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

Spider-Man 2 on PC, developed by Nixxes, was anticipated to be surprisingly performant based on its system requirements. However, the game has launched to a 'mixed' reception on Steam, with only 55% of reviews being positive. Players have reported numerous technical issues, significantly impacting their gaming experience.

A user with an RTX 4090 and the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36) mentioned that the game frequently 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 on PC," crashing to the desktop every five minutes and subsequently requesting a refund.

One reviewer advised holding off on purchasing the game until stabilization patches are released, describing the current state as "rough." They highlighted issues like lighting not loading in cutscenes, scenes running at seconds-per-frame, audio desynchronization, freezing, stuttering, and other performance problems. This reviewer also opted for a refund, citing better uses for the $70 spent.

The primary problem seems to be frequent crashes of the game's graphics controller, even on high-end PCs. An error message cited by a reviewer 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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 user complaints include malfunctioning features like DLSS and ray tracing, long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues. Some players reported performance stuttering after several hours of gameplay, leading to hard crashes, with suspicions of a memory leak causing these problems.

Nixxes has acknowledged the reported issues on the Steam forums, directing users to the Nixxes Support website for troubleshooting guides and requesting logs and crash dumps to expedite resolution. They also addressed a specific bug during photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2, suggesting that players lower graphics settings or resolution if their framerate drops below 20 FPS to bypass the issue.