Marvel's Spider-Man DLC: The Heist
Final Score: 3 / 5
The PS4 exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man has been out for almost 2 months at this point and we’ve already gotten the first of the three-part DLC series called The City That Never Sleeps. This portion of the DLC is entitled The Heist. The add-on adds several new missions, suits (but no new suit powers), and city activities/collectibles to the mix. Whether or not someone would enjoy the DLC is based entirely on whether they enjoyed the main game; if you liked the feel and play-style of the main game then you’ll love the DLC because it’s basically just more of the same.
(And if you haven’t checked out the review of the main game yet you can check it out here)
The Heist sees the return of Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat, to New York after retrieving her gear from NYPD lock-up in the main story. The player first meets her stealing something from the New York MMoCA. From this point Spider-Man and Black Cat continuously run into one another at various places in New York as she continues her crime spree. Mary Jane and Peter begin investigating why she’s stealing these specific items which eventually leads to the discovery that the crime boss Hammerhead is coercing Black Cat into committing the crimes for him. I’ll avoid any further spoilers at this point but there is some great dialogue throughout the main DLC campaign and it’s fun to see how Peter reacts to being thrust into the mentorship role with Miles.
DLCs for the most part serve one of two purposes: either they continue the main story with a few extra missions and maybe some new gameplay mechanics or they take the main mechanics of the game and put them in an entirely new setting or story (like what the Far Cry series does). The Heist sort of does the former. The DLC feels exactly like the main game, which isn’t a bad thing, but they don’t really add anything new to the experience. There’s some new collectibles in some of the districts as well as some new side challenge activities but that’s about it.
Let’s quickly talk about those challenge activities. These are similar to the Taskmaster challenges in the main game except that these are curated by Screwball who was introduced in a side mission of the main game. The task types are a race to destroy EMP generators, a run-of-the-mill beat ‘em up, and what’s called a ‘Gadget Challenge.’ This one I found particularly interesting because you have to defeat all the enemies within a set time limit but you can only defeat them using gadgets. The catch is that you are limited to two gadgets. You have practically unlimited gadgets so running out isn’t an issue. The two gadgets allowed for this activity were the Suspension Matrix and the Trip Mine. This is a combination I never really thought to use in regular combat and that’s what’s interesting about this activity. It forces the player to experience a different combat style and I really hope they continue these activities in future DLCs.
Honestly there’s really not much more to say about The Heist. Overall the first DLC was enjoyable. It got me back into the world of Spider-Man which is always a good thing. I would like to see the future DLCs shake things up a bit though. This felt a little too much like the main game, again not a bad thing, and like they could’ve done something a little different. Seeing as the DLCs are being released one month after another not long after the main game was released though, I’m thinking the remaining DLCs are going to basically be more or less the same. I’d love to be proven wrong but only time will tell.