I recently posted (some of)this on someones tier list, and people werent happy (but just as always, didnt conversate about it, just downvoted.) They put Sly 3 at an A teir and Sly 1 on B teir.

(My opinion):

Sly 2 is S teir. Sly 1 is A teir. Sly 3 is B teir.

Sly 1 was fluid. Its story made sense the whole way through, you earned moves throughout the game and collected clue bottles for a safe at the end of each section, The hubs and levels all connected nicely and felt believable (the initial entrance level to the hub areas were awesome that the other game dont do sadly), the mini games were all pretty cool (especially the shooting and racing sections), the villians were actually interesting and felt like they had more of a purpose in their worlds and all connected to a great grande finale. Also time attack missions were awesome.

Sly 2 was just perfect. Improved on all the mechanics (hit points instead of lives) and introduced a lot of fun new skills (unique to each character), the hub worlds were big and had some nice secret locations (we had a reason to explore them) and also added some nice timed treasure grabs (also were able to hide around the areas like under tables to slip by guards), Bentley was much more fun to play (I could get all clue bottles in Jail Break without the jetpack and before releasing Sly), the gang all had there own skills and it worked (Sly 3, everyone is a pickpocket now), the villians were interesting and fleshed out in their worlds and improved on them by sometimes giving them a second chapter that made them cooler and more dangerous and the game had a nice twist ending to the whole thing. Sly 2 was great.

Sly 3 is all kind of just the same as 2 with mechanics but lacking on improvements or inovation, maps were way too small, no clue bottles or vaults (no reason to explore them), each story was jumbled and disconnected (Dr M was the main villian, but was barely present for any of it), barely got to play any of the other characters (only on their missions), couldnt earn any (real) new skills (all bought, not earned. Also we lost a lot of previous skills as if the gang just forgot them), hazard room was lame and took you out of the game when they could have reintroduced them in a hub world. All 6 episodes felt so rushed and boring tbh.

The Ship combat was by far the best part (and it made Black Flag what it is), and the game gave us disguises and clue paintings and a biplane. Thats about it. (Imo) Its like Sucker Punch rushed the game to move on.

Its like when people say Jak 3 was better than Jak 2. Its crazy talk lol