DLC Review: Spider-Man – The Heist is a wonderful companion piece

Marvel’s Spider-Man is easily in my top 5, probably top 3 games of 2018. It’s fun, wholesome, and executed masterfully. When I was given access to this DLC, I was already deep in the review process of Red Dead Redemption 2 and was on a major time crunch so the DLC sat there taunting me.

When I finally booted it up after I finished Red Dead Redemption 2, it was a breath of fresh air. After being grounded for over a week in the dark, relentless, dirty Wild West, leaping from building to building, going high to low, bouncing between enemies was the most freeing feeling. The ability to return to New York City as the web-slinger and continue the story with The Heist DLC is truly wonderful.

The Heist is part one of an interconnected three-part DLC saga known as The City That Never Sleeps. You’ll be introduced to new characters, villains, and even continue the story of the main game. While some DLCs like to remain ambiguous in a story’s timeline, this set of DLC serves more as an epilogue or expansion to the main story. So if you haven’t finished the campaign, you shouldn’t play this and you may want to click off this review as well because there will be spoilers for the main story of Marvel’s Spider-Man.

With The Heist, we finally get to meet Black Cat in person after being strung along in a series of side missions. We find her in the midst of an art heist which sees her in the deep end with NYC’s various crime organizations. The optimist that is Peter Parker seeks to find out why the white-haired cat burglar has resorted back to using her old prowess as a criminal and potentially get her out of the bind that she’s in.

As you play, you learn more about the complex relationship between Peter and Felicia Hardy – both in the past and present – and how that causes some massive headaches for the webhead. Black Cat is incredibly well-done here, while she’s still the seductive Spidey mistress, she has depth to her. Everything she’s doing is with a purpose and not for the thrills.

Without going to deep into the story, this isn’t just the C-team of Insomniac working on some missions so they can make some cash on the side as the A-team fleshes out a sequel.

While there are new relationships to develop and revelations to discover, The Heist also takes some time to harken back to some of the bombshells from the main game. We get some new conversations with Miles about his newly found powers and his direct line to Spider-Man, some more of that one-of-a-kind chemistry between MJ and Peter, and so on. It feels deep-rooted in that continuity and doesn’t make it feel like we’re really going to be left hanging for 3 – 5 years to see the continuation of this story.

Sure, we’re probably not going to get anything regarding the stuff with Harry and Norman Osborn but it’s nice to see the bond between Peter and Miles continue to build. Peter’s now in this unique position where he must find a way to mentor this kid who’s as old as he was when he became Spider-Man, does he allow him to risk his life as he did or does he keep the kid grounded for the sake of his own safety? It’s a great little plot thread that I’ll be interested to continue following as the rest of the DLCs release.

The Heist also has this really great vibe of feeling like the new monthly comic-book issue of Spider-Man. It’s not some massive city-wide crisis, it’s a character-focused piece where we get some of that trademarked Spidey wit, some cool action, and development on all the characters. We need those stories just as much as we need the big-budget epics with high-stakes, emotionally rich drama, and grand spectacle.

The missions are scaled back a bit so you won’t exactly have those epic boss battles from the main game but there are still some cool sequences such as a thrilling chase from the bowels and rooftops of the Big Apple. There’s no new mechanics introduced here, it’s just playing off what was already built in the main game but given how well-made those systems are, there’s nothing wrong with that.

We’ve got the crowd-control brawls, some Spidey stealth missions, and the return of the less than favorable MJ sections. Granted, it’s limited here but I’d be totally fine with not having to play as MJ in any of the future DLC.

There’s some new side content to also delve into should you so desire, though you can largely ignore it if you want. It’s not any narrative heavy side quests or anything, it’s mostly a substitute for the Taskmaster challenges in the base game. This time, you’re doing stuff for the social-media crazed baddie that is Screwball.

She has you doing various combat challenges that have you really hone your skills as a competent fighter as she puts different restrictions on you. It’s a nice distraction and if you’re really hungry for more Spider-Man gameplay, this may scratch an itch but you also won’t be missing out on anything too extensive should you bypass it altogether.

I do personally hope to see some gameplay innovation in at least one of the upcoming DLCs, it would be nice to see a new gadget or mechanic introduced as to keep things feeling super fresh but for right now, the core gameplay is still as engaging as ever.

My fundamental issue with The Heist is the game’s incessant need to constantly pause the game before and after every single mission to change the day/night cycle. Instead of just keeping it at night or organically changing the time, you’re stopped just as you’re about to swing out into the city or enter a new event in the story.

Sit there, wait about a minute for the game to load into nighttime, potentially have the game glitch and begin playing an unloaded cutscene before it’s done loading, and then start the mission. Once you’re done with a mission, you’re given a brief second to begin your swing and then are abruptly cut off as the game reverts back to daytime. It’s the most mind-boggling thing, it totally disrupts the flow of both the story and gameplay.

The Verdict:

If you’re looking for new Spider-Man content, this will definitely meet your standards despite it being part one of a three-part saga. It leaves you hanging as things get particularly interesting so this may be best experienced when all the DLCs are out by the end of 2018 but if you don’t mind waiting a couple weeks, The Heist is a satisfying epilogue to the main story of Marvel’s Spider-Man even with one annoying technical flaw.