Spider-Man PS4 is still a top contender for my Game of the Year 2018, it was as close to a perfect Super hero game as you could possibly want on console raising the bar even higher than the Arkham series and providing a new platform for MARVEL on PlayStation. It was and still is a must have game in your collection especially if you are a fan of Insomniac’s take on our favourite neighbourhood Spider-Man. At launch it was revealed that new content in the form of ‘The City That Never Sleeps’ expansion pass would release three new stories for the game in October, November and December giving an additional three months of gameplay for the game, and first on the list is The Heist, which will introduce Black Cat to players but an uncomfortable reunion for Peter Parker!
I had high expectations going into The Heist, more of an excellent game is always a good thing and I am also a big fan of the MARVEL world and Spidey-verse that Insomniac Games have created so getting to see them take on even more popular characters from Spider-Man comics is something I have been looking forward too from the very moment my Platinum trophy popped with only 1.83% of players having at the time. I wanted more story, more gameplay and more fun with this DLC and for the most part, I got what I wanted but was also a little disappointed by some aspects to it.
The story takes place post the end of the main campaign but cleverly and no doubt to avoid possible spoilers, it does not reference any of the events of the main story during The Heist. It opens with Mary Jane explaining that mobsters controlled by the crime boss Hammerhead who is attempting to gain back control of the crime in the city following the fall of Wilson ‘Kingpin’ Fisk. As Spidey is patrolling the city, Mary Jane makes him aware that the city’s Museum is being broken into by Hammerhead’s goons and promptly swings over to find out what is happening and after preventing the initial break in attempt, he investigates to make sure everything is secure but discovers someone has cut a way through the upper window to the building and taking out the security. Spidey then checks out the security cameras and discovers one painting in particular seems to be the focus of the break in, and discovers Black Cat has used the break in attempt and Spider-Man’s efforts to sneak into the Museum.
Spidey is taken back by surprise to find Felicity Hardy, Black Cat, back in his City and some serious flirtation from Black Cat gives the player more then just a little hint that they shared more then just a friendship some time ago. This is hinted at throughout the DLC and cleverly puts Peter in a difficult position because of his current relationship with Mary Jane after they got back together at the end to the main game. Not only does the flirting put Peter on the back foot but he also has to deal with the fact that Black Cat has seemingly returned to her old criminal ways after he believed she had left that life behind. Learning from Black Cat that she is being forced to work for Hammerhead to collect USB storage keys from the other mob families and Spidey and Mary Jane are investigating why Hammerhead wants these keys and what is on them.
Essentially this is a rather short story which the main narrative can be easily finished in around 90 minutes or less but like the main game, the story comes with some side activities to complete alongside it if you choose or after its completion as the player wishes. These range from stopping crimes being committed by mobsters all over the city to helping a close to retiring cop close a long standing case of his by recovering stolen art from the original Black Cat, and Felicity’s father, Walter Hardy which are also hidden around the city but this does have a nice story to it despite it being rather obvious if you are a fan of the Spidey-verse, but it makes it more fun then just being another swinging around grabbing collectibles task.
New Challenges present themselves in the form of Screwball, the reality show obsessed character who Spider thought he had dealt with in the main story but is somehow back and once again putting the innocent public and Spider in danger and LIVE streaming Spider-Man doing his hero thing with his performance, and that of the player, being scored with challenge tokens awarded for top scores.
A lot of this did just feel like filler to what is a rather short DLC story which became more of a disappointment when at the end it had the dreaded “To be continued” black screen revealing for the first time that instead of being three stand alone stories for fans, they are in fact parts of one story, and fans will have to wait and purchase the second DLC, Turf Wars, in November to carry on the story so owning the pass for the content is most advised rather than buying individually. You do get three new Spider-Suits with the first for completing the opening mission, the Spider-Man UK suit for completing the main story and the fan favourite Scarlett Spider suit for clearing all objectives in the city for the DLC. But as fun as it was to return to the game and continue being Spidey, it was just too short and now having to wait possibly another month in order to now continue this story feels a tad meh if honest.
I did have some issues with the flow of the DLC as well, there are some fun moments where Miles Morales calls Peter to have a chat about getting Peter to start training him after we learned that he has also been given Spider powers following events in the main story and I really liked this interaction with Peter trying to encourage Miles to just focus on school instead of being a crime fighter at 15 years of age, using his own experience to try and spare Miles from the danger his hero life can have on him and others around him but it is hinted that Peter’s reluctance is ending so can only hope the future DLC plans will include some Miles Morales spider-action, especially with the ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse’ animated film coming out this Christmas.
My problem is that the times at which Miles will phone Peter can be interrupted by say being alerted to a crime or in a couple of instances, his audio would come in during another call when completing the stolen artwork side mission. It just felt messy with so many things all being triggered at the same time. Some of the Screwball challenges as well ended up leaving me feeling clumsy with the finickiest requirements for some of the challenges with one being a copy of the chase the drone challenge from the main game, being far more annoying then actually being fun. For the completionists out there, in order to obtain all the trophies for this DLC you will need to get the gold performance score in each of her challenges which is perhaps something I may not rush to do as I really did not enjoy this part of the DLC.
Overall ‘The Heist’ serves as a nice taste test for what ‘The City that Never Sleeps’ DLC will provide all together, but I do hope the next chapter in Turf Wars has a much richer and longer story campaign to complete as I pretty much did everything bar the Screwball gold challenges in just under two and half hours. But the story is the strength of this DLC and seeing Peter reuniting with Felicity and seeing how it impacts on his life with Mary Jane was satisfying if short. There is even a “not sure why they bothered but there you go” side mission where you control MJ in her sneaky stealth style which adds to the story but little else.
It is definitely worth having ‘The City That Never Sleeps’ pass giving players more to do, but to wait a month to continue the story after just an hour of its length in this first DLC is disappointing but thankfully the addition of New Game Plus mode with the last update will give me something to enjoy until the next DLC lands.
