Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Years after the previous entry, the raccoon thief Sly Cooper returns in a story where pages of the family chronicle Thievius Raccoonus mysteriously vanish from history, forcing him, along with partners Bentley and Murray, to travel through time across eras from feudal Japan through the Wild West to medieval England, in order to save his ancestors and their legendary tricks. Sanzaru Games, which had previously worked on HD remasters of the earlier entries, took over development from Sucker Punch and preserved the tried-and-true blend of platforming stealth, acrobatic thievery, and puzzle sequences.

The core of the gameplay remains silently moving along ledges, ropes, and lamps, collecting treasures in heavily guarded mansions, and preparing heists divided among the members of the gang, where each contributes their own specialty: Sly with agility, the technically minded Bentley with hacking and traps, and the hulking Murray with brute strength. New to this entry are playable ancestors, each with their own unique abilities in every time period, and a set of disguises that temporarily grant Sly new moves and open up otherwise inaccessible paths. The comic-panel visual style with bold outlines, the playful family-friendly tone, and the brisk humor all remain faithful to the previous entries, while the time-travel premise brings a refreshing variety of settings and gameplay mechanics.

Critics praised the nostalgic return of a beloved series and the creative use of historical periods, although the game arrived quite late in the PS3's life alongside the emerging PS4, and some reviewers felt it repeated the formula rather than advancing it. The return of the original voice cast and Sucker Punch's oversight of the script ensured that, despite the change of development studio, the game stayed true to the spirit of the previous three entries. Thieves in Time became, for the time being, the series' final installment and a fitting farewell to the trio of thieves fans had known since PlayStation 2.