Insomniac Games delivered one of the best renditions of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in the form of 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man which is one of the most mechanically sound experiences of the last generation and also a tent pole release for the PlayStation 4. Once it seemed impossible that Sony would port such a successful release to PC, but the naysayers have been proven wrong once again and Marvel’s Spider-Man has made the jump over to PC. Developed by the recently acquired Nixxes Software, this version of the game makes some notable yet subtle improvements that should enhance the experience for players on the newer platforms.
An important point to note here is that this release isn’t a port of the 2018 PS4 release. Instead, it’s a port of the Remastered version that released for the PS5 in 2020 with a few new graphical bells and whistles. Our PC test bench consists of a Ryzen 9 5900X, 32 GB of RAM, and an RTX 3080 Ti – all running at stock speeds while the PS5 version that we will be comparing it to runs on Fidelity mode which obviously prioritizes graphics quality at a frame rate cap of 30fps.
With that out of the way, let’s begin:
PC Settings and Requirements
Nixxes Software and Insomniac Games recommends players to have at least an i3 4160, 8 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 950 to run Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on their rigs, but don’t expect to turn the settings up too much. By our guesses, you should be aiming for a 30fps cap at 900p while having a mixture of low and medium settings on such a setup. Over on the recommended tab, you should have an i5 4670, 16 GB RAM, and GTX 1060 6GB to enjoy the game at presumably, 1080p and 60fps.
The PC version comes with a whole host of sliders that allow you to find the perfect balance between graphics and performance. This isn’t all that surprising considering that Nixxes, a studio known for its quality ports, is helping out Insomniac Games with this translation. You can adjust texture quality, texturing filtering, level of detail, weather particle quality, and shadow quality alongside the ability to turn off depth of field, bloom, lens flares, chromatic aberration, and the like.
Furthermore, you can also cap your frame rate or leave V-Sync off to let the frames roll should your rig be able to handle it, of course. We also have a proper DLSS implementation in this port, and you can also choose the extent of DSR to get the perfect balance between performance and graphics quality. Anti-aliasing gets locked to DLAA when DLSS is in use, but you can turn that off and select from TAA and SMAA as well should you choose.
PC version improvements over the PS5 version – Ray-Tracing Implementation, Draw Distance, Character Models And More
As mentioned before, we are pitting the PS5 Fidelity version against the PC’s maxed-out settings. Both versions are pretty similar to each other in their presentation, but the PC version does have some subtle upgrades with respect to graphics quality. The biggest is definitely shadows, which has more depth than the PS5 version. Areas in shadow tend to be darker while the ones in direct light are more pronounced than the console counterpart, and that contributes to a more realistic feel, especially in cinematics where the characters are the primary focus.
These are all very subtle changes, and the PS5 version stacks pretty well against the PC version. But then, of course, you have the option to swing around these picturesque skylines at 60fps or more with all these graphical bells and whistles turned to the max on PC while on the console end of things, you have to sacrifice performance for graphics and vice-versa.
As mentioned previously, Marvel’s Spider-Man’s PC port also features a couple of options for ray-tracing. You can choose between low, medium, high, and ultra on the PC front while you are stuck to RT and RT+Performance modes on the PS5. In Fidelity mode, the console version seems to be set to high quality ray-traced reflections which look a bit blurrier in comparison to our crisp PC reflections which are set to ultra preset.
Coming to character models, while not a lot has changed – the hair looks to be of noticeably sharper quality, though that could be a direct result of the noticeably better lighting. Then there’s the draw distance, which seems to be identical to the PS5 version. Suffice to say, the draw distance is remarkable on both platforms and you wouldn’t find any signs of pop-in or shoddy LoD swapping that can distract from the experience. Everything loads in smoothly without any jitter and stutters, so no harm and no foul here.
While this might not be a bespoke improvement over the PS5 version, Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC fully supports the PS5 DualSense controller. Simply plug in the controller via a USB cable or wirelessly through Bluetooth, and you should be able to enjoy the enhanced haptics and adaptive triggers on PC as well. Should you have the option to play through the game using a PS5 controller, it’s absolutely recommended that you do.
Performance
Insomniac Games has proven itself a master of Sony hardware as it pumps out quality titles with jaw-dropping visuals that are all rendered smoothly at target frame rates, but what about the PC version? Sony’s previous outings on the platform like Horizon Zero Dawn have struggled in this department, but I’m happy to report that Marvel’s Spider-Man mostly rights these wrongs.
During our experience, performance remained mostly consistent with over 60 fps at all times. This might not seem much given our test bench, but keep in mind this is all maxed-out at 4K with RTX on with DLSS. There were some dips here and there, but that shouldn’t detract from the smooth gameplay otherwise. Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC seems to be a rather optimized port from PlayStation 5, and the game should be enjoyable on a wide spectrum of hardware. The game is also Steam Deck Verified, though we haven’t actually tested the game on that particular hardware – so we can’t say much on that end.
Conclusion
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered has a made a glorious jump to PC, and is a fully packed port with most of the options that one would want from a PC game. While there isn’t much of a difference in visuals when compared to the PS5, players do get the option of playing at higher frame rates and utlra wide resolutions, along with much better quality ray tracing. In its current state – Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC is a great way to experience this one hell of a game complete with all its DLC.
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