The much-anticipated PC release of Spider-Man 2, developed by Nixxes, has encountered a rocky start, reflected in its 'mixed' user review rating on Steam. Despite initial optimism about its performance based on the revealed system requirements, many players are reporting significant technical issues. Currently, only 55% of the game's Steam reviews are positive, highlighting widespread dissatisfaction.
Players with high-end hardware, such as those equipped with an RTX 4090 and the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), are experiencing frequent crashes. One user lamented, "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes." Another frustrated player stated, "The game is completely unplayable on PC. The game crashes to desktop every five minutes. I have already requested a refund."
The severity of the issues has led some reviewers to advise caution. One review warned, "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 problem seems to be related to the game's graphics controller, which crashes frequently, even on higher-end PCs. An error message reported by a user 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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."
Additional complaints include malfunctioning features like DLSS and ray tracing, long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues. Some players have also reported performance stuttering after several hours of gameplay, which can lead to hard crashes. There is speculation among the community that a memory leak might be the culprit behind these issues.
In response, Nixxes has acknowledged the reported 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 identified a specific bug that can occur during photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2 if the framerate drops below 20 FPS, suggesting that players lower their graphics settings or resolution as a temporary workaround.
