Marvel's Spider-Man: Silver Lining

So this is the final DLC for Marvel's Spider Man, and to be honest, it's the best of the 3. It actually has some fun moments and isn't as empty or bland as the other 2. I actually had fun and it actually has a real boss fight, and we get some closure in terms of characters and story, although it does leave a few things open, I guess for the inevitable sequel that will come in a few years down the road. Of course I can't in good faith give this a good review because it still is way too short and it does rush a few things.

So in terms of story we find out what happened to Black Cat after a while episode without her and get some closure with her character, but she still comes off as very underdeveloped and I would have liked to see more explored with her and her past with Peter Parker, maybe even have a flashback or two, but we get a kind of weak sendoff to her. Then we get Sable teaming up with Spider-Man and sort of coming off as an anti hero, and I guess there just wasn't enough time to get her to develop, but she probably gets the most justice in this DLC, but this DLC is based around her after all. MJ and Peter's romance somewhat gets closure with Peter even hinting MJ would be the girl he would settle down with or have kids, but we don't really get a scene with them going out or interacting, its all phone calls, which is a shame because they could have further solidified their relationship and hell maybe even had Peter propose to her or something, but instead we get nothing and MJ remains one of the most underdeveloped and bland characters of this whole franchise, which is a shame because she is a great character in the comics, but in this it almost has me rooting for Black Cat and wishing Peter would dump MJ for her. Then Miles we finally get the closure we wanted, with the DLC ending with Parker teaching Miles how to web swing and training him to be a second Spider-Man. I mean I would have liked to have gotten more and it would have been cool to play a mission with Miles fighting with you, but I guess this is at least something. Then with Yuri it's hinted she's going to turn vigilante and become a villain like in the comics, but all we really get is a phone call with Yuri in this where she goes a little psycho. The whole Hammer Head plot was kind of lame, especially the whole Frankenstein reference and him being a beefed up generic bad guy, but at least they wasted him on a DLC instead of making him a major role in the main game.

This DLC is also super short, the main story is maybe about an hour and a half tops, and with side content about 3 hours. The side content brings back the annoying Screwball challenges, and then you get an annoying side mission where you chase Screwball that is probably one of the worst designed missions in the game. There are collectathon missions in this as well, and the enemy gauntlet hideouts. The few side quests in this game are pretty damn short and feel like they were somewhat rushed. I mean I wanted to like this more and its the strongest of the 3 DLCs, but it still is way too short and has bland side content once you are done with the main story. Marvel's Spider-Man deserved better and I hope Insomniac learned their lesson for the next game, maybe they can take longer and incorporate everything in the core game, that way they won't even need DLC. All 3 of these DLCs could have been condenced and included in the main game as side missions if they were more streamlined, and they could have included Hammer Head as a side villain, but of course Insomniac likely rushed the game out and decided to give closure to Black Cat, Yuri, Miles, and Sable in DLC when this could have all been put in the main game as side quests, plus they didn't need all the pointless side content like random crimes, hideouts, and Screwball challenges, those really were just added I feel to justify paying 10 dollars a pop for DLC that is less than 2 hours for the main story. This is all just a money grab from Insomniac to justify charging 30 dollars for at most 5-6 hours of meaningful story content and around 10 hours total when worthless side content is added in the mix. Marvel's Spider Man was less than 20 hours and could be beaten in around 15 hours if you just focused on the story and didn't do side content, but I felt those 15 hours were meaningful and nothing ever dragged or felt rushed and by the end, I felt I played through a well crafted story. This DLC felt almost pointless and added almost nothing for the 5 total hours it adds in story, and we at best get a few lose ends that will likely be continued in the sequel. I just hope this doesn't continue with developers thinking they can give us unfinished games or add rushed DLCs after they release their game, because we are getting less out of our games then we used to 10-20 years ago when games came as a complete package and if an expansion was added, the expansion actually added significant story and content and felt like a standalone experience, I mean at least if companies want to DLC look at Bloodborne, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Witcher 3, because that's the proper way to release DLC in the modern day.