Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 PC Review — Something To Marvel

When I played Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at release back in 2023, I proclaimed it to be one of the best action games of this generation. Now, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has web-slinged its way onto PC, bringing with it a slew of graphical enhancements to amplify the grandest adventure with your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man yet.

NOTE: This game has been reviewed using v1.218.0.0 of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the third patch since Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s initial release.

Swinging around New York City never gets old. We’ve done it numerous times before in previous Spider-Man titles, and this PC release enhances the Big Apple as we’ve never seen it before. Running along skyscrapers with the improved ray-traced reflections is relentlessly stunning, capturing Peter and Miles from all different angles at all different speeds. This is just one of the upgrades Nixxes Software has included to really push the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 experience to its full potential.

For reference, I have a 4070 and Intel Core i7 14700 Processor, meaning I could put more pressure on this software, and thankfully, I came out the other end smiling. I set the game to the very high graphics quality preset, which includes improved ray-tracing, including the options for ray-traced shadows and ambient occlusion, very high texture and shadow quality, 8x anisotropic texture filtering, and very high level of detail, traffic density, crows density, hair quality, and weather particle quality.

Having played both the PS5 version and the PC version, there was an obvious contrast in graphical fidelity. While the PS5 version is absolutely stunning in its own right, the PC version is the version you should play should you have the hardware capabilities.

If you haven’t been keeping up-to-date on the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the game did initially launch with a lavish amount of performance issues. At the time of review, it does appear most of these issues have been resolved through many hotfixes and patches. I have still encountered some minor performance issues, particularly while swinging through foliage, but have encountered nothing game-breaking or anything detrimental to the gameplay experience.

While Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 offers keyboard and mouse support, it is fundamentally built with DualSense in mind, so I would recommend using a controller to play this game. If you are adamant about using a keyboard and mouse, the ability to customise key binds is there to be utilised. The game is Steam Deck verified, though its quality and performance could not be tested in this review.

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I would like to shout out the numerous accessbility features present in the game, too. While it isn’t as in-depth and comprehensive as the accessbility seen in The Last of Us Part II, it truly is remarkable seeing how far we’ve come in the last 10 years in terms of creating accessible software for all gamers. There is still a long way to go, but the games industry appears to be moving in the right direction.

Touching briefly on the game itself, it is set 10 months after the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and allows you to play as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, with the ability to switch between the two during most parts of the game. The map is much larger than the previous two games, thanks to the addition of Brooklyn and Queens. The introduction of the web wings and wind tunnels creates a fresh new experience traversing New York City, alleviating any fatigue that may have culminated from a repeated setting.

In true Insomniac style, the game opens in a very cinematic and engaging boss fight with a familiar foe, which honestly just prepares you for how grand the adventure that follows is. I found the narrative to be more compelling than the blockbuster entries that preceded Spider-Man 2, with engaging story beats at every turn and emotional scenes that will tug at your heartstrings.