Spider-Man 2 Debuts to 'Mixed' Steam Reviews Amid Serious PC Performance Problems

Spider-Man 2's PC port, initially touted for its impressive performance based on its system requirements, has received a mixed reception on Steam. A significant number of players are reporting various technical problems, resulting in a "mixed" user review rating.

Currently, only 55% of Steam reviews are positive. Many users, even those with high-end hardware like RTX 4090 GPUs and the latest drivers, are experiencing frequent crashes. One user reported, "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), the game frequently crashes." Another stated the game is "completely unplayable," crashing every five minutes. Several players have demanded refunds due to the instability.

Common complaints include significant performance issues, such as lighting glitches in cutscenes, extremely low frame rates in certain scenes, audio desynchronization, freezing, stuttering, and general performance problems. One reviewer described the game's performance as "rough," an understatement given the extent of the problems.

The primary issue seems to be frequent crashes of the game's graphics controller, even on high-end PCs. A common 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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.”

Further issues include malfunctioning DLSS and ray tracing features, lengthy loading times, missing textures, and persistent audio problems. Some players have also noted performance stutters escalating to crashes after extended play sessions, potentially indicating a memory leak.

Nixxes, the developer responsible for the port, acknowledged the problems on the Steam forums, directing users to their support website for troubleshooting guides and requesting logs and crash dumps to aid in faster resolution. They also addressed a specific bug affecting photo-op missions, suggesting lowering graphics settings or resolution as a temporary fix for low frame rates (below 20 FPS) during these sequences.