Well, for the first time in roughly 3 years I picked up this game and played it. I am pleased to say that despite this I managed to get through the game without feeling thoroughly annoyed with either myself or the game itself.
As one can imply from the title, this is the third (and presumably last) installment of the Sly Cooper line of games in which the characters are all some form of anthropomorphic animal. Having a relatively full in-game 'history' if you will, this third chapter was able to incorporate a rather grandiose element into its storyline.
The player takes on the role of Sly Cooper, a raccoon, and his gang of thieves, contributing to the title of the game itself. As presented and further solidified in the previous two games, Sly is the latest of the 'Cooper Clan,' a family of master thieves. However, throughout the series it is continually reaffirmed that the Cooper Clan manages to take the moral high ground. Not a family of Robin Hoods as they tended to keep what they stole, but a family of 'good guys' if you will. All of the family's thieving techniques and skills are recorded in an incredibly old book called the 'Thievius Raccoonus.' This book is a referenced constantly throughout the series.
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves begins with Sly telling the player how he and his gang had made there way to Kane Island, an island apparently belonging to the Cooper Clan and the home of the fabled Cooper Vault, the vault which apparently housed the amassed wealth of the entire Cooper Clan. This island however is occupied by the shady "Dr. M.," a mad scientist obsessed with gaining entry to the vault. As such, the island is now a fortress and practically impervious to entry. The greater part of this game is effectively a flashback in which the player is recruiting 'the best of the best' among thieves in order to form an incredibly talented team of specialists in order to infiltrate this island and gain entry to the Cooper Vault.
The "grandiose" aspect of this storyline is the fact that the Cooper Vault is the accumulation of Sly's family's "work" for the past couple thousand years. This effectively makes the entirety of the Vault Sly's legacy, and from the beginning Sly considers this his last huge job.
The game makes use of extremely exaggerated "comic book graphics" if you will, an element that further contributes to the novelty of controlling an anthropomorphic raccoon who steals things. As with the previous games, Sly is constantly tailed by his foil and love interest, Carmelita Fox. While she displays no such feelings towards him, Sly constantly goes out of his way to let her know that he cares, much to her chagrin.
Game-play, while by no means seamless, flowed very well and besides the occasional finicky camera angle or, "What the hell? I did too press the circle button!", I felt that navigation throughout the game world was quite enjoyable and efficient. Another aspect of game-play that I feel is important to recognize is that while this is a game that relies on stealth and avoidance of enemies, the game does not completely shaft you if you happen to be noticed. Dare I say it, the mechanics of this game actually made being stealthy enjoyable.
All in all, the combination of game-play, storyline, and elements as simple as having the core members of the group fulfill basic niches such as the thief, the brains, and the brawn, make this a very enjoyable game that manages to simultaneously be lighthearted and quirky and foreboding and ominous.
