Marvel’s Spider-Man Revisited + “The Heist” DLC Review

I guess it really is the city that never sleeps…

Jake Pelusi
Orange and Juicy

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Reflecting On The Original Game:

(Skip to next heading if only interested in the DLC review)

If you have been following these articles then you may be aware that way back in my very first Joocey Rant I reviewed Spider-Man’s latest video game incarnation, made by the very capable Insomiac Games.

If you haven’t read that article and are curious you can find it here.

If you are familiar with it, however, you may remember me explaining how I thought this game delivered very well on its main story campaign but failed to offer much else in the way of side content and replay-ability.

I explained in that article that this isn’t inherently a bad thing, as it worked quite well by serving as a sort of “movie-video-game” that is entertaining but only offers a few hours worth of content (similar to a movie).

While other games may offer a quantity of content closer to that of a TV series, it’s hard to compare movies and TV shows together because they are different products entirely. Similarly, I find it difficult to compare this game to other games that have more content, as they strive to offer very different experiences.

When making a game, you have a finite amount of resources to spend on developing the game. In Insomiac’s case, it seems like they decided to focus on creating a condensed amount of content that is made thoroughly and to a high-standard.

However, because the game had so many bugs and glitches, it makes you wonder just how thorough they were. For this reason I’ve brought down the game’s Joocey Score from its initial 90% to a more reasonable 80%, as I was originally focusing too much on the experience of the game while paying too little to the technical quality of the game.

Sure, the game was a delight to play, but if you’re going to make a short game with a Triple-A budget then it’d better be extremely polished and well-made.

While it was a 9/10 game in terms of fun, it’s unfair to rate it so highly when so many bugs were present, as this amount of unpolished content shouldn’t be encouraged.

Games that are far more polished may lack the remaining resources to offer flashy visuals, so while Insomiac have has delivered on flashy visuals that immensely enhance the player experience, they have failed to deliver a game that lacks the very fundamental standard of smooth gameplay. And so, for this reason I think this game’s rating should be penalized, because unfortunately, yes, the game should have been far more polished than it was.

HOWEVER:

Here’s where “The City That Never Sleeps” three part DLC bonus campaign comes into play.

The reason I’m being hard on the game’s glitches is because of how little content there is overall. So now that the game is offering more content, perhaps the prominence of bugs could be further overlooked and accepted (granted that more glitches aren’t spilt into the game from these updates).

Now that we’ve gotten our hands on the first of this three part DLC series, let’s discuss how well of addition this is to the game as a whole, as well as whether or not it’s worth buying.

Let’s talk “The Heist”.

The City That Never Sleeps Part 1: “The Heist” DLC Review

Overview

In this new mini-campaign, we find Spidey and MJ looking into a series of gang movements prompted by the mysterious and nefarious Felicia Hardy, otherwise known as the elusive “Black Cat”.

In terms of gameplay, we see more of the same that was offered in the original game, however, the delivery of this content has changed to keep the game feeling fresh whilst not staggering away from what made the game fun in the first place.

There are a few new gameplay elements implemented into this new campaign, such as grunts wielding new weapons, so the gameplay isn’t completely recycled, but a good amount is.

Overall, while the content itself isn’t very fresh, the way its delivered makes it feel fresh. Moreover, it’s also not the duty of DLC to shake up the game too dramatically, it’s job is to introduce more of what players enjoyed in the initial game. So in this aspect, the first Spider-Man PS4 DLC most definitely hits its mark.

Quantity/Quality of Additional Content vs. Price Tag

The amount of story was actually larger than what I was expecting, considering this DLC alone only costs $9.99 USD ($11.95 AUD), and the entire three-part DLC (yet to be released) costs a mere $24.99 USD ($29.95 AUD).

Moreover, the quality of gameplay has also exceeded my expectations, as the prevalence of glitches and bugs seems extensively scarce compared to the original game we saw back in September.

It seems Insomiac have been making quite an effort to patch up the areas of the game I initially criticised, so It’s becoming harder and harder to complain about really anything in this game.

It doesn’t make it impossible, however. At times I found that the story was quite predictable, and was even kind of cliche on the odd occasion. Like I mentioned before, all the bonus objectives are just reskins of the objectives from the original game, which did begin to feel stale by the end of my playthrough. The campaign missions delivered on a satisfactory experience, but nothing more.

Three new Spidey suits were also included, which I believe is a relatively generous number. I don’t think they’re amazing, but I don’t think most of the suits already in the game were either.

However, the price is quite low so we really shouldn’t be expecting anything too amazing. The standard of the new content matches its price tag, after all.

To summarise, the quantity of the story is commendable, and the quality is at the very least above mediocrity. Thus, the standard of this additional content is most deserving of its price tag in my opinion.

New Game+

FINALLY! Insomniac have added a NG+ feature into Spider-Man. Without it, there really isn’t any reason for a player to continue playing a game past the first time the credits roll.

While this was overdue, the developers were likely busy working on other more important things so we can’t be too harsh for its delayed inclusion. Instead, let’s just focus on the fact that it’s here now.

Insomniac rarely disappoint, and this rings true with this DLC also. I hope that the next two parts of “The City That Never Sleeps” are just as good as the first, because overall it was a blast.

Keep it up, Spidey.

Marvel’s Spider-Man — Joocey Score: 80%

“The Heist” DLC — Joocey Score: 90%

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Jake Pelusi
Orange and Juicy

Welcome to my modest corner of the Internet. I’m just a nerd who’s a little too passionate when it comes to talking about video games. Enjoy your stay!