Fans of Spider-Man rejoice — the time has finally arrived. The critically acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, developed by Insomniac Games and optimised for PC by Nixxes Software, has made it to PC thanks to publisher PlayStation Publishing LLC. Having already played and completed the PS5 version of Spider-Man 2, I was more than eager to see what the PC players would experience. Let’s swing into what players can expect from the Steam release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 without further ado.

Marvel’s New York is under siege from multiple threats, and the city is in chaos. This looks like a job for Spider-man or Spider-men. Spider-Men Peter Parker and Miles Morales face the ultimate test of strength inside and outside of the suit as they fight to save the city, each other and the ones they love from multiple iconic villains and the new symbiote threat, the monstrous Venom. I love how much I can connect with each character within this incredible story. Usually, I’d be on the hero bandwagon and focusing solely on taking down the villains. However, the way this is written, I even connected with the villains and understood the reasons behind their atrocious acts. For a game to still be able to reduce a big lug like me to tears after multiple playthroughs is a testament to its brilliance in storytelling.

To become the best Spider-Man they can be, players must learn to adapt to their surroundings, exploit enemy weaknesses, and use a variety of gadgets and Spider abilities to take down each villain. Each mainline story mission and the vast majority of side missions are designed in a way that helps players explore the events of each story being told.

Upon completing each mission, the player is awarded XP and tech part rewards, which are used to upgrade abilities, gadgets, and Spider-suits. As you upgrade the gadgets and unlock new Spider-suits, you will get to a point where rare components are required to upgrade, which are scattered throughout the city. Clearing the city of its unwanted threats will award hero tokens, also used for gadget upgrades and unlocking new Spider-suits.

Players will test their metal in some of the most epic boss battles when concluding each story set. These boss fights can be intense and test players’ ability to use every new skill they’ve learned throughout their previous missions. Even though I had already beaten these bosses before on the PS5 version of the game, these fights still felt just as intense and challenging.

The PC version of Spider-Man 2 comes with a slew of PC-only optimisations, including NVIDIA DLSS3 and AMD FSR 3.1 upscaling and frame generation. With these features, players on PC have much more freedom of choice regarding graphical quality. Having settings like adjusting crowd and traffic density can breathe extra life into the city. However, with great power comes great responsibility.

While I found adding more people and traffic into the city exciting, the cost of frames was also too great. If you are an RTX 3060 user like myself, you may be disheartened to discover that the frame generation feature is locked to an RTX 40 series or better.

Having already experienced the improvements made to Ray-traced reflections, shadows, and ambient occlusion on the PS5 Pro, I was incredibly eager to check out what the PC version offered. PC users have a selection of Ray-tracing quality modes to choose from. However, when writing this article, I suggest turning off the Ray-tracing. Turning Ray-tracing on left me in a world of hurt with bugs and crashes. During close-up moments between characters, I often saw the whites of their eyes turn to black, making them look as if possessed by demons.

Two hotfix patches have been deployed, which have significantly improved game stability. There are still a lot of bugs left for the team to squash. Some of the bugs that I have come across during my playthrough are fairly minor, like scent trails that look like a squeezed tube of toothpaste, a few instances of being able to visibly see interactive place markers and a couple of throwable object prompts that manage to hang around after completing a mission. I encountered a couple of instances during a mission cutscene where dialogue vocals would completely disappear. Thank goodness for subtitles.

When I usually play games on my PS5, I would give nothing but praise for the haptic features and adaptive triggers. While I am grateful to see these features included in the PC version when using a Dualsense controller, it could use fine-tuning. For example, when walking around on the PS5, you will feel a slight vibration when stepping on certain surfaces. Over on the PC, that same walking motion gives a vibration like you’ve just been nailed by one of Miles’ Venom punches. The adaptive triggers feel more or less the same, though perhaps an option to tone it down would be warranted.

Marvel’s New York is such a visual feast that you could eat for weeks, with such an expansive world to explore. Perched atop familiar locations like Oscorp and Avengers Tower, looking out across the city is beautiful. Once the graphical performance issues and bugs are squashed, the Steam version will deliver the Ultimate Spider-Man 2 experience.

Aside from the audio issue I mentioned earlier, with some vocal lines disappearing during a couple of cutscenes, the in-game audio is almost identical to the PS5 version. The absence of the tempest 3D audio is most noticeable during fight sequences. Although I could hear an arrow being fired from an enemy off-screen, being able to tell whether or not it was above, below or right behind me did make the fights more challenging.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, in its current state, finds itself in a sticky situation, though it’s fair to say that with a bit of polish, it will live up to its multi-award-winning console counterpart. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a masterpiece in storytelling and character-building, a must-play for any Marvel fan. I look forward to revisiting this title once the issues have been fixed and hope I will finally get to taste the supreme Spider-Man experience.

Written by: Gary Nielsen