Spider-Man 2 on PC, developed by Nixxes, was initially anticipated to be surprisingly performant based on its system requirements. However, the game has launched to a 'mixed' rating on Steam, with a significant number of players reporting various technical issues. Currently, only 55% of the game's Steam reviews are positive, reflecting widespread dissatisfaction among the player base.
Many players, including those with high-end hardware, have encountered frequent crashes. For instance, an RTX 4090 user said, "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), the game frequently crashes." Another user reported, "The game is completely unplayable on PC. The game crashes to desktop every five minutes. I have already requested a refund." The consensus among reviewers is to wait for several stabilization patches before purchasing, as one reviewer exclaimed, "Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell. To say this is 'rough' is an understatement. Lighting doesn't load in some cutscenes, those same scenes run at seconds-per-frame, audio desync issues up the wazoo, freezing, stuttering, and just about every other performance issue I can think of. I'm gonna get a refund for now because frankly, there's other stuff I could use $70 for right now."
The primary issue seems to be frequent crashes of the game's graphics controller, even on higher-end PCs. One reviewer mentioned an error message that 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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 complaints include malfunctioning features like DLSS and ray tracing, as well as long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues. Some players alleged that performance stutters after several hours of gameplay, eventually leading to a hard crash, with some suspecting a memory leak might be the cause.
In response, Nixxes has addressed the reported crashes on the Steam forums, stating, "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." Additionally, Nixxes acknowledged a specific bug during the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2, suggesting, "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."
