Marvel's Spider-Man: The Heist

A little over a year ago I played Marvel's Spider-Man through a weekend Redbox rental and enjoyed it, despite its flaws and issues, and it ended up being my favorite Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2, and even exceeded that game in ways. This year I managed to pick this game up in a Black Friday deal with all the DLC included with it, so decided to check the DLC out since I liked the core game and even if the DLC wasn't too well received when it first came out, I was going to give it a shot because its more Spider-Man. The Heist is part one of the 3 part DLC, and really isn't a stand alone DLC because you need all 3 DLCs to get the complete story.

The Heist focuses on Black Cat, who made a cameo in the main game, but was really only part of one side quest and we only saw her for a few seconds, which was a disappointment considering she is a big part of the Spider Universe and a fan favorite character. This DLC has you semi working with cat while you try to take down the villain Hammerhead and also try to reconcile with Black Cat, who was revealed to be a former love interest and girlfriend of Peter in this universe. The Heist had potential, but the issue I had with this is it just feels like filler. Its too short for one, the game throws annoying enemies and combat segments, the side content in this is even more bland and generic than the core game, and it ends with an annoying cliffhanger that basically taunts you to buy the next DLC.

The biggest issue I had is the length. Without the side content this can easily be beaten in maybe 2 hours tops, and with DLC you get maybe an extra hour. Thats maybe 3-4 hours worth of DLC, and considering the main game is around 15-20 hours without side content, this is pretty damn short. I'm not asking for DLC like Dark Souls, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, or Witcher where the DLC is almost half the length of the damn game, but I'd be happy with 5 hours without side content. On top of that the side content in this game is just awful. It consists of the annoying challenges, but instead of being lead by the mysterious badass dude, they are lead by the annoying villain Screwball from the main game, who worked as a one off villain for a single mission, but feels out of place being a major character in this DLC and just gets annoying. Then you got a mission where you have to collect hidden paintings similar to the hidden backpacks in the main game. I actually enjoyed the backstory given during this mission, but it just felt pretty mindless since it was super easy to find the paintings and just felt like filler. Then you have the random crimes, which are just as mindless and boring as the core game, just mainly fighting generic enemy mobs and stopping getaway cars. Plus this DLC adds an annoying gattling gun enemy who can't really be hurt with normal attacks and is super hard to dodge. There's really no big boss fight in this DLC, and most missions are just random encounters and a few stealth missions, with an annoying start mission where you have to prevent thugs from stealing paintings.

[Spoiler} Now for the story. For most of the story you are communicating with Black Cat and trying to figure out why she is working with Hammerhead, and you find out she has a child that Hammerhead kidnapped and she is trying to get him back, and also learn the child may be Peter's, so they end up teaming up to save their child. Now this is kind of weird and goes against Peter's character, not that he has a child, but he'd be irresponsible enough to potentially get someone pregnant, especially since he is always talking about responsibility, and this just seems kind of forced, but at least it adds some mystery and intrigue to the story and even depth to Black Cats character because her being a mom can explain why shes back to stealing and greys the morality of her a bit more. But then all that is ruined when near the end of the DLC Black Cat double crosses you and reveals she lied about the kid so you could help her screw over Hammerhead and she could get away with the stolen information for herself. But then Hammerhead finds out he was double crossed and ends up planting a bomb in Black Cat's apartment which Peter warns her beforehand not to go because its rigged, but she opens the door anyway and the place explodes and Cat is missing, leaving it a mystery on whether she survived or not. This is just a stupid way to end a DLC and felt really cheap, like we waited months for this DLC and have Spider-Man reunite with a character we've wanted to see in action for a while, only to have her exit in such a dumb way and obviously a cliff hanger for the developers to sell more DLC. Then we got MJ who just feels like a side tag along and just gives you the missions and tells you where to go. The only really development she gets in this is when she gets mildly upset when Parker reveals Cat's kid might be his, but even this doesn't really go anywhere, and then you get one annoying stealth mission with MJ that brings back bad memories from the main game, and Miles also gets shafted in this, he only gets a few phone calls where Parker discourages him from training and using his powers in real life. I mean I'm team Peter all the way and never cared much for Miles, but this series established Miles as a second Spider-Man and it would have at least been interesting if there was a side mission where Parker could go web swinging with Miles or teach him how to aim his web or maybe fight a few thugs with Miles, but instead we get a few lame phone calls. [/Spoiler]

Overall, this DLC is just pointless and too short with repetitive and mindless side content, and a cliffhanger ending that makes it essential to buy the next DLC. This DLC is nothing like the main game and just feels like Insomniac Nickel and Dimeing the players to get the full story. Most games you buy the DLC you get the full story, look at Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, Dark Souls 2, Mass Effect 2, all the DLCs for those games stood alone and were complete and didn't leave you on cliffhangers that made you obliged to buy the next DLC. Insomniac should have just either waited until they were done and released these 3 DLCs combined as one, or better yet, included this stuff in the core game. Hell, this Black Cat stuff almost feels like it was supposed to be in the core game but cut out or unfinished so it felt sloppily pasted into this rushed DLC, and Hammerhead doesn't even really appear in this DLC, and he isn't really an interesting villain either, he's just a generic mob boss and one of my least favorite Spider-Man villains. I just wish this would have been better, Spider-Man was probably my 3rd favorite game to release that year, only coming behind God of War and Red Dead 2 and my favorite super hero game since Arkham City, but this DLC just completely shits on the core game and what made it great and just adds nothing significant and feels like a rushed effort and quick cash grab by Insomniac. I just wish game companies would work longer on their games to give us the most content instead of rushing out games and then tacking out DLC after to complete the story because they were in a rush to get their game on the shelves and couldn't finish putting everything in. I just hope Last of Us 2, Cyberpunk, or Doom Eternal don't end up doing this with their DLCs, these developers need to go the way of Witcher 3 and Dark Souls when doing DLC, because those games gave us fantastic DLC that expanded the story but also was a standalone experience from the core game.