Sunday, October 31, 2021

PrinceWatercress plays Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - Part 2 of 42


In this entry, the game finally begins. We get a refresher course on how to get around in this game, then we start the first episode.

Hazard Room

Before we can start the first episode of the game, you'll head to the Hazard Room, where you'll learn the basic controls for the game. Press Circle at a switch and you'll start one of the training modules.

The left module teaches navigation. Use the right analog stick to look around the Hazard Room and find the Cooper Gang marker, and press L3 (press the left analog stick) to ping a waypoint. Go to the waypoint, and you'll be able to put what you've learned with the L3 and right analog stick together.

You'll also learn how to jump and double jump with the X button to get up to rooftops for the best view of things. After that, you'll put everything you've learned together and complete the navigation training.

Once you complete a training module, you cannot do it again. This stinks, especially if you take a break from the game and forget how to do things.

The right module teaches the spire jump and crawl moves. To jump from one of the small points with the blue sparkles to the next, jump towards them and press the Circle button to perform the spire jump. From there, you'll stand on the point, and you can jump to where you need to go.

Whatever you do, don't land in the red energy field below. It will take you to the start of the training session.

To crawl through tight spaces, hold Circle at the opening, then move around with the D-Pad or left analog stick.

When you complete both training modules, go to the exit door and press Circle.

Episode 1: An Opera of Fear

At the start of the episode, Sly Cooper finds out about the Cooper Vault, and it becomes clear to both Sly and Bentley that they need Murray back. When Bentley was excruciatingly injured at the end of the second game, Murray blamed himself for not acting faster and left the team to find his spiritual center in the Australian outback, where he met a Guru and underwent spiritual training around the world. This spiritual quest has led Murray to Venice, Italy, but why he is there is not known.

Meanwhile, in Venice, the local mob boss Octavio is running around like he owns the place. Octavio was once an opera star on the rise, but when rock music took over popular tastes, that left him without an audience or a career, and this led an embittered Octavio to join the mob, who still loved his music. Now Sly's mission is two-fold: get Murray back and stop Octavio from ruining Venice.

At the start of the episode, you'll only be playing as Sly, and you won't play as Bentley until a little bit later.

You have a health bar in the upper-left corner. When it runs out, you'll be taken back to the safehouse. You have infinite lives in this game, just like in the last one. This health bar also acts as your radar, and circles will move from the inside of it when you are near enemies. If the health bar glows red, that means that an enemy or enemies have spotted you, and that you need to get away from them quickly. Once it stops glowing red, the enemies will give up and go back to their usual routes. Thankfully, you can refill health by getting red crosses that you have a chance of getting from enemies alongside any money you may get from them, as well as from destroying objects some of the time.

Just like in the second game, you can go to the ThiefNet computer to buy gadgets and abilities. Right now, you can only buy the Alarm Clock (which is now one of Bentley's abilities and not Sly's) and the Smoke Bomb (which returns from the second game and does what it did then). You'll need money to buy the abilities, and you'll need to break stuff, defeat enemies and even steal from enemies when they least expect it to get that money. This will be harder to do than it was in the second game, as the big ticket items on the podium are now gone, making it harder to get more expensive gadgets and abilities later in the game.

From here, I spend the video looking for 400 coins. By going up to enemies from behind and pressing Circle, you can steal from enemies and steal coins and even slightly more expensive treasures from enemies' pockets such as jewels, rings and gems. If you get anything that is worth plenty of coins, it will automatically be tabulated into your coin total; you no longer have to go to the safe house to sell it on.

The guys with the masks will throw dynamite at you, while the pigeons will also try to attack you with projectiles. Be quiet and be careful near enemies; if you run into them or make noise near them, you will get their attention. If your health

There are also traps you can activate by pressing Circle at certain mechanisms. Here, you can press a button near a boot that is suspended high up in the air and drop it on enemies.

You can still knock enemies into the air from behind with Sly with the Triangle button and then slam them down with Square, but you must be in combat mode to do it. Also, this attack attracts nearby enemies, so be careful.

Unlike the first two games, the clue bottles are gone, which means that all abilities will have to be purchased through ThiefNet. That means that unlike what I say late in the video, the vaults from the second game that contained the really good abilities are also gone in the third.

The Smoke Bomb allows sly to distract any enemies charging at him for a few seconds, making it easier to get away from crowds of enemies or to deter any unwanted attention. When you have an ability equipped, there will be a yellow gauge at the bottom of the health bar. This is you special energy meters, and while some abilities do not consume this energy, others will. Thankfully, by grabbing health pick-ups, you will also refill this meter as well.

Controls:

D-Pad/left analog stick: Move
X: jump/double jump
Square: attack
Circle: use to interact with blue sparkles, steal from enemies (from behind; with Sly)
Triangle: charge up cane, knock enemies into the air (from behind; with Sly, use Square afterwards to slam enemy down)

Select: access Gadget Grid
  • D-Pad/Left analog stick: select gadget/ability
  • L1, L2, and R2 buttons: assign gadget to button pressed; gadget can then be used with that button

Start: Pause/unpause
  • D-Pad/left analog stick: choose options
  • X: confirm choice
  • Triangle: back out of choice

L3: bring up waypoint

R1: run (hold down)

Right analog stick: move camera

No comments:

Post a Comment