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

The amazing Marvel’s Spider-Man game released its first batch of DLC with The Heist, part of a three-part series called The City that Never Sleeps. The DLC series will take Web Head deeper into the mob organizations within the city. Getting…

The amazing Marvel’s Spider-Man game released its first batch of DLC with The Heist, part of a three-part series called The City that Never Sleeps. The DLC series will take Web Head deeper into the mob organizations within the city. Getting things started? Peter’s dangerous ex-flame: Black Cat.

What’s It About

Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, made her presence felt in the main storyline through hidden cat icons, but she makes her full debut in The Heist. She’s stolen her suit out of police lockup and has gotten mixed up with the Maggia, led by longtime Spider-Man villain Hammerhead. The DLC picks up in the middle of the heist and features several battles and side missions that definitely help set up a larger storyline for the mob world.

There’s enough story to be had here, especially if you are able to complete some of the side missions. It adds a good level of drama with the relationship dynamics it strains when Mary Jane finds out Felicia is back on the scene. However, as it’s so centered on Black Cat, you won’t know too much about anything else other than they are mobsters and they’ll be really mad at Black Cat if she keeps stealing from them. When The Heist goes anywhere beyond its intimate elements, it starts to get a little weaker and a little too simple.

Why Should I Care?

Black Cat is a good addition to Spider-Man’s life. It shows a slightly dumber side of Peter that gets easily tripped up with handling this complicated element in his life. That makes things a little different and a little more challenging for him, which was a nice separation from the main story. The tension created between him and Mary Jane is believable and well written. Perhaps the only weak element of the Black Cat/Spider-Man dynamic was just how easily she was able to give him the slip a few times throughout the DLC. She also seemed to be overpowering him just a bit too easily.

The Heist will also bring new faction crimes and challenges along with the content. It’s pretty familiar, if not either much easier or much harder in scope. For Maggia crimes, one option is to find bombs hidden under cars or trash cans using the spider-drone, which doesn’t provide much of a challenge (I enjoyed it, though). On the other hand, I found the new Screwball challenges to be excessively difficult to a majorly annoying degree. I tried several of the challenges before just giving up. One particular side mission does provide some further background into the main storyline, which I enjoyed.

What I enjoyed the most, though, was the stealth aspect to most of the battles. Many have to be dealt with quietly and it gives you ample chance to sneak around. I’ll admit a bit of main game bias, as that was my typical approach to most missions where possible (especially hideouts). One mission in The Heist lets you issue attacks for Black Cat to act upon. It works well for the most part, but kind of falters with the UI. I could use my spider-sense to determine whether enemies were safe to attack, but if the Black Cat icon popped up to use the attack, it would hide the safe/dangerous tag. I ended up taking care of a few more myself but had to take chances on others (luckily, I never blew it). The DLC won’t be all stealth, though. One of the earliest missions threw a ton of rocket launchers into the mix, which was a nice challenge, but also had me focusing on attacking specific enemies within certain time limits while still knocking back the larger group. It was a nice change though. One of the harder elements is a new heavy enemy that carries a massive machine gun. So while the game is happy to have you sneak around, it’s almost just as happy to smack you in the face with a rocket.

And for kicks, you’ll get access to a few new suits: the Resilient Suit, Spider-UK, and Scarlet Spider II. The suits are nice, but I never bothered to change from my favorite suit of the game (Stealth).

What Makes It Worth My Time and Money?

The entry into the mob world definitely seems like it’s going to ground Spider-Man that much more. Ultimately, it was a pretty nice change of pace from having to fight an incredibly superpowered individual (or at least some dope in a giant Rhino costume). Black Cat offers a nice antihero dynamic that proves to be as engaging as she should be. The DLC can falter a bit by creating an almost too-intimate setting around Black Cat, which doesn’t allow it to really expand the world, and some of the side missions can be repetitive or excessively difficult. But overall, Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist is a solid pickup that seems like it will pick up on a great foot heading into Part 2, Turf Wars, due out November 20, 2018.