MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN: TURF WARS Review - Minor Skirmish

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

An underwhelming second DLC, Turf Wars just manages to coast by on the strength of the base game, with a boring villain and activities that feel badly recycled.

When I first finished playing Spider-Man earlier this year, I never thought that one day I would be bored of playing it. While the first DLC didn’t match the high quality of the base game, it still had several promising story threads for future instalments to build upon. Turf Wars does much of the same, coasting by with no real momentum of its own. Its ability to entertain is based solely on the sheer strength of the base game’s fantastic gameplay systems. It’s a middling second entry that promises less than the first, and while I’m still intrigued to see how Insomniac wraps up the DLC campaign, I’m no longer confident that The City Never Sleeps will be worth the extra money overall.

Turf Wars kicks off after the apparent death of Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. A former ally of Spider-Man, she returned to a life of crime in The Heist and assisted Maggia don Hammerhead in his mission to blackmail New York’s other Maggia gangs. With the Black Cat gone, Hammerhead has taken to the streets, seeking to take over the Maggia by brute force, and transform them into a powerful and feared crime syndicate. Spidey teams up with the police, including his friend NYPD Captain Yuri Watanabe, in order to stop Hammerhead from taking over the city’s criminal underworld.

Spidey teams up with the police to stop the brewing gang war.

The story is a mixed bag. While Yuri’s return is more than welcome, the DLC zeroes in on her, rapidly piling on backstory in order to properly flesh out a former minor side character. This is all in service of the overall narrative of this DLC, which has an ending I can’t spoil. It takes a sharp turn in an unexpected direction, and thanks to some excellent writing, I’m still intrigued to see how the third and final DLC will wrap everything up. There are a few high-tension moments and sequences. Still, the consequence of placing Yuri front and centre has been to relegate other characters like MJ, and even Spidey to some extent, to the sidelines.

Yuri takes centre stage of this DLC.

None of this is helped by underwhelming villains. Hammerhead is undoubtedly a B-list or even C-list villain, not even coming close to equalling classic Spidey villains like the Green Goblin or Doc Ock. This DLC succeeds in making him seem both dangerous and ruthless, but it’s a façade. Look past that and you see him for what he really is: a stereotypical run-of-the-mill gangster and nothing more. I gradually began to accept him as the big bad as I continued to play, but the game never helped me recover from my initial reaction of “right, who is this guy again?”

Hammerhead, the DLC's central villain.

Fan favourite (ha ha) Screwball also makes her return, with more of her challenges scattered across the map. Her activities have quite literally been copy-pasted into different locations. Where once you were willing to try some of her time trials, now they only frustrate you. Doing her challenges while listening to yet another C-list villain whine like a spoilt child and scream infantile insults was legitimately one of the most infuriating gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Perhaps that’s what Insomniac was aiming for: to make Screwball irritating. If so, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and I sincerely hope that Insomniac stops relying on the character to provide more filler content. I wouldn’t be surprised if you ignored her and her challenges entirely. Pursuing the main story, and only the main story wouldn’t be wrong at all.

Yawn.

The game also copy-pastes the base game’s district crimes once again. In The Heist, they were known as Maggia Crimes. They’re now called Hammerhead Crimes, but the change of name unfortunately hasn’t changed the activities themselves. You come across them as you swing through the different districts of the city, and you can stop to help out, whether it’s stopping a car chase or bringing an end to a pitched gun battle between Hammerhead goons and the other Maggia gangs. As with the Screwball challenges, they’re beginning to feel repetitive and stale.

Same old district crimes. A new enemy type ramps up difficulty, but combat is still much the same

Thankfully, Insomniac seems to have invested more time in combat for this second DLC. No new gadgets are introduced, but the inclusion of a new jetpack enemy that charges you and knocks you down, disabling your gadgets, revitalises combat encounters. Combat difficulty has been kicked up several notches, and it plays better for people who found combat in the previous DLC too simple thanks to the power of their Level 50 Spider-Man armed with fully upgraded gadgets. It’s a welcome change. The DLC also adds three more suits for you to fight and swing around in; no Raimi suit yet, but I suspect hardcore fans will be more than happy with Manga Spider-Man and the iconic Iron Spider suit.

The new suits.

Overall, Turf Wars doesn’t feel particularly significant. It’s even shorter than its predecessor, and while the story takes our characters in a new and interesting direction, it still relies heavily on a villain who doesn’t hold a candle against more classic Spider-Man foes. The activities, whether it’s stopping street crime or something silly from Screwball, are beginning to feel like repetitive filler. Improved combat difficulty can only do so much. While I’m still invested in seeing how this all ends, Turf Wars only highlights an unfortunate willingness by the game dev team to rest on their laurels.