Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

This game is amazing but damn do the levels do everything in their power to make you dread playing as Bentley

honor among ** (gets killed on the spot)

This and Sly 2 have always rivaled one another HARD for me, man... idk which is better. Penelope is great btw.

2 and 3 are definitely on equal footing in regards to writing. The story of 2 is more economic and feels a lot more cohesive, but 3 pays off on our investment in the characters flawlessly with lots of great moments for each of them and a very satisfying conclusion. I will say that excluding 3's China, 2 wins the level design discussion handily. Its hub worlds are all god-tier material you can spend tons of time just wandering around in, whereas those in 3 feel a little less tight and engaging in their composition (though never bad).

Gameplay is a tricky one because 3 adds in so many extra forms of it, but forcing players to buy Sly's silent takedown and replace the classic cane-slam is heresy. I mean, the cane-slam is so damn satisfying and then you ask me to effectively delete it? The ship combat, though, is the perfect trade-off and is literally what AC IV owes its whole existence to. Hell, that series in general gives me the feeling that the devs were playing Sly while making it.

Also Bentley is the real star of this game. Sucker Punch took him to 11 here, just fantastic character writing and development that builds off his experiences in 2. He used his disability as an opportunity to turn himself into a rolling, flying weapon of death and he has more classic quotable lines in this one game alone than any other character has across all three games. Because he's just that much of a chad.

My least favorite one from the original trilogy. Frustrating as hell sometimes!