Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Review Summary

Improved gameplay, highly enjoyable combat, and exceptional web-swinging make it fun and widely praised, though its engaging story falls short of the first game.

Gameplay improves over predecessors: Many reviewers highlight that gameplay is a significant step up from the first game and Miles Morales, with better mechanics, playability, and traversal. The overall experience is described as more fluid, complex, and less repetitive than before.

Universally praised as fun: The game is consistently described as great, fun, and enjoyable across numerous reviews. Players frequently call it amazing and wonderful overall, indicating broad satisfaction with the core experience.

Combat is highly enjoyable: Combat is praised as fun, satisfying, and fast-paced, with tight and juicy mechanics. Players enjoy the combat system with both Peter and Miles, finding it dynamic and evolved.

Engaging and well-developed story: The story is frequently described as very good, captivating, and well told. Reviewers find it excellent, engaging, and magnificent, keeping them entertained throughout.

Traversal is exceptional: Traversal, especially web swinging, is described as great, amazing, and addictive. Players find the movement solid and immaculate, making navigation a joy.

Story weaker than first game: Many reviewers feel the narrative is inferior to the original, citing weaker writing, less emotional depth, and a less engaging plot. The story is often described as a downgrade overall.

Weak and rushed story: The plot is often described as weak, incoherent, and rushed, with pacing issues and a lack of engagement. Many find the story hard to get into.

Poor PC optimization and performance: The PC version is widely criticized for poor optimization, including stuttering, low FPS, and general performance issues even on high-end hardware.

Frequent crashes during gameplay: Players report constant crashes during cutscenes and gameplay, with some crashes occurring 100% of the time at specific moments. This severely impacts playability.

Miles overshadowing Peter: Reviewers complain that Peter is repeatedly weakened to make Miles look better, forcing Miles into the main role at Peter's expense. This narrative choice is controversial.

Dual playable protagonists: Players control both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, switching between them. Each has distinct abilities and playstyles.

Web-swinging core traversal: Web-swinging is the primary traversal mechanic, allowing fluid movement through New York City. It is intuitive and central to the experience.

Combat system with gadgets: Combat is fast-paced and core, involving gadgets, abilities, parrying, and dodging against multiple enemies.

Symbiote powers and Venom: Symbiote abilities enhance combat, and players can control Venom in specific sections. Peter also has a symbiote phase.

Side activities and missions: The game includes numerous side quests, collectibles, and open-world activities alongside the main story.

Random freezes and crashes: The game sometimes freezes after a few hours of play, requiring a restart, and crashes from time to time. Freezes can last from thirty seconds to two minutes.

General poor optimization: Many reviewers describe the game as poorly optimized, with terrible performance overall. Some call it the worst optimized game they have ever played.

Frequent crashes during cutscenes: Many players report consistent crashes during cutscenes, often at specific unskippable moments, making story progression impossible. Crashes occur after cutscenes or during certain scenes, sometimes 100% of the time.

Constant stuttering and lag: Players experience constant lag and stuttering even on medium or low settings, with performance issues persisting on above-recommended hardware. Stuttering mid-game makes it unplayable for many.

Ray tracing causes performance issues: Ray tracing cannot be disabled and causes severe performance drops, stutters, and crashes on PC. Players report that turning off ray tracing improves performance and stability.

Great for Spider-Man fans: Players consistently say the game is a must-buy for Spider-Man enthusiasts, offering an authentic experience of swinging around New York. It is highly recommended for anyone who loves the character.

Buy only on sale: Many reviewers consider the game not worth full price and recommend waiting for a discount. The consensus is to buy it on sale or at a significantly lower price.

Recommended overall: A large number of players give a general recommendation without specific caveats. They simply state that the game is recommended or worth trying.

Worth it for fans of first game: Those who enjoyed the previous Spider-Man game find this sequel highly worthwhile. They consider it a must-play for anyone who loved the original.

Better on PS5: Multiple players note that the experience is less frustrating on PS5 compared to other platforms. They recommend playing on PS5 or avoiding it otherwise.

Community fair range: $30.00 - $40.00.

Game completion: 25.0h.

Story completion: 20.0h.

Session length: 4.0h.

Endgame: 38.0h.

Players consistently find web-swinging and combat immediately enjoyable, but many report that repetitive combat, side activities, and pacing make the experience wear thin later. A minority describe a slow or tutorial-heavy opening before the game improves, but the stronger pattern is fun from the start followed by fatigue.

Friction: Tutorial-heavy opening and slow start; Forced MJ and Harry bike sections; Boring minigames and side activities; Uneven story pacing; PC performance and technical issues.

Spider-Man Franchise Devotee: Story-first open-world play, often after finishing prior games, with attention to cinematic set pieces and character moments. Motivation: Follow Peter and Miles through a new symbiote-era story and see beloved characters realized. Stance: buy.

PC Performance Pragmatist: Tweaks settings, DLSS or FSR options, patches, and hardware thresholds; delays purchase until performance is acceptable. Motivation: Get a stable, crash-free PC experience that does not break immersion. Stance: sale.

Achievement Completionist: Clears side content, hunts trophies, plans New Game Plus, and watches for missable achievements. Motivation: Complete every achievement and fully clear the game efficiently. Stance: buy.

Across the largest hardware cohorts, performance reports are predominantly negative: the game is often described as poorly optimized, VRAM-heavy, stuttery, and crash-prone, though some users achieve playable results with upscaling, reduced settings, or high-end hardware.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: negative. Frequent crashes, stuttering, and VRAM-related instability dominate, with only isolated smooth-performance reports.

Windows <8GB VRAM / <16GB RAM: negative. Low-VRAM systems frequently report severe frame drops, crashes, and memory pressure, even when users lower settings or enable upscaling.

Windows <8GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: negative. Users often need extensive tweaking to get playable frames, and many still report stutter, VRAM limits, and crashes.

Steam Deck: Steam Deck feedback is dominated by severe performance problems, crashes, blurry upscaling, and manual workarounds, despite the game carrying a Steam Deck Verified label. Several users call the verification misleading or claim the game is nonfunctional on Deck, while a minority report acceptable play only after lowering settings, using FSR, or changing TDP. The primary barriers are stability and performance rather than external launchers, small text, or battery drain.

Linux and Proton: Most Linux/Proton feedback is positive: users report solid or smooth performance, and SteamOS users can play, sometimes with tweaks such as increased swap or FSR. Caveats include cutscene hitching, performance that is less smooth than Windows, and one isolated claim of total Linux failure. The consensus supports a playable but imperfect Linux/Proton experience with minor fixes.

Monetization: The reviews focus on the base price, missing DLC or sequel content, comparisons to Miles Morales, and a PC port crash. None of the provided feedback describes real-money microtransactions, loot boxes, gacha pulls, paid power, paid convenience, battle passes, or a cash shop in this game. Under the real-money gate and evidence threshold, the available evidence supports a fair one-time-purchase assessment rather than predatory monetization.

Mod reliance: The reviews show recurring reliance on community performance fixes and file modifications to improve playability, especially for frame rate and optimization issues. There is also one detailed report of a hard crash and technical workaround, but it is not widespread enough to indicate the game is broken for everyone. Other comments treat mods as optional enhancements or content additions, so the evidence supports a buggy-but-playable mod tax rather than a mandatory patch requirement.

External guides: The feedback is dominated by technical defects and external troubleshooting, especially Alt-Tab audio desync, graphical glitches, and poor performance. No evidence explicitly mentions farming, drop rates, inventory management, crafting requirements, quest outcomes, build guides, hidden secrets, or mechanics explanations, so the strict priority algorithm does not trigger Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3.

Inferior to previous Spider-Man games: Many reviewers consider this game a downgrade compared to the first game and Miles Morales, particularly in story, side missions, and combat. Some rate it significantly lower, e.g., 5/10 versus 9/10 for the first game.

Superior to predecessor in certain aspects: A significant number of players find the game better than the first game, praising improvements in graphics, gameplay, and technical aspects. Some even consider it the best in the series.

PC version performance issues: The PC port is criticized as worse than previous Spider-Man releases and requires a high-end PC to run well. Visuals and performance are sometimes better on PS5 compared to PC.

Sequel building on previous titles: The game is clearly a sequel that continues from Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales, reusing the setting and expanding on established mechanics. It is often described as part of a trilogy.

Mod support and PC features: The game supports mods on PC and features such as PS5 controller haptic feedback. It is also Steam Deck verified with adapted controls.