Ultimately, Spider-Man still looks and plays superbly. Traversal feels great, combat (when there aren't any of those shield guys) is still brilliant. The main problem with the game, however, currently stems from the litany of side-content present, whether it be the array of street-crimes players can tackle, or the generic hideout-clearing side-missions that replace the Demon and Fisk bases from the base game.
In this regard, The City That Never Sleeps isn't exactly innovative. While it might be asking too much for DLC to improve in such a drastic way, the current selection of side-missions on offer - street crime, Screwball Challenges and Maggia Hideouts - just don't provide enough variety. The hideout-clearing sections in particular feel almost routine at this point, and it's a shame, given the sheer amount of potential Spider-Man illustrated just a few short months ago.
Currently, The City That Never Sleeps isn't the stellar continuation of Spider-Man that fans have been seeking, and though it is certainly serviceable - and worth seeing play out for the story alone - there are clear issues that prevent this chapter in Spider-Man's story from being the perfect epilogue to Insomniac's trailblazing title.
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.
