With 2023’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac Games delivered yet another pulse-pounding superhero adventure, one that built on the foundation laid by the beloved 2018 game and took everything to the next level. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gave players the chance to live out their web-swinging fantasies as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, all while battling iconic supervillains like Kraven the Hunter, Venom, and various other baddies from Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. Spider-Man 2 is still one of the best superhero games you can play, but it’s best to stick with the PS5 version over the PC port for now.
Sony’s PlayStation to PC ports have been mostly solid. God of War Ragnarok made a near-perfect transition to PC, as did Ghost of Tsushima. Unfortunately, there have also been some PlayStation PC ports that have missed the mark, like The Last of Us Part 1. The Last of Us Part 1 had all kinds of technical problems when it first launched for PC, and now Spider-Man 2 has followed in its footsteps.
Despite Spider-Man 2‘s relatively forgiving system requirements, the game seems to seriously struggle on PC. I have experienced multiple crashes while playing the game, with the first coming right after the initial cutscenes and before any gameplay. Later, crashes occurred most commonly in the middle of fights. In one particularly annoying instance, the game crashed and even though I closed out of it completely, the audio kept blaring from my computer speakers until I reset my PC. The good news is Spider-Man 2 autosaves constantly so while the crashes are frustrating, players can usually start right where they left off after booting the game up again.
Spider-Man 2 is a Blast When It Works
Spider-Man 2 on PC has already received updates meant to address some of its more serious technical problems, but I am still experiencing crashes. And I’m not the only one. All kinds of PC gamers with all kinds of rigs have reported crashing issues with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, so it’s clear that more work needs to be done to make the game more stable. Once those updates come through, Spider-Man 2 should be an excellent new addition to Sony’s lineup of PC games, as the core experience is still a ton of fun when it works.
Spider-Man 2 features an engaging superhero story full of twists and turns, brand-new symbiote powers to master as Peter Parker, and tons of incredible fights. It all takes place in a gorgeously-rendered open world New York City that, despite the odd graphical hiccup and clipping here and there, looks as good if not better on PC as it does on PS5. The animations are smooth, the combat is fast-paced and exciting, and the web-swinging exploration is top-notch. Spider-Man 2 is a fantastic game that is typically difficult to find fault with, so it’s a shame that the PC version has such serious issues at launch.
I tested Spider-Man 2 on PC using an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 3.70 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor, and 32.0 GB RAM.
Despite its problems at launch, the PC port of Spider-Man 2 does have one big upside for gamers on the platform. Starting with Spider-Man 2, Sony has decided to do away with the controversial PSN account requirement with some of its games on PC. Those that want to unlock Spider-Man 2‘s trophies and enjoy the various other benefits that come with the PlayStation overlay will still want to sign in, but it’s no longer forced. To encourage PC gamers to sign in to a PSN account, Sony is offering bonus incentives in its PC ports, with Spider-Man 2 letting players unlock the Spider-Man 2099 Black Suit and Miles Morales 2099 Suit early.
Oftentimes, a selling point of a PlayStation PC port is that they bundle the base game with DLC in a single, convenient package. Spider-Man 2 didn’t have any story DLC, but Insomniac did add new suits to the game through free content updates. As expected, PC gamers have the chance to unlock these post-launch suits in their version of the game, meaning they technically have a more “complete” version of Spider-Man 2 at launch than PS5 gamers did. There are no plans for Spider-Man 2 to get any substantial DLC, so Spider-Man 2 on PC can be considered the full experience.
Spider-Man 2 is Best Played With a Controller
Still, PC gamers will want to be cautious about picking up the game right now because of the crashing and various other technical issues, but when they do dive in, they’ll want to make sure that they have a controller handy. Spider-Man 2 can be played from start to finish with a mouse and keyboard, but some actions feel clumsy with the default controls compared to using a controller. Not only that, but Spider-Man 2 gets a lot out of the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, so PC gamers should specifically use a PS5 DualSense controller with the game. It’s serviceable with mouse and keyboard, but enhanced with DualSense.
Spider-Man 2’s main story can be completed in around 12 to 15 hours, while getting 100% completion will take somewhere within 25 to 30 hours for most players. Some of the side content is underwhelming, but there is a lot of great stuff to check out as well.
Eventually, Spider-Man 2‘s PC port will be fixed to the point that it will rival or arguably exceed the PS5 version, especially for those with more powerful rigs that can push the game to its graphical and performance limits. At launch, though, Spider-Man 2 on PC falls well short of expectations. The core gameplay is still a blast, and it’s still one of the best superhero adventures in gaming, but the crashes are too problematic to ignore.
Reviewed on PC
Open-World
Action-Adventure
Superhero
- Released
-
October 20, 2023
- ESRB
-
T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
- Publisher(s)
-
Sony Interactive Entertainment
- The same fantastic superhero adventure that hit PS5 in 2023
- Forgiving system requirements
- No PSN account required
- Prone to crashing
- Odd graphical issues that I didn’t experience in the PS5 version
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is available now on PC and PS5. Game Rant was provided with a Steam code for this review.