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 was "completely unplayable," crashing every five minutes. Several reviewers recommend delaying purchase until performance-stabilizing patches are released. One described the issues as "rough," citing problems with lighting, frame rates, audio synchronization, freezing, stuttering, and other performance issues.

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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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 complaints include malfunctioning DLSS and ray tracing features, lengthy loading times, missing textures, and audio problems. Some players reported performance stuttering after extended play sessions, eventually leading to crashes, with speculation of a memory leak as a potential cause.

Nixxes, the developer responsible for the port, acknowledged the crashes on the Steam forums, directing users to troubleshooting guides on their support website and requesting logs and crash dumps for faster problem resolution. They also addressed a bug affecting photo-op missions, suggesting lowering graphics settings or resolution as a temporary fix if frame rates drop below 20 FPS.