Nowhere near as good as 2 and 3, but still a pretty good game. The first Sly game doesn't quite feel like it has a personality of its own yet. It's like the Uncharted 1 of the Sly series; it takes a big leap in the second game. You can also tell it's heavily inspired by Crash Bandicoot. The one hit kill system can be very annoying, some of the movement doesn't work as well as in later games, and the gang's banter is almost nonexistent and very thinly written compared to in 2 and 3. The whole thing about doing side missions, then one grand heist doesn't exist in this game either. You just go through levels to get keys, then a boss fight at the end of each area. It feels very gamey and inorganic. You also don't play as Murray and Bentley like in the later games. There's some driving with Murray and a single hacking mini game with Bentley, but these are just annoying. They get missions of their own in the sequels and these are usually very fun and varied. This whole game is pretty much just Sly gameplay, which is fun, but it is a lot of the same stuff.

Stuff like the music and artstyle are great though. It's a very stylised game, and I have always loved that about the Sly series. Definitely a fun game to play through, although it hasn't aged as well as 2 and 3.