Spider-Man PS4 The Heist Review: 4 Ups And 3 Downs

Ups...

4. Black Cat Is Fantastic

Spider-Man PS4 Black Cat
Insomniac Games

Considering the narrative strength of the base Spider-Man title, it should come as no surprise to hear that the story behind The Heist is really quite exceptional. Central to it is of course Black Cat, voiced by Erica Lindbeck, who returns to New York under the pretence of working for Hammerhead.

All isn't as it seems though. Once Spidey gets involved, and Cat reveals that she has a son, things are taken to a whole other level entirely, with Insomniac's writing team marshalling the unspoken history between Peter and Felicia exceptionally well. There's a real chemistry between the pair, and it makes Black Cat's current-gen debut a thoroughly entertaining one.

First thing's first: Insomniac's redesign of Cat's outfit is long overdue, and provides a modernising uplift to yet another of Spider-Man's female leads. Hardy's characterisation is also handled remarkably well, with the added wrinkle of her having once gone straight before returning to her criminal ways adding some much needed internal conflict to her duplicitous - and flirtatious - personality.

The chemistry between her and Peter is just really fun to see play out on screen, and though the ending did sort of leave her in a precarious predicament, fans can expect the character to return as the DLC progresses - either in Turf Wars, or in Silver Lining.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.