Spider-Man 2 players already demanding refunds after PC launch “mess”

Spider-Man 2’s highly anticipated PC port was released on January 30, but just four days later, following thousands of negative reviews, it has garnered a “Mixed” review status on Steam.

Out of 5,167 reviews, the Marvel game has earned over 3,000 positive ratings, but has also racked up more than 2,000 negative ones, bringing it close to the second-worst status on Steam of “Mostly Negative.”

Despite the sequel being a beloved PlayStation exclusive since its original console release on October 20, 2023, the PC version has faced significant issues straight out of the gate.

Why has Spider-Man 2 been review-bombed on Steam?

The main reason players have reported is being unable to play Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for long periods of time due to frequent mid-game crashes despite players having high-performing PCs that are considered much more powerful than the stated minimum and recommended requirements.

These crashes have rendered the game nearly unplayable for many, with Steam reviews over the past few days reporting playtime ranging from just a few minutes to intervals of 10, 30, or even over an hour before the crashes occur.

“This game is an unoptimized mess. Random crashes and hiccups, cannot be played properly on any system I got, and it’s a real shame cause this game seems to be right up my alley,” one said, but did add, “So far it seems to be ok-ish on Steam Deck OLED for some reason.”

Another stated, “Game crashes 2 or 3 minutes into the gameplay. saying I got outdated GPU drivers even though I got the newest update.”

As a result, players have already started refunding the game, “Product refunded. I was a huge fan of the first game and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one…. Looks like I’ll be waiting a bit more.”

While others have said they would if issues aren’t resolved soon, “Extremely crash-prone game! Can not even play for 20-30 mins straight without a crash. Fix it asap or else it is better to get a refund.”

Players who experience no issues have praised the PC version

However, there have been numerous players who have been able to play the new Spidey PC port without any issues and have praised the gameplay.

“I guess this game must like my setup because I haven’t really experienced any of the performance issues other players have been reporting after updating my drivers. I only have an RTX 3060 lol. Performance aside, this is easily the best game in the whole series in terms of both gameplay and story,” one said.

Another added: “Absolute Blast of a game. Story is fantastic. The world is amazing. They improved in just about everything from the originals. Running everything maxed on my 4080 super and getting around 90 FPS with Frame Gen.

While others were more bang in the middle, “I basically 100% this game in the span of like 2 days and a quarter. It might be a good game, but optimization is a 1/10 highkey I have a decent pc and I could not enjoy decent graphics it kinda rammed my CPU to 100%.”

Given that the Spider-Man sequel is priced at $59.99 for the standard edition and $69.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition, with fans having to wait over a year for its release, the negative experiences have likely intensified frustrations among players.

At the time of writing, the PC port developer Nixxes, has not responded regarding the issue or released a fix, leaving the situation unresolved for many eager players. In the meantime, make sure you have the best PC settings to run Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.