Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves Preview

The boys are back in town … well, not just the boys, but the girls too, and this time they are looking for a family treasure.

When Sly 2: Band of Thieves ended, the gang of Sly, Bentley and Murray were in disarray. Bentley was injured and Murray was blaming himself. The final battle with Clockwerk left Bentley in a wheelchair as Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves opens. Murray is off to find himself through a zen-like journey into the world of non-violence, and Sly finds the family vault. But the family vault is not without problems, and in order to get his inheritance, Sly will have to call on a bunch of friends.  

And it all starts with bringing the old gang back together.

SCEA and Sucker Punch are the tag-team behind Sly 3, a PlayStation2 title scheduled for release in the fall. The action heats up with a rival gang trying to break into the family vault, and it does not take long for Sly to realize they will need help. In addition to re-recruiting Bentley and Murray, Sly calls on Dimtri, and Carmelita (who is a playable character this time out), as well as getting a rather insane little magic guy known as The Shaman.

SCEA showed off the game during an event in Santa Monica, and GameZone was invited along for a chat with the developers and a little hands-on action in the mini games.  

In addition to some new gameplay mechanics, like Bentley tossing bombs to Sly who, in turn, baseball bats them for greater distance, other new features include:

• Players will be able to play head-to-head and cooperative missions in multiplayer, split screen modes.

• Extensive replay value with power-up objectives, a scoring system, multiplayer challenges, mini-games and more.  Players also can utilize the time machine feature, which will allow them to replay mini-games and missions they have completed using new moves, abilities or disguises to see how high they can score.

• Earn more money and locate more collectibles with an enhanced economy system through an expanded “Thiefnet”. 

• Conquer challenging, complex heists in robust, open exotic environments in settings like Venice, Holland, The Outback and China.

• Sly becomes a master of disguise, enabling him to sneak into heavily guarded areas unnoticed.  These disguises will affect not only Sly’s look, but also his personality and move set.

• New varied, sophisticated enemy interactions and artificial intelligence means enemy guards now offer more challenges to players, and redouble their efforts to defeat Sly and his gang.

• Uncover hidden messages in works of art with the help of Bentley who can examine the pieces to reveal clues.

• Experience a great variety of gameplay and features with new vehicles, gadgets and mini-games and moves all wrapped in an engaging, animated comic caper.

Sly also has a jab feature added to his repertoire of moves. The mini games include biplane fights, opera singing and lemonade drinking contests. Dialog choices will affect gameplay.

As far as the graphics are concerned, Sly 3 continues where Sly 2 left off. The look features lush colors with black outlines around the characters. The animation is solid and rather fun – an attitude which pervades across the entire game. The mini games are enjoyable little asides to the main story, especially the biplane fight, replete with power ups to keep those bullets flying. As for the multiplayer aspects of the game …

Brian Fleming, a producer at Sucker Punch, said “we have focused on two player head-to-head. This, we believe, is the dominant mode for our customers.”

While the hands-on time was limited, the game was smooth and relatively intuitive (having played a Sly Cooper game before did help), but even the new game mechanics were integrated in a manner that kept the flow of the control scheme intact. This is a game that has fun underscoring it and is one to watch for down the road.