‘Spider-Man 2’ and the DLC We Don’t Need

On the PlayStation Blog, Insomniac Games confirms there won’t be any story-related DLC coming for Spider-Man 2. Naturally, there were reactions ranging from “that sucks” to “good.” My reaction, however, is high on the Mr. Burns scale; EXCELLENT. Every game doesn’t need DLC — specifically, story content.

I know I’m heading toward “old man yelling at clouds” territory, but a game’s story ending with the base game feels right. Sure, this is a nuanced thing, and there are cases where story DLC enhances the previous story (both Horizon games come to mind), but it’s okay to just drop the game and leave us with what was created out of the box.

I loved the first Spider-Man game. I think it’s pretty hard to find a better Spidey story in any medium than what we got with that. And yet, when I played its DLC, “The City That Never Sleeps,” I didn’t feel anything. It wasn’t a bad experience, it just existed. If you’re going to ask people to pay more money to come back to a game they’ve likely put down, the experience needs to be worth it.

Spider-Man deserves to rest

I’m glad Insomniac is making this decision. It feels like they’ve learned from the first game. The Spider-Man 2 story was a perfect continuation of its predecessor, and it brought forward some even stronger narrative themes. Of course, we also have Wolverine coming, as well. And that’s one Insomniac is really going to have to lock in on. Given their proven ability to nail everything that makes Spider-Man great, I’m sure they’ll do the same with Wolverine.

A game being one and done doesn’t take away from its impact. And as a whole, I think there is something to giving people a singular, standalone experience. Making the decision to forgo story DLC is the right choice. And I hope more developers are in a position to make decisions like this. It’s better for the industry when the people who make the games get to say they’re done with a story without needing to worry about the bottom line.