This is one of the best cell shaded platformers ever.
Gameplay: The gameplay is very versatile. You can use stealth to eliminate your enemies, fight them, or completely avoid them. There are some instances in this game, however, when you have to fight through your enemies, but it’s usually not too difficult. This brings me to another point which is the difficulty. While Sly 3 is not hard as a whole, some parts are definitely harder than others, some requiring you to try 3 times or more before actually figuring out the right strategy, and others being flat out hard which makes you try time and time again before actually getting it right. On a better note, it never gets frustrating. I welcomed all the difficult parts, and I believe they made Sly 3 a better game. As I mentioned above, the game uses a feature called the Gadget Grid. This lets you buy gadget while at the safe house (where you change characters) and assign them to shoulder buttons. These, for the most part, are optional and you could go through most of the game without buying any. However, there are certain instances where the game tells you that you need to buy a certain upgrade for a job you are going to be doing. This could sound like a problem, but the game gives you enough notice for you to get enough money easily before you need the gadget. To me, the gameplay is some of the best there is for a platformer.
Graphics: The graphics work really well with the light atmosphere of the game. Most of the movements are fluid and everything just looks great in the cell shaded look. There are some frame rate drops, but it didn’t bother me that much and didn’t mar the experience for me at all. On the downside, the character models have some rough edges and the mouths just kind of move up and down and don’t match what is being said at all. The environments are nice on just about every level. Wherever you go you’re sure to find some nice graphics, they’re just more abundant in some places than others.
Sound: The sound is excellent. Every last musical track is awesome, especially the theme song. They all convey a sense of stealth and sneakiness, which obviously fits right into the game. When an enemy is alerted to your presence the music picks up a bit to better fit the action, and the transition is great back to the regular tune when you either get away or take down the enemy. The voice acting is top notch too. The voice actors do a great job sticking true to the character voice in the previous games, as they are voiced by the same actors with the exception of one: Inspector Carmelita Fox. I’m not sure if Sucker Punch is playing a game with us or what, but Carmelita has had a different voice actor for every Sly game and this is probably the worst one. She has an accent that she didn’t have in the other games and doesn’t seem to fit the character at all. The voice actor doesn’t do a bad job, but her accent and style seems sub-par compared to the near flawless job done by everyone else.
Value: Completing the story mode, which is a good 14 hour journey, only takes you to around 58% of the actual game. After you complete each episode there are more minigames available to play. They usually are just more of the kind of minigame you have played in that episode, and some are really fun. Say you like a certain minigame and want to play more of it. After you complete the episode (there are 6) you can go and look for more of that type. That alone adds tons of more fun and length to the game. In addition to extra minigames, there is concept art unlocked at the end of each episode for that episode. These are actually pretty neat to look at and show how some of the characters and environments looked in their earliest form. If the things I have mentioned sound appealing to you, there is a good bit of value in this game.
Tilt: Coming into this fall, Sly 3 was my second most anticipated game and I am very pleased to announce the it lived up to every one of my expectations and then some. The game is long enough to warrant a buy, and can also be completed in a rental if you’re into that kind of thing. Sly 3 is just a great game on so many fronts. The cell shaded graphics, the excellent voice acting and music, the variety of level, the story, and the sense of thievery and stealth that you get from this game is just unbelievable and make for an experience everyone should enjoy.