Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4): The Heist DLC Review

Last week Insomniac Games released the first part of three planned DLCs to the wildly successful Marvel’s Spider-Man. The Heist DLC makes good on the promise from the campaign mode that Black Cat would return to wreak havoc on the life of everyone’s favorite wall crawler.

The Heist DLC includes new events scattered around Manhattan. These have just few elements though, like Screwball Challenges as well as art stolen and hidden around the city by the original Black Cat, Walter Hardy. There is also a new enemy type introduced in bits of the campaign, the Minigun Brute.

The story picks up after the events of the main campaign, as the Maggia crime families tries to reclaim territory now that the Kingpin is behind bars. Hammerhead is making a big play, trying to drain all of the money from off shore accounts using hidden USB drives. These are hidden in the weirdest places, like in the frames of painting. Enter the Black Cat.

Felicia Hardy and Spider-Man have always had a complicated relationship, and thankfully Insomniac takes great care in making sure that translates well. She is deceptive, attractive, and throws a wrench into Spider-Man’s plans as both a hero and as a regular guy. The main crux of the story is based on Black Cat dropping a bomb on Spider-Man’s world: She has a son. Then, everything is thrown into chaos. The Maggia gets stronger and Spider-Man starts to doubt himself, questioning if he should continue life as a hero if he is in fact a father.The missions play out in a predictable nature, continuing the great gameplay from the main game with a couple new additions. The Screwball Challenges add a fun little Photobomb mini-objective, forcing you to do races and combat takedowns in a special zone for extra flair. One thing that is kind of a bummer is that while you are doing these awesome cheesy photobomb moments, the pictures don’t get automatically saved to your hard drive, reducing what could have been a cool feature into simple style points.

There is one blemish on the The Heist though, the new enemy type, the Minigun Brute. While the new enemy type is welcome, and gives the DLC its own unique flavor, the enemy is a little overtuned in damage and a little slow in the AI department. The last fight before the closing cut scenes has you facing multiple Minigun Brutes, but I beat them simply by waiting around the corner until I could recover full health and take them on with full confidence. Never once did they give me chase. This little glitch really took me out of the game and made the last fight more of a frustration rather than an accomplishment.

Finally there are three new suits for Spider-Man to wear. First off there is a brand new suit designed specifically for the game (middle) that unlocks as soon as you complete the first mission. Once you complete all of the extra content scattered around Manhattan you get Kaine Parker’s Scarlet Spider II suit (left), and then once you finish the final story mission you can swing through New York as Spider-UK (right) from the 2014 comic event Spider-Verse. None of the suits come with suit powers, and are simply for looks.

This is the first of 3 planned DLC’s, with the next one coming out in November titled Turf Wars. Given how this mini-campaign ends, expect it to pit the Web Head against Hammerhead. The December addition is titled Silver Lining.

Verdict: Play it!

If you’re itching for more of the same with extra bits of flair, The Heist DLC is solid post-game content for one of 2018’s greatest games. It tries some new things, and the story additions are great and evoke a classic Spider-Man story. I look forward to more.