The much-anticipated release of Spider-Man 2 on PC, developed by Nixxes, has met with a lukewarm reception, garnering a 'mixed' rating on Steam due to numerous technical issues. Despite the promising system requirements suggesting a smooth experience, the reality for many players has been quite different.
Currently, only 55% of the game's Steam reviews are positive. One user with an RTX 4090 and the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36) reported frequent crashes, stating, "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes." Another player echoed this sentiment, describing the game as "completely unplayable on PC," with crashes occurring every five minutes, prompting them to request a refund.
A reviewer warned potential buyers to "hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell. To say this is 'rough' is an understatement." They detailed a range of performance issues, including lighting not loading in cutscenes, scenes running at seconds-per-frame, audio desync issues, freezing, and stuttering. This led them to seek a refund, prioritizing other uses for their $70.
The primary problem seems to be frequent crashes of the game’s graphics controller, even on high-end PCs. One error message cited by a reviewer 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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."
Other complaints include malfunctioning features like DLSS and ray tracing, alongside long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues. Some players have reported performance stuttering after extended play, eventually leading to hard crashes, with suspicions pointing towards a potential memory leak.
In response, Nixxes has acknowledged the issues 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 also highlighted a specific bug during photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2, suggesting that lowering graphics settings or resolution could help if the framerate drops below 20 FPS.
