Spider-Man 2's Launch Marred by Performance Woes

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 users report various technical problems, resulting in a "mixed" user review rating.

Currently, only 55% of Steam reviews are positive. Many players with high-end hardware, including those using RTX 4090 GPUs and the latest Nvidia drivers, experience frequent crashes. Several users describe the game as "unplayable" due to crashes occurring every few minutes, prompting refund requests.

One user reported the game's instability as follows: "Hold off on buying until they release a few stability patches. The game is incredibly rough. Lighting glitches in cutscenes, these scenes run at an extremely low frame rate, audio desynchronization is rampant, and the game freezes and stutters constantly."

A recurring problem 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 This can be caused by outdated drivers, using game settings exceeding your GPU's capabilities, GPU overheating, or a game error. Please update your graphics drivers or lower in-game settings.”

Further complaints include malfunctions in features like DLSS and ray tracing, extended loading times, missing textures, and audio problems. Some players claim performance stutters significantly after extended play sessions, eventually leading to complete crashes, suggesting a potential memory leak.

Nixxes, the port developer, acknowledged these issues on the Steam forums, directing users to their support website for troubleshooting guides and requesting logs and crash dumps for faster problem resolution. They also addressed a bug affecting photo-op missions, advising users to lower graphics settings or resolution if their frame rate drops below 20 FPS during these sequences.