With 2023's Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Insomniac Games delivered yet another pulse-pounding superhero adventure, one that built on the foundation laid by the beloved 2018 game and took everything to the next level. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 gave players the chance to live out their web-swinging fantasies as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, all while battling iconic supervillains like Kraven the Hunter, Venom, and various other baddies from Spider-Man's rogues gallery. Spider-Man 2 is still one of the best superhero games you can play, but it's best to stick with the PS5 version over the PC port for now.
Sony's PlayStation to PC ports have been mostly solid. God of War Ragnarok made a near-perfect transition to PC, as did Ghost of Tsushima. Unfortunately, there have also been some PlayStation PC ports that have missed the mark, like The Last of Us Part 1. The Last of Us Part 1 had all kinds of technical problems when it first launched for PC, and now Spider-Man 2 has followed in its footsteps.
Despite Spider-Man 2's relatively forgiving system requirements, the game seems to seriously struggle on PC. I have experienced multiple crashes while playing the game, with the first coming right after the initial cutscenes and before any gameplay. Later, crashes occurred most commonly in the middle of fights. In one particularly annoying instance, the game crashed and even though I closed out of it completely, the audio kept blaring from my computer speakers until I reset my PC. The good news is Spider-Man 2 autosaves constantly so while the crashes are frustrating, players can usually start right where they left off after booting the game up again.
Spider-Man 2 is a Blast When It Works
Spider-Man 2 on PC has already received updates meant to address some of its more serious technical problems, but I am still experiencing crashes. And I'm not the only one. All kinds of PC gamers with all kinds of rigs have reported crashing issues with Marvel's Spider-Man 2, so it's clear that more work needs to be done to make the game more stable. Once those updates come through, Spider-Man 2 should be an excellent new addition to Sony's lineup of PC games, as the core experience is still a ton of fun when it works.
Spider-Man 2 features an engaging superhero story full of twists and turns, brand-new symbiote powers to master as Peter Parker, and tons of incredible fights. It all takes place in a gorgeously-rendered open world New York City that, despite the odd graphical hiccup and clipping here and there, looks as good if not better on PC as it does on PS5. The animations are smooth, the combat is fast-paced and exciting, and the web-swinging exploration is top-notch. Spider-Man 2 is a fantastic game that is typically difficult to find fault with, so it's a shame that the PC version has such serious issues at launch.
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