Spider-Man 2 Faces Mixed Steam Reviews Due to PC Performance Issues

Spider-Man 2 on PC, developed by Nixxes, was initially anticipated to be surprisingly performant based on its revealed system requirements. However, the game has launched to a 'mixed' rating on Steam, with numerous players reporting technical difficulties. Currently, only 55% of the reviews on Steam are positive, highlighting a range of issues faced by the community.

One user with an RTX 4090 and the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36) expressed frustration, stating, “Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes.” Another player found the game “completely unplayable on PC,” citing frequent crashes and has already requested a refund. A reviewer advised, "Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell. To say this is 'rough' is an understatement," listing issues such as lighting failures in cutscenes, scenes running at seconds-per-frame, audio desynchronization, freezing, stuttering, and a host of other performance problems. This user also opted for a refund, feeling there were better uses for their $70.

The core issue seems to stem from frequent crashes of the game’s graphics controller, affecting even those with high-end PCs. One error message reads: “A problem has occurred with your display driver. This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game. Please try updating your graphics drivers, or lowering your in-game settings.”

Additional complaints include malfunctioning features like DLSS and ray tracing, long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues. Some players alleged that performance stutters after extended play, often leading to hard crashes, with some suggesting a memory leak might be the culprit.

In response, Nixxes has acknowledged the issues on the Steam forums, advising affected users to check the troubleshooting guides on the Nixxes Support website and to submit logs and crash dumps for further assistance. They also addressed a specific bug during the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2, stating, “We are aware of a bug that can occur if your framerate is very low during this scene (below 20 FPS). As a workaround, try lowering your graphics settings and or resolution to pass this point.”