Spider-Man 2 Faces Mixed Steam Reviews Due to PC Performance Issues

The highly anticipated PC release of Spider-Man 2, developed by Nixxes, has encountered a rocky start, earning a 'mixed' user review rating on Steam. Despite early indications suggesting the game would be surprisingly performant, a significant number of players are reporting various technical issues that have marred their experience.

Currently, only 55% of the reviews on Steam are positive. One user with an RTX 4090 GPU, running the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), said, "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes." Another user read, "The game is completely unplayable on PC. The game crashes to desktop every five minutes. I have already requested a refund."

The frustration is palpable in other reviews, with one player advising, "Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell. To say this is 'rough' is an understatement. Lighting doesn't load in some cutscenes, those same scenes run at seconds-per-frame, audio desync issues up the wazoo, freezing, stuttering, and just about every other performance issue I can think of. I'm gonna get a refund for now because frankly, there's other stuff I could use $70 for right now."

The primary issue appears to be related to the game's graphics controller, which crashes frequently even on higher-end PCs. One 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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."

Other users have also reported issues with features such as DLSS and ray tracing not functioning correctly, alongside complaints about long loading times, missing textures, and audio problems. Some players alleged that performance stutters after several hours of gameplay, eventually leading to a hard crash. There is speculation that a memory leak might be contributing to these issues.

In response, Nixxes has acknowledged the crashes on the Steam forums, stating to one user, "Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues. Please refer to the troubleshooting guides on the Nixxes Support website and contact us if the problem persists. Make sure to include your logs and crash dumps as outlined on the support website, so we can troubleshoot as quickly as possible."

Additionally, Nixxes has identified a specific bug related to the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2. They stated, "We are aware of a bug that can occur if your framerate is very low during this scene (below 20 FPS). As a workaround, try lowering your graphics settings and or resolution to pass this point."