The much-anticipated PC release of Spider-Man 2, developed by Nixxes, has encountered a rocky start, earning a 'mixed' rating on Steam. Despite earlier optimism about its performance based on the revealed system requirements, many players have reported numerous technical issues, with only 55% of reviews being positive.

Players equipped with high-end hardware, such as an RTX 4090 and the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), have faced frequent crashes. One user stated, "Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers, the game frequently crashes." Another review read, "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 prompted one reviewer to caution, "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 issue seems to stem from frequent crashes of the game's graphics controller, even on higher-end PCs. An error message cited by a reviewer 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 This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game.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."

Other players have reported issues with features like DLSS and ray tracing not functioning correctly, alongside complaints about long loading times, missing textures, and audio problems. Some 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.

In response, Nixxes has addressed the reported crashes on the Steam forums, advising one user, "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."

Additionally, Nixxes has acknowledged bugs during the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2, stating, "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."