Our friend Murray is back in the gang, but he’s still facing an emotional crisis of sorts since he broke an oath to his Guru. We had best help him apologize to his mentor and face his issues head-on.
And if we can add a new member to the Cooper Gang at the same time, all the better.
At this point, we’ve recruited our first new character to the Cooper Gang. With that, we can start talking a bit more about one of the more contentious aspects of Sly 3.
It’s not a new conversation, even in the context of this channel. We’ve discussed it both in the context of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped and Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. Like many third games in platforming trilogies, Honor Among Thieves attempts to use new characters, vehicles, and other gimmicks to add variety to the core Sly Cooper gameplay. To some level, we’ve already taken steps in that direction back in Band of Thieves, by making Bentley and Murray playable characters.
However, they were core characters back in the first game too, presented as vital members of the team. Their chemistry as a trio is at the heart of what makes the Sly franchise so beloved, and adding new members to the mix does run the risk of diluting that chemistry by taking time away from it. After all, every minute we take with a character like the Guru is a minute we aren’t spending with one of the main three.
In fairness, the game does a great job from a writing standpoint of making each integrating each of the new characters into the personal story arcs of all core Cooper Gang. Though one could argue they take some mechanics away from Sly, Bentley, and Murray just to give them to these side characters.
It’s a tough balance to tow.
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