looked back on and the twists the story takes are enjoyable and will keep you guessing and engaged, but the missions just aren't as solid and make the whole thing seem a little broken.
The ancestors are a fairly high point in this, with Rioichi being my personal favourite, but they again don't add much as far as gameplay is concerned. They make for a good story plot twist from time to time and the dialogue with their different personalities and fantastic over the top stereotypes are enjoyable, but they're not much of an upgrade when compared to Sly himself. All they're really good for is story missions, and getting to some otherwise inaccessible areas, but beyond that, they're not much better than - or different in appearance from - Sly, special moves included. The biggest thing with the ancestors is there's no thought put into their chronology, and by that I mean that how can Rioichi know how to run along ropes, if Tennessee Kid Cooper, the guy who invented the move, won't exist for another few centuries? It'd make sense if Sly taught it to him, but there's no evidence of it, you just pick him up and off you go. How does that work?
I'm also not quite sure why they altered Sly's movement style so much either, especially to the point where they had to include a special upgrade to allow him to get from point A to point B as fast as he did before anyway. The movements are smooth, but not very fitting of a "master" thief. In Sly's 1, 2, and 3 he could just leap from the top of a building, land on a spire, and hop to a wire and run – actually run – in no time, looking sharp, snappy and clean. Here he kind of dawdles, making it look like he's almost not sure he can stay on the rope he's walking on. That is if the ropes not so far below you that he starts flapping his arms midway through the fall which stops you from doing anything. Again, a shame.
The last and potentially most controversial issue for me is the lack of historical validity. Yes it's a Sly game, yes its fictional but I still don't see how that means you can get neon signs in feudal Japan, especially when they're not even on the bad guy from the futures buildings. Some true authenticity in the worlds would have been nice, even despite the fact that time travelling villains have laid claim to them.
For all the potential this game had of being the best instalment the series had seen, it's frankly and sadly fallen short of the mark. The graphics and visuals are stunning, but it's almost all shine and no substance, something that is exasperated even further by the fact that Sly 2 most of all (in my opinion) got right what this game let fall. The worlds are still fun enough to run around in, with the story as a whole enjoyable and engaging, but the missions can seem unviable and sometimes just downright strange. You'll enjoying watching Sly and the gang through this latest adventure, and if you're a crazy dedicated Sly fan like myself it might just be worth your time depending on how much you're willing to spend, but it'll make you sigh a little. Not because it's a bad game, or because it's disappointing, but because you'll know it could have been so much better and you want it to be, if only so you can play it. If you could put Sly Thieves in Time and Sly 2 in a gaming blender and mix the two together, it'd be a show stopper, but as it stands, for me Sly Thieves in Time is a very beautiful, enjoyable, but somewhat hollow experience.