Absolutely fantastic and surely worth playing, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves definitely deserves to be the franchise sequel
Making use of new, much bigger levels, better graphics and the ability to play not only Sly, but also Bentley and Murray, the game progresses through the much longer story arc. Missions in a specific level do not have a specific order required to finish them and there is also a safe house, here for changing between characters and buying spying add-ons and special fighting techniques to aid in the missions.
The single player campaign is enlarged and completely revamped, continuing where the events in Sly 2: Band of Thieves stopped. The game begins with the team fractioned. Sly has to bring the team together and then recruit other characters through the levels to complete a heist in the end. Bentley has become tied to his wheelchair, but that doesn't make him a less worthy character. Actually, Sucker Punch makes clever use of his gizmos and electronic toys to make him as good as Sly and Murray, but useful in different areas. Sly's missions are fun as usual, while adding other playable characters makes the mission content more varying and more fun. The story arc is longer than in the previous two games. Instead of mindless goals in other popular arcade games, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves makes use of a semi-linear Ocean's Eleven-style story arc. While progressing through several levels (episodes) Sly and the gang recruit experts in different fields to prepare for the final mission: stopping the mysterious Dr. M from getting to the Cooper family vault.
One of the best parts of the game is the previously mentioned ability to play all three characters in the gang and, at points, helper characters. The game retains the system of jumping and swinging maneuvers. Bentley's wheelchair gives him special abilities, such as flying and shooting tranquilizer gun missiles, while Murray usually punches and kicks his way to the mission goal. Other characters, such as the Guru or Carmelita have other special abilities (respectively, hypnotizing and shooting). Some characters, such as Dimitri are at first NPCs reluctant to help, but later on they become playable and aid the gang in the end.
Minigames shade a new light on the game. While playing standard missions, Sly and the gang get the ability to crack safes finding security codes hidden in pictures, hack computers by playing around with antivirii and firewalls, control a dangerous wolf to thin out Sly's flying opponents and much, much more. The small fun breaks from the usual, standard running, fighting and sneaking make for a richer gaming experience.
Graphics are great as usual with the Sly series, again continuing the use of the cartoon shading delineating the franchise. One of the strangest additions to the game is the 3D playing specialty. Some missions can be played normally, but have the possibility of playing 3D with special glasses. The 3D is here like a double-edged sword. While being an interesting novelty, it also strains one's eyes pretty much and makes up for a total loss of standard gaming feel. When playing 3D with glasses, I always ended up banging in the walls, unable to orient myself in the strange new environment.
Multiplayer is the dark side of the game. Utilizing only a few missions, it bogs down to a cops-and-robbers-style deathmatch in Venice and a strange, very hard version of the hacking minigame from the single player campaign. I quickly got bored of the deathmatch and the cooperative hacking game is way too hard for a random PS2 enthusiast. It is also quick to lose fun and excitement once finished.
Summary - Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is surely one of the best and most intriguing games I played. The whole repertoire of mingames and playable characters and the gang's arsenal of techno babble toys made sure I enjoy every minute of playing the game and start playing it all over again (except the multiplayer).