Have to Know
What’s it? An internet-swingin’ superhero sequel.
Launch date Jan 30, 2025
Anticipate to pay $60/£50
Developer Insomniac Video games, Nixxes Software program
Writer PlayStation Publishing LLC
Reviewed on Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAM
Steam Deck TBA
Hyperlink Official web site
£39.95View at Amazon £59.99View at Currys £59.99View at very.co.ukSee all costs (10 discovered)162 Amazon buyer opinions☆☆☆☆☆
In its first Spider-Man recreation, developer Insomniac already received crucial factor proper: the really feel of being super-powered. That was most evident within the glorious traversal, which set a brand new excessive watermark for web-swinging, but in addition within the easy and agile fight. The place it struggled was in supplying you with something fascinating to do with all that energy, its visually spectacular however largely empty open world providing solely drained previous aspect actions and filler.
My hope for this sequel was that with the core motion already perfected, there can be the area to enhance on the broader system, making a extra fascinating New York playground. As an alternative, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 merely has extra stuff—a much bigger story, extra pointless collectibles, sprawling ability bushes, and double the Spider-Males.
The result’s a cinematic however messy expertise that not solely nonetheless bears all the identical flaws as its predecessor, however in lots of areas—significantly the storytelling—appears like a step backwards. The ropiness of this PC port is a tragic addition to the problems, leading to a flawed model of an already flawed sequel.
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Spider-Man 2 swings straight into onerous crashes, efficiency points, and a really combined Steam score: ‘Points up the wazoo’
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Spider-Man 2’s PC launch woes are woe-ier than you suppose, because it appears to be like like GPU-powered DirectStorage is hobbling efficiency
The set-up is as easy as ever. You swing freely round New York, taking up no matter missions and actions you select. The principle story has that blend of slick however very linear motion setpieces and quiet character moments frequent to nearly all the fashionable PlayStation first-party titles—exterior of these, the town is scattered with elective aspect missions and issues to search out. The massive twist in Spider-Man 2 is that… nicely, there’s two Spider-Males.
The place the primary recreation starred Peter Parker, and its spin-off starred Miles, this one has each. Story missions select for you, however usually swap seamlessly between them because the motion calls for. Out within the open world, you are free to vary at will, with solely a handful of actions requiring one or the opposite.
It is onerous to not really feel, although, that Peter’s lack of ability to carry down a job or progress his relationship with MJ feels slightly larger stakes than Miles… procrastinating over his school utility?
Although not wildly totally different mechanically (they’re separated principally by a special set of fight powers), the 2 do really feel impressively totally different, largely because of prime notch animation work and a commendable consideration to element. Whether or not swinging via the town or beating up thugs, Miles has a free, energetic, and inexperienced really feel, the place Peter’s actions are extra assured, deliberate, and grown-up—and every has their very own set of dialogue and reactions to something they run into within the metropolis. How a lot this twin protagonist function really provides to the sport is slightly questionable I feel, however the execution is undeniably slick.
The place the 2 really feel moderately much less balanced is within the recreation’s story. Following the conclusions of their respective solo adventures they’re now a tight-knit crime-fighting duo, however each are predictably nonetheless struggling to juggle their superhero callings with their private duties. It is onerous to not really feel, although, that Peter’s lack of ability to carry down a job or progress his relationship with MJ feels slightly larger stakes than Miles… procrastinating over his school utility? He usually feels extra superfluous than superhero.
On the entire it is a tried and true set-up for a Spider-Man story—the perils of main a double life, making sacrifices to do the proper factor, all that jazz. However that does additionally imply it is a story we have seen an terrible lot of occasions earlier than, not solely throughout movies, TV, and comics, but in addition within the earlier two video games on this collection. It is a system that calls for a contemporary spin to be fascinating.
As an alternative, Spider-Man 2 plumps for a reasonably confused tackle the now venerable black swimsuit/Venom’s origin storyline. It is mashed along with an uncharacteristically large-scale invasion of New York by Kraven the Hunter (in search of worthy super-powered prey) and a tangle of different subplots and returning villains. The plot factors are outlandish, the themes muddy, and Miles does not actually have sufficient to do. None of that is essentially a dealbreaker, although—the true drawback is the characters.
Your pleasant neighborhood
Regardless of being awash with paramilitary legal organisations, New York has by no means felt extra toothless and boring.
In a narrative finally all in regards to the emotional stakes and the solid’s relationships with one another, the precise personalities are remarkably flat. Nearly everybody fills basically the identical function (Extremely Good Genius) and the addition of Miles’ supporting solid means there’s twice as lots of them chattering at you.
Dialogue has this odd faux-wholesome tone, such as you’re trapped in a company coaching video—all cautious politeness and empty one-liners. Even in emotional outbursts and tense confrontations, there is not any edge to anybody or any sense of an internal life. They’re so blandly good it suggestions over into being unsettling—you retain getting that feeling like everybody’s ready so that you can go away to allow them to badmouth you behind your again.
The identical subject even extends to the town itself. Regardless of being awash with paramilitary legal organisations, New York has by no means felt extra toothless and boring. Anybody Miles and Peter work together with who is not a part of a supervillain’s crew is as robotically nice as the primary solid (prepare to satisfy much more Extremely Good Geniuses), and their issues are often minor and simply solved with out assistance from a Spider-Man.
The vast majority of the aspect actions wind up feeling each mechanically and narratively pointless. An electrical bike race feels foolish sufficient in a Spider-Man recreation, however when the stakes are simply “I want somebody to check out my electrical bike”, it is onerous to not suppose Miles and Peter have extra urgent stuff to be getting on with. Ditto serving to a load of drippy college students end their class initiatives and ask one another out to promenade, stopping some well-meaning vacationers from setting off fireworks with out a allow, or the countless flying of drones, and remote-control bug robots via holographic rings within the sky. Far an excessive amount of of what you are doing appears like padding from the early days of open world video games—there’s extra inspiration right here from Crackdown than there’s from GTA V.
It makes these glorious core fundamentals carried over from the primary recreation really feel wasted. I discover myself traversing the town aimlessly, loving the way it feels simply to swing round however with nothing to swing in the direction of. And it undermines what’s already a weak story—if the core battle for each heroes is an absence of stability of their lives, could not that be solved by simply not bothering with half these items?
Ignore all that cruft and stick to only the primary story missions, and what you’ve gotten is about 10 hours of fairly enjoyable motion and spectacular spectacle intercut with one other 10 hours of limp character moments, predictable plot developments, and more and more odd stealth missions starring a Mary Jane who appears to have gone to John Wick evening college between video games. It is sufficient of a curler coaster to carry your curiosity, and the best way the town bodily adjustments and evolves to suit the continuing narrative is spectacular (from ‘post-Sandman assault’ to ‘overrun with large recreation hunters’ and past). However from a mission this clearly large and costly, all of it feels disappointingly undercooked.
Although hotfixes are flying thick and quick as I end out this evaluation, for me the patches have thus far didn’t deal with frequent crashes to desktop.
However not, it have to be stated, as undercooked because the port work. Although hotfixes are flying thick and quick as I end out this evaluation, for me the patches have thus far didn’t deal with frequent crashes to desktop. I discover it tough to diagnose my expertise—whereas others have seen wide-ranging efficiency points, for me the sport runs easily, till it all of a sudden does not. With out warning, in seemingly undemanding scenes and with none previous slowdown, the sport merely provides up, citing solely nonsensical show driver points. To date it is occurred about as soon as each half-hour, seeming to be extra frequent throughout story missions.
Whereas I do now very a lot recognize how zealously Spider-Man 2 autosaves, having to reload the sport twice an hour has made it all of the more durable to really feel excited and invested in what ought to be a thrill-a-minute expertise. Insomniac Video games created one thing exceptional within the first recreation: maybe one of the best feeling videogame superhero ever. For probably the most half, this recreation solely makes him really feel higher—and provides him an equally enjoyable associate as well. However the studio solely appears to have much less and fewer thought of what to truly do with him.
On PS5 in 2023, Spider-Man 2 a minimum of served as a powerful technical showcase for the {hardware}, and a blockbuster launch in a comparatively quiet launch schedule. On PC in 2025, with out these benefits and in a disappointingly shaky state, it is rather more tough to advocate.
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The Verdict
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Spider-Man 2
Toothless writing, old school open world design, and ropey port work undermine what ought to be an exciting cinematic journey.
Robin Valentine
Senior Editor
Previously the editor of PC Gamer journal (and the dearly departed GamesMaster), Robin combines years of expertise in video games journalism with a lifelong love of PC gaming. First hypnotised by the sunshine of the monitor as he muddled via Simon the Sorcerer on his uncle’s machine, he’s been a devotee ever since, devouring any RPG or technique recreation to stumble into his path. Now he is channelling that devotion into filling this pretty web site with options, information, opinions, and all of his hottest takes.
