Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps DLC Review – A Near Perfect Addition to an Already Stellar Experience

Swinging Through Manhattan, Once Again

 

Good DLC additions to single-player games should add a slew of new features, content and in-game achievables for them to be worthwhile. Marvel’s Spider-Man created a thrilling experience as the iconic web-swinger, and the three-part DLC, The City That Never Sleeps, continues that very trend. While the story line itself isn’t exactly a complete new saga in terms of sheer length, there’s still plenty of new side activities, additional enemies, more collectibles and suits to keep players progressing even further into the story of Peter Parker and his responsibility as Spider-Man.

Check out our video summary review of Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps DLC below:

 

The story behind The City That Never Sleeps tasks Peter Parker with plenty of villain hunting action broken up into three separate chapters. The first chapter, The Heist, has players reacquainting themselves with the vaguely teased Black Cat as she makes her move towards snatching a hefty payday.

The second chapter, Turf Wars, brings the thick-skulled Hammerhead into the mix as players fight it out between New York City’s various branches of mobsters – the Maggia. There’s some new combat twists added to the already stellar formula from the base game, as well as a couple different enemies to be aware of when slinging web and throwing punches.

The third and final chapter, Silver Lining, brings back the super-confidant international mercenary, Silver Sable. The overall story between all three chapters continues to impress as new and returning characters are introduced seamlessly into the narrative. Along with new collectible, new criminal types to fend off and plenty of side activities to engage, The City That Never Sleeps is an appetizing cherry on top for the 2018 Insomniac Games hit.

The Heist

The Heist opens up the DLC with Spider-Man becoming re-acquainted with former love interest, Felicia Hardy – also known as Black Cat. While the base game featured a unique side questline hinting at her appearance, the first chapter of The City That Never Sleeps gives fans a healthy dose of the nimble thief.

Along with new Maggia enemy types joining the ongoing fight between Spider-Man and Manhattan street crime, there’s also some other worthy features making their way into the experience. And the game continues ot impress with solid storytelling that picks up right where the base game ended. Players are greeted with more characters that populate Peter Parker’s hectic life, while continuing to surprise the player time and time again throughout the evolving narrative.

New collectibles and side activities are also dropped into the experience seamlessly which creates plenty of optional fun alongside the riveting storyline. Screwball makes her appearance throughout all three chapters as she tasks the player with a series of optional challenges to promote her growing streaming fan base. And if you’ve already wiped clean the criminal activity from the base game, additional criminal types make themselves known adding in more crime activities to report on. Though the additional crime objectives are a nice touch, there’s nothing substantially different or unique about them in comparison to what the base game offers.

All in all, The Heist an exciting introduction for what awaits within the rest of the three-part City That Never Sleeps DLC campaign. With its own new suits to collect, additional side content and a worthy opening expanding on the tale Insomniac was able to craft in the base game, the first chapter sets the tone for more of what fan’s of Marvel’s Spider-Man experienced in the best superhero game to date.

Turf Wars

Turf Wars is the second chapter in The City That Never Sleeps DLC and shifts its focus more towards the warring factions of the Maggia and the hard-headed villain looking to own every aspect of the New York City mobster family circle, Hammerhead. Bits of the story begin to piece themselves together while some darker twists add to the depth of the narrative.

Along with more of the gripping story line and even more side activities hit the Spider-Man experience, Turf Wars continues following similar cues from the first chapter and deepens various character arcs throughout the story. There’s plenty of Peter and Mary Jane dialogue that expands on their relationship, while the New York City Police Department Captain, Yuri Watanabe, sees herself absorbed into a role many comic book fans will instantaneously recognize.

We also get a better idea of Hammerhead’s take into whole scenario, though he often feels out-of-place or, at least, not the star villain in the DLC campaign. He does provide for some thrilling fights and narrative filler along the way, as well as introducing some of his goons to the action to give Spidey some real competition.

While continuing down the same thread where The Heist initially left off, Turf Wars takes a turn into some darker themes as New York City’s major Maggia crime syndicates become the target of something much more dangerous. While players will play an integral part in halting both Hammerhead and various Maggia crime families from tearing Manhattan apart from the inside, there’s much more depth within that story that awaits in the third and final chapter of the ongoing DLC.

Silving Lining

The third chapter to the thrilling expansion to Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Silver Lining, brings back an acquaintance from the base game, having the player partner up in order to take down the now mostly robotic threat of Hammerhead. All of the threads from the previous episodes begin entwine for an ultimately rewarding experience that manages to cap off the entire plotline in a satisfying manner.

The darker themes from the second chapter still lingers throughout the beginning portion of Silver Lining, but soon picks up to an exciting pace as the conclusion sifts ever-closer. The same heated action from Spider-Man continues to accelerate into blistering combat mechanics along with the same therapeutic web-swinging traversal skills that shine so brilliantly throughout the entire game.

Along with the return of Screwball and her pesky challenges to keep her social media follower count up, more enemies make their way into Manhattan’s seemingly endless string of crime syndicates. While players will continue to find added-on side objectives to be similar to what every portion of the entire game has offered, more of the same in terms of Insomniac’s stellar gameplay is far from a bad thing.

The conclusion to the entire City That Never Sleeps story is finally wrapped up with an epic boss battle with Spider-Man and an unlikely partner taking on the thick-headed Hammerhead as he makes one final push to total New York City street crime domination. And as an additional bonus for those dedicated to what a possible sequel could bring to the able, it seems there’s more than a subtle set up for what’s to come next time around.

 

Diagnosis

As a three-part DLC expansion, The City That Never Sleeps is an enthralling experience that adds a considerable amount of extra content to the already stunning base game of Marvel’s Spider-Man. Though, if playing each part individually with the intent of spacing out each chapter, don’t expect a lot of play time from one chapter to the next. While each chapter offers new challenges, suits and story missions, there’s no more than a session or two of additional content before wanting to move on to the next part in the fight to stop Hammerhead.

 

Final Grade

All in all, The City That Never Sleeps is a worthy addition to an already well-executed title. The same combat style, web-swinging and city traversal brings players back to the engaging world of Spider-Man, but with a few new pieces of content to enjoy. Could the additional story line made its way into the base game? Absolutely. This could literally be said about almost any other DLC around. But that doesn’t by any means take away the extra doses of activities, new challenging enemies, suits, collectibles and thrilling story acting as a perfect second helping to dive back into Insomniac’s brilliant rendition of the Spider-Man universe.