Highlights

  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 improved on its predecessors' gameplay formula, delivering a thrilling superhero experience.
  • The potential Beetle DLC leak suggests new missions and boss fights that could breathe new life into the game.

After years of feverish anticipation, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 finally launched in October of last year, and it was met with immediate critical acclaim. Though it may not have been incredibly innovative, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 improved upon its predecessors' already-acclaimed gameplay formula in just about every way to deliver yet another thrilling, blockbuster superhero experience, but one that was over just a tad too quickly.

Taking a respectable 17-20 hours to beat its main story, and around 26-30 hours to earn the Platinum, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 isn't a short game by any means but also isn't as long as many AAA titles tend to be nowadays. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 aimed to deliver a fast-paced, intense, web-slinging adventure that forwent filler content, and for the most part it succeeded in doing exactly that. But that hasn't stopped criticism surrounding the game's length. And while Spider-Man 2 has more than enough content already, its long-rumored Beetle DLC could give it a new burst of life regardless.

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A Beetle DLC Could Be Huge for Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2's Beetle DLC Rumors Explained

Back in March, Insomniac released the long-awaited 1.002 update for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, finally adding a New Game Plus mode, along with a handful of new Spidey suits and some extra quality of life improvements. But something that Insomniac didn't intend for players to see in the update was the accidental inclusion of a developer menu. Intended solely for use by Insomniac, this dev menu allowed players to access various builds of the game, along with being able to directly teleport to specific missions and activities.

Listed under the "Missions and Activities" page in Marvel's Spider-Man 2's dev menu, and under the "Silver Path" tab, fans found a set of missions named "Beetle Villain Arc." A classic Spidey adversary that's been around since the 1960s, Beetle isn't present in Marvel's Spider-Man 2's base game, yet this set of missions in the game's dev menu suggested an entire arc was supposed to take place, including mission titles like "Beetle Reveal," "Beetle Ambush," and "Beetle Boss."

Even the specific version of Insomniac's Beetle was revealed by this dev menu, confirming it to be the Janice Lincoln version—Tombstone's daughter.

With these Beetle missions not appearing in the base game, and fans being unable to click on them via the dev menu, many assumed that this Beetle Villain Arc would be the subject of an upcoming Marvel's Spider-Man 2 DLC. Insomniac has not commented on these leaks and their validity as of yet, and therefore a Beetle DLC for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is still unconfirmed.

How a Beetle DLC Could be Spider-Man 2's God of War: Valhalla, Last of Us: No Return

While a Beetle DLC is still unconfirmed for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, it's still fun to speculate on what one could entail. If it ever does appear, it could easily end up being the game's own version of God of War Ragnarok's Valhalla DLC, or The Last of Us Part 2's No Return mode. In both cases, these extra modes helped to bring audiences back to games that they had long since finished, and Spider-Man 2 could achieve the same thing.

If the dev menu leaks are anything to go by, Spider-Man 2's potential Beetle DLC could be quite substantial, offering a seemingly lengthy set of missions that could potentially bring their own unique enemy units to the game, and a unique boss fight. Though it likely wouldn't add too much new content, a Beetle DLC for Spider-Man 2 could still offer enough new story and gameplay elements that would breathe new life into the game for a little while, especially if it ended up releasing for free.