Marvel's Spider-Man The City that Never Sleeps Review: Turf Wars
Insomniac has more story to tell in the new Spider-Man DLC titled “Turf Wars.” Released on November 20th on the PlayStation Network, Turf Wars is the second story in “The City that Never Sleeps” DLC pack. This time it is all about Hammerhead and his plans for New York City now that the Kingpin and Mister Negative is out of the picture. For my previous Spider-Man related reviews click here.
Story
Hammerhead is a Maggia crime lord that wants all the other Maggia family leaders out of his way. His large ambitions lead him to start a turf war with all of the other families on the streets of New York. Hammerhead is taking no prisoners, and it is not looking good for the police trying to stop the violence. Captain Yuri Watanabe is having trouble keeping it all together while she is losing innocent police officers that are just trying to keep the city safe.
Turf Wars drops you into the action immediately, showing you just how quickly all of the gang violence has begun. Hammerhead and his goons have attacked critical areas in the city to try and topple the other Maggia family leaders. Events unfold quickly barely giving me a moment to grasp why certain areas are being attacked. After taking out fifty henchmen at one hideout, Captain Watanabe is already back on the radio claiming an attack on Police headquarters.
Fast-paced dialog and constant battles are not terrible for a video game, it just creates fuzzy story-telling when I begin a fight with some thugs, and then a call on the radio starts giving me some important story information. This may be an artistic choice from Insomniac that helps portray the busy aspects of being Spider-Man, but does someone have to call me during every single fight encounter?
After the initial fighting with Hammerhead, we embark on a mission to gather intel from some of the other members of his crew. This leads us to a well-known watering hole in the Marvel comics called the Bar with No Name. The mission is played solely with the Spider-bot, and it is a nice break from all the crazy action. Great job on this mission, Insomniac, I had a lot of fun sneaking around the bar.
Hammerhead does not pull any punches in this campaign, and the final battle proves it when he uses some of Silver Sable’s tech to create armor for himself. Dodging his attacks becomes somewhat tricky since he moves so quickly, but just like Hammerhead, I kept hitting my head against the wall and eventually I made it through.
All of the violence and destruction really comes together when a stressed-out and angry Yuri comes barging onto the scene and begins to act entirely out of character. Only after taking down Hammerhead and watching the game’s credits - for the third time - do we gather some insight as to why Yuri is so angry. Hopefully, we will find out more in the third chapter of The City that Never Sleeps, Silver Lining.
Costumes
Of course with another chapter in The City that Never Sleeps, comes three more Spider-Man suits. In Turf Wars, Insomniac gives us the Spider-Armor MK I, the Iron Spider Armor, and the Spider-Clan uniform. The Spider-Armor MK I is an older suit first seen in Web of Spider-Man #100 in 1993. It has a gray metallic color for all of the webbing areas on Spider-Man.
My personal favorite Suit in the batch is the Iron Spider Armor, which was first seen in Amazing Spider-Man #529 during the Marvel Civil War story in 2006. Similar to its Infinity War version, it was a gift from Tony Stark and had those iconic spider arms. I started using the Iron Arms Suit Power to give me something closer to the comic book look.
The last unlocked suit in Turf Wars is called the Spider-Clan suit. It has a similar cel shading look like the Vintage Comic Book Suit, but it changes the character model. This suit was initially seen in the Marvel Mangaverse from 2002. The uniform is worn by Peter Parker who is part of a clan called, you guessed it, the Spider-Clan. I am a big fan of the cel shading on the Vintage suit, so I still enjoy it on this costume. Unfortunately, it makes Peter look a little disproportionate, so I didn’t like the way it looked during cutscenes.
Side Missions
Of course, we are given more side missions in Turf Wars, and they stick to the same theme as the rest of the game. Screwball is back and rating our ability to use our spider gadgets and punch thugs in the face. Her criminal activity will continue through all of the DLC chapters.
Hideouts have returned as well, but this time they are run by Hammerhead’s crew with Silver Sable technology. This means that they are harder to take down. You can’t just move in there and punch your way out. You will have to dodge and use gadgets to get out of there with the information you need to take Hammerhead out.
Marvel’s Spider-Man and all of its DLC has been a blast to play through! I am excited to see what they have in store for us in the final chapter, Silver Lining due out in December. I still would not recommend buying any of these chapters alone. If you have not purchased this game yet, I recommend waiting until the game is sold in some sort of “Game of the Year” version that will have all of The City that Never Sleeps chapters included. Check out my previous reviews if you want to know my thoughts on Marvel's Spider-Man and the first DLC chapter, The Heist.
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