Turf Wars, the second part of The City That Never Sleeps DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man, is here at last. Picking up after the events of the first part, The Heist, Turf Wars begins with Maggia heavy-hitter Hammerhead going after the other leaders of the crime syndicate so he can take absolute control as head honcho. In order to put a swift end to the bloody gang war, Spider-Man again teams up with police captain Yuri Watanabe with the objective of capturing Hammerhead to end the hostilities. Things naturally escalate from that point and get worse, but such is the way of the old “Parker Luck”.
Story-wise, Turf Wars is certainly darker than The Heist given the focus on gang wars, mob hits, and the like, and Hammerhead is definitely one of the more brutal and merciless villains to be introduced in this game. Don’t worry though, there aren’t any severed horse heads or…other horribly gruesome scenes involved here (I never cared to watch The Godfather films, so I don’t know any other mob-related references of note). Nevertheless, there were still some brutal and dramatic moments in this DLC’s story, making it more engaging than that of The Heist (in my opinion).
Turf Wars also features the classic Spidey action where you’ll be beating up Maggia thugs in several main missions and through random encounters while free-roaming the city, as well as in a few new Hammerhead base missions where you fight waves of Maggia thugs, similar to the ones involving the henchmen of Kingpin and Mr. Negative in the main game. It must be said that some of the battles in this DLC are quite tough given that the Maggia thugs are armed with stolen high-tech weaponry used by the Sable International mercenaries in the main game. And yet certain other battles prove to be extra frustrating when they include the new enemy type that I consider to be the bane of my existence: the guys with jetpacks and energy shields. Fighting one of these guys isn’t a huge deal, but when you’re already fighting a bunch of other thugs armed with assault rifles, missile launchers, and energy whips, only to then have three of these jetpack/shield assholes join the fray and start charging at you from off-screen with surprisingly pinpoint accuracy…, well, let’s just say I launched a larger number of expletives at my screen than I usually do when playing this game. Still, the extra challenge was (mostly) appreciated.
Another feature in Turf Wars that was not included in The Heist was a proper boss battle. There is only one boss battle in this DLC (which I won’t spoil, though I’m pretty sure you all know who the boss is), and it is easily the most challenging boss battle in the game so far, not to mention the most frustrating one given that you have to possess near Jedi-like reflexes in order to avoid certain attacks that come at you with practically no warning. More challenge missions hosted by Screwball round out the rest of the side content for this DLC. The only other new thing included was a stealth bit early in the main campaign, but lo and behold, it stars one of Spidey’s little Spider Drones instead of Mary Jane, and it was fun doing some sneaky reconnaissance as one of those little dudes. And of course, there are three new unlockable suits for Spidey to don (though these also lack special powers like those in the previous DLC).
Much like The Heist before it, Turf Wars won’t set the world on fire and is rather short, possibly even shorter than its predecessor, but it’s another good DLC that fans of Spider-Man will want to try out, especially if they’re like me and were dying to see how the story progressed from the first DLC and want more of a challenge. I will certainly be waiting with great anticipation for Silver Lining, the conclusion of The City That Never Sleeps DLC, which comes in December.
Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PS4
Release Date: 20th November 2018