Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is now Verified on Steam Deck following the release of PC patch three. The announcement was made on X (formerly Twitter) and it’s causing controversy as Deck owners report that performance hasn’t improved enough to earn a Verified rating, and I have to agree.
Some of the best Steam Deck games don’t start out perfect, and in the case of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, all it took was a few performance and optimization patches for verification to be secured. The problem, however, is that the game still doesn’t run all that well on the default settings, and while Valve has never disclosed what the performance target is for verification, Spider-Man 2 still barely achieves a stable 30fps, raising questions about why it’s been given the green tick for Steam Deck.
Don’t get me wrong, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 isn’t unplayable, far from it, but the point of Steam Deck’s Verified rating is to highlight games that play perfectly when using the default settings, while all other games that run, but are missing certain features or require graphical compromises, are given a Playable rating.
After PC patch three, Spider-Man 2 now runs at a more consistent 30fps using the default settings, but there are still frequent drops below this mark that are quite frustrating. To achieve a more stable 30fps or higher, changes need to be made to the graphical settings, which is a major faux pas for a Verified game. Some players are also reporting game crashes since the update, although I’ve not been able to replicate this in my testing.
Unfortunately, this rating change is being met with a backlash that has players questioning the integrity of the Steam Deck rating system. This is born from a frustration that pops up from time to time when games that barely pass the 30fps performance mark are also given the green tick of approval. Games such as Mortal Kombat 1 and Baldur’s Gate 3 are often cited by the community as games that run poorly on the Steam Deck but which have still been given a Verified rating.
I broached this same topic last year when I took umbrage with how Ghost of Tsushima was unfairly deemed Unsupported due to a minor multiplayer game mode being inaccessible on the Deck.
Horizon Forbidden West is also branded with an Unsupported rating as “the game’s graphics settings cannot be configured to run well on Steam Deck”, but this too isn’t true. I tested Horizon Forbidden West on Steam Deck and found that I was able to achieve a steady 35-45fps across the game with the right settings, meaning it should have been eligible for a Playable rating.
This discussion will continue for as long as the verification system is live and Valve seemingly gets its ratings wrong. It’s reasonable to expect Valve to sometimes slip up, but equally, players have a right to be upset when a game rating doesn’t accurately represent the experience of playing it on the Steam Deck.
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