Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC Review

Release Date: August 12, 2022

Engine: Proprietary Engine

Genres: Adventure game, Platform game, Fighting game

Developers: Insomniac Games, Nixxes Software

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows

Publishers: Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, Sony Interactive Entertainment

"Review Copy Provided By PlayStation"

The PlayStation trend of porting their high-profile games over to PC has been a point of contention for many gamers primarily those of the fanboy camp who still believe a console war is happening. I personally feel that this is a brilliant move on Sony’s end as it gets their games into more people’s hands and ultimately can bring more players over to the PlayStation brand in the long run with how well made and high quality their games are. Marvel’s Spider-Man is no exception to this trend as it is not only the best superhero games since the Batman Arkham series but is one of the best games ever made that nails both the gameplay and the story of what it’s like to be Spidey. The PC port of the game is no exception as it not only includes all the upgrades from the previous PS5 Remastered version but also gives us more options for a much higher visual fidelity and better performance but also gives us the option to have this landmark title be entirely portable and playable on Valve’s Steam Deck and it is MARVELOUS!

Touching on the technical aspects that you get to tinker with for this port; you get substantially improved lighting along with ray tracing/ray-traced reflections off buildings and bodies of water, an even higher frame rate in comparison to the PS5 version, graphical enhancements to everything in the game from characters to NPCs to environments, and best of all is the massive jump in loading time to the point of being near non-existent. You can adjust the reflections, shadows, character detail, lighting, field of view, as well as utilize FSR 2.0 in conjunction with NVIDIA DLSS or if you’ve got a rig powerful enough then just run the game at max settings. You can run the game at 4K, 1440p, or 1080p with a refresh rate from as low as 30FPS all the way to over 120FPS depending on your PC rig.

What I absolutely love is the fact that the game works perfectly with ultrawide monitors so I can play this on my 49” ultrawide as well as my 34” ultrawide monitors without any visual distortions and gives not only the general gameplay a more cinematic feel but also the cutscenes and brings them to life in a way that normally wouldn’t feel as spectacular as it does, so I give a hats off to Nixxes for incorporating it so perfectly.

Speaking of controls; you can play this game with any controller setup from mouse and keyboard, Xbox Controller, Switch Controller (if you want to), and PS4 and PS5 controllers. What’s cool about using a PS5 controller is that it allows you to utilize DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers however you’ll need to have a wired connection if you want to use those features.

When it comes to playing this on the Steam Deck, you can expect to get a good hour and a half of gameplay if you have it on its default settings which have the graphical settings set to medium and framerate set to 30fps with FSR 2.0 turned on. You can adjust the graphical detail as well as the framerate and push it up to 60FPS although depending on what you have turned on the game may have a fluctuating framerate if you don’t have the settings on medium with the higher refresh rate. If you tinker with the TDP settings and per game profiles on your Steam Deck then you could get near 2 and a half hours of gaming on the go. The fans do kick in when playing this portably, but they never got loud to the point where it was unbearable nor overtook the speakers on the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck does get warm when playing this on it but never burning to the touch so keep that in mind.

If you’ve previously played the game on PS4 or PS5 then the core gameplay hasn’t changed at all and still the most comparable to the gameplay you’ll find in the Batman Arkham games in terms of overall feel and core mechanics with its bare-knuckle combat and stealth scenarios feel very similar, just with a Spider-Man twist. Spider-Man makes combat feel more open-ended with you utilizing his punches, kicks, web slinging, combo enders, and deployment of web-based gadgets. Web-slinging is pure bliss as the geometric complexities of Spider-Man’s web-slinging is enthralling with all the player needing to do is direct the swing and press RT with you being able to do ariel tricks and combination zipline swings after launching yourself off a normal swing allowing you to maintain momentum. Momentum is a massive part of this game and it with a little practice you’ll be swinging cross the various city’s’ in Manhattan’s skyline and acrobatically propelling Spidey from ledges for a burst of speed.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is an excellent looking game that runs smoothly on PC and Steam Deck. I didn’t run into any animation or graphical hitches or issues within the framerate and for the most part it was smooth sailing. There isn’t a real dynamic day/night cycle or weather system unfortunately since that is dictated by the story. When it is night or raining, the world looks impressive. The character designs of Spider-Man and the villains are fantastic (The updated model for Peter in Remastered compared to the original 2018 release has finally grown on me). Some of the villains look unique while still maintaining their iconic comic integrity. Insomniac’s version of New York is a lively recreation with all the real-life landmarks you would expect plus a couple Marvel-centric ones too. While street population isn’t as dense as I would have expected it to be, I found myself spending more of my time swinging between buildings than on the ground interacting with pedestrians.

I love the fact that this version not only gives you the base game but also all the DLC as well so you’re getting your money’s worth here!

AII in all, wrapping this review up, it’s a certainty that insomniac nailed their version of Spider-Man back in 2018 and in 2022 knocked it out of the park with this PC port that makes an already fantastic game that much more playable. From the gameplay to the graphics to the story to the world, an immense amount of care is apparent and greatly appreciated. Spider-Man is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in 2022 and being able to play this on the Steam Deck makes it just that much more amazing! Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered for PC is a must play can’t miss game.