Spider-Man 2 Launches with 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' rating on Steam with only 55% positive reviews. Many players have voiced frustrations over significant technical issues plaguing the game, despite its initially promising system requirements.

Players with high-end hardware, such as those equipped with an RTX 4090 and running the latest Nvidia drivers (version 5.66.36), are reporting frequent crashes. "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes," one user stated. Another player described the game as "completely unplayable on PC," citing crashes to the desktop every five minutes, and has already sought a refund.

The community's frustration is palpable, with one reviewer cautioning, "Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell. To say this is 'rough' is an understatement." This reviewer highlighted a range of issues including lighting not loading in cutscenes, scenes running at seconds-per-frame, audio desync issues, freezing, stuttering, and other performance problems. They have opted for a refund, citing better uses for their $70.

A common thread among the complaints is the frequent crashing of the game's graphics controller, even on high-end PCs. One error message reported by users states: "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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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."

Additional grievances include malfunctioning features like DLSS and ray tracing, long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues. Some players have also reported performance stuttering after extended gameplay sessions, which often leads to a hard crash. There is speculation that a memory leak might be contributing to these problems.

In response, Nixxes has addressed the crashes on the Steam forums, advising affected users to consult the troubleshooting guides on the Nixxes Support website and to submit logs and crash dumps for further assistance. They have also acknowledged a specific bug during the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2, recommending that players lower graphics settings or resolution to bypass the issue if their framerate drops below 20 FPS.