The Sly Trilogy review (PS3) ★★★★

In the first of the three games, you become acquainted with the devious Cooper Gang, lead by the raccoon king of mischief himself, Sly Cooper. With his teammates always close by – a techie turtle named Bentley (the brains) and bumbling pink hippo Murray (the brawn) – our band of law-breaking heroes cross the globe in search of the Thievius Raccoonus, a book that has been passed down through Sly's lineage of master thieves which reveals the secrets of the family business. But the contents of the book are in jeopardy as it has been stolen by the Fiendish Five, a group of evildoers headed by Clockwerk, a robotic owl of awesome power, and so it is up to the Cooper Gang to defeat each member of the Fiendish Five in order to discover the location of Clockwerk and the book. Oh, and you've got a cop by the name of Carmelita Fox who's hot on your tail, too. And quite possibly hot for Mr. Cooper.

It's a pretty simple and straightforward game, mostly devoid of any challenge, as you take control of Sly and steal your way around a number of worlds, battling to the boss of each in search of clues to point you in Clockwerk's direction. Wielding a cane to assist climbing and swinging, as well as for combat – one hit and you're dead (the same goes for your enemies) – you must play a sort of backward game of hide and seek, where Sly does both. It's very much a game where the obstacles in your way can be conquered by actions performed with precise timing. That and a bit of luck as you inadvertently slip into the torchlight of an enemy and subsequently bash the attack button in agitated fury.

The second chapter in the trilogy shakes things up, taking the original's style of gameplay and, in some instances, turning it on its head. No longer must you always play as Sly and only hear of Bentley and Murray over your communications device when they conveniently chime in to offer assistance on how to progress through the levels. Now you can take control of them, too. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses and are all unique to each other, so each mission is catered specifically to the abilities of the Cooper Gang as a whole, rather than solely its bushy-tailed leader. You'll be less than subtle as Murray, but at least you'll be able to defend his pink hide by utilising his trusty, incredibly powerful fists. The same applies for Bentley, except he's got grenades and a sleeper dart-firing crossbow at his disposal.

The story of Sly 2 again features Clockwerk right smack dab in the middle of it. After his defeat at the end of the first game (come on, it was inevitable, so no moaning about spoilers, okay?), the mech-owl's armour was secured in an Egyptian museum, but the Cooper Gang soon make the discovery that all the parts are missing and have been stolen by an elite gaggle of gold-gluttons: the Klaww Gang, this time made up of somewhat sympathetic villains who have all been wronged somehow earlier in their lives. Travelling with haste, nicked Clockwerk parts and all, the criminals each make a different part of the world their homes. But of course, if Clockwerk was to be put back together again, bad things would happen to say the very least, and so it is up to Sly and co to put a stop to the master plan and steal back the armour.

The most dramatic new feature to the sequel is that each game area is now accessible to you open world style. As you arrive at a location, be it Prague, Canada or wherever, you have a small base of operations where you're able to select who you wish to play as, as well as connect to the ThiefNet computer, which allows you to spend the gold coins that you collect or pickpocket to buy upgrades for the three characters, such as guard-distracting alarm clocks, flaming fists and even a paraglider. Outside of the safehouse, you can go and explore, kill guards, fill your purse or, of course, begin missions or 'Jobs' as they're now known. While it's fun to have a look around your new surroundings when you've just entered a world, over the course of a few jobs you'll have already come across every nook and cranny of the area, which isn't exactly huge, so don't expect a map remotely like you'd find in a Bethesda or Rockstar-published game. Really.

The collection's third and final instalment, Sly 3: Honour Among Thieves, sees the Cooper Gang going on their most epic adventure yet. The third-person platformer gameplay of the previous releases is taken to new heights – quite literally – with aerial dogfights and immense duels at sea aboard pirate ships. Sneaking and general thief-related antics have also been stepped up with the ability to crack safes, engage in interactive conversations, search for hidden details in paintings and fool your foes with disguises and bad accents.

Divided into six episodes, the events of Sly 3, which take place a year after those of the first sequel, see you take control of the Cooper Gang's past on their long, perilous journey to the mysterious Kaine Island, where the Cooper Vault is situated. Stuffed full with the collective wealth of generations upon generations of Sly's family (we're talking thousands of years here), the roguish raccoon, armed with the key that it his cane, intends on collecting his inheritance. But it's not that easy. Is it ever? Kaine Island also happens to be inhabited by the villainous mastermind Dr. M, his loyal army of thugs and not least of all a huge, slimy, monstrous creature. Said beast has Sly locked in its almighty grasp just a couple of minutes into the game and, as his life flashes before him, we begin recounting the adventure that lead the clan of thieves to the vault, which then opens up the game in a somewhat more official capacity and in the mission style of Sly 2.

We meet colourful characters from previous games, even touching on replaying a boss level from the first in an interesting storyline twist, and are able to play as a number of folks other than the usual suspects, such as, at last some may find, Carmelita Fox (even if her accent does mysteriously change from game to game). It's certainly the most varied chapter in the collection and a fitting way to cap off the trilogy.