Spider-Man 2 Launches with Mixed Steam Reviews Due to PC Issues

The highly anticipated PC version of Spider-Man 2, developed by Nixxes, has launched to a 'mixed' reception on Steam, with only 55% of user reviews being positive. Many players have reported a range of technical issues that are hampering their experience. One user with an RTX 4090 and the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36) noted frequent crashes, stating, “Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes.” Another player found the game "completely unplayable," experiencing crashes to desktop every five minutes and has already requested a refund.

Reviewers have described the launch as "rough," highlighting numerous performance issues including lighting failures in cutscenes, scenes running at seconds-per-frame, audio desynchronization, freezing, stuttering, and more. One frustrated user advised, "Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell," and opted for a refund, citing better uses for the $70.

The primary issue seems to revolve around frequent crashes of the game's graphics controller, even on high-end PCs. An error message seen by users states, “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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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 such as DLSS and ray tracing, as well as long loading times, missing textures, and audio problems. Some players have also reported performance stuttering after extended play sessions, often leading to hard crashes, with suspicions pointing towards a potential memory leak.

Nixxes has acknowledged the issues on the Steam forums, responding to a user with, “Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues. Please refer to the troubleshooting guides on the Nixxes Support website and contact us if the problem persists. Make sure to include your logs and crash dumps as outlined on the support website, so we can troubleshoot as quickly as possible.” The developer also noted a specific bug during photo-op missions, advising players to lower graphics settings or resolution if their framerate drops below 20 FPS to bypass this issue.