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 the game's performance based on its system requirements, many players are reporting significant technical issues. Currently, only 55% of the reviews on Steam are positive, highlighting widespread dissatisfaction among the gaming community.

Players equipped with high-end hardware, such as those 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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."

In addition to crashes, other users have reported issues with features like DLSS and ray tracing not functioning correctly. Complaints also include long loading times, missing textures, and audio problems. Some players have noted that performance can stutter after several hours of gameplay, eventually leading to a hard crash, with suspicions pointing towards a potential memory leak.

Nixxes has acknowledged the issues on the Steam forums, responding to one user with, "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."

Furthermore, Nixxes has identified a specific bug that can occur during the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2. They advised, "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."