Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC Review – Swinging on to PC

Not much has to be said about Marvel’s Spider-Man that hasn’t already been said before. You can check out our reviews on when the game was originally released as a PS4 exclusive, and our review from when it was remastered for release on PS5. With Sony’s recent push to release more PlayStation Studios games on PC, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered was always going to be next in line.

Right out of the gate, the PC port for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is phenomenal. We tested the game on two different configurations and it ran wonderfully on both. On our first build which included a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, a Radeon 5600 XT GPU and 32GB of RAM, the game ran at high graphics settings while still maintaining almost 100 frames per second at 1080p. The other build included a Nvidia RTX 3080ti, a Ryzen 9 5900x processor and 32GB of RAM. However, this time, we ran the game with Ultra settings at 4K, and performance was smooth again.

When it comes to customizing graphical settings, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered comes fully featured with all of the options you’d expect from any modern PC game these days. As for resolution, the game has support for some of the more unconventional display resolutions out there, including support for the 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9 aspect ratios. This means that most ultrawide displays are supported right out of the box.

"Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered comes fully featured with all of the options you’d expect from any modern PC game these days."

Looking at the graphics options—one of the most important things for any PC game really—there’s a lot to love. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered offers a lot of control over how the game looks and runs. From obvious options like the ability to change the strength of the depth of field effect and motion blur, right down to being able to tinker with the quality of lighting, shadows, weather particles, and if you have a ray-tracing-capable graphics card, ray-traced reflections.

While we didn’t get to try out Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on a Steam Deck, some of the benefits of the game’s compatibility with the handheld PC did trickle down to regular PC gaming. The biggest example I can provide for this is the fact that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered had a bespoke configuration for using the Steam Controller. This largely works because the Steam Controller makes up for a large part of the Steam Deck’s controller DNA. Having a developer-made controller configuration with my controller of choice rather than having to fight around with the settings to find the right level of sensitivity for the right trackpad was definitely appreciated.

Owing to its Steam Deck verification, Linux gamers can also breathe easy, as this essentially means that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered should also run on most Linux distributions by making use of Valve’s own Proton layer. Unfortunately, there is no native support for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on anything but Windows. A downside to using an untraditional controller—the Steam Controller—was that some button prompts seem bugged. Oftentimes when the game would want me to push down on the right analogue stick (the right trackpad in the Steam Controller’s case), it would simply show a circle with a question mark in it instead of displaying R3 like it would for a DualShock 4 or DualSense, or LS like it would for Xbox controllers.

And let’s not forget one of the most underrated aspects of gaming on a PC—keyboard and mouse controls. Having primarily played Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered using a Steam Controller, I also gave the default keyboard+mouse option a shot. To my surprise, after a couple of minutes of a learning curve, the default key bindings felt surprisingly intuitive. While far from the most comfortable way to play a game originally made with console controllers in mind, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered works surprisingly well without one; just be ready for a sore left pinky after having to hold down the Shift button for traveling around. The only real downside with the default key bindings is that there isn’t much to do with the mouse while just swinging around the city aside from controlling the camera.

"Having primarily played Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered using a Steam Controller, I also gave the default keyboard+mouse option a shot. To my surprise, after a couple of minutes of a learning curve, the default key bindings felt surprisingly intuitive."

Speaking of which, it’s also worth noting that the controls in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered are fully customizable. I know, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal for a game originally envisioned to be played using a controller, but it definitely goes a long way in making the controls feel more accessible. And not to mention the fact that re-mappable controls is a generally great thing for players who might not be able to play the game with its default control scheme because of physical limitations.

Now that we’ve gotten the PC-specific bits out of the way, let’s talk about core elements of the game. Quite simply, the best thing about it is the traversal system. Traveling around New York City using Spider-Man’s web slinging hasn’t been this fun since Spider-Man 2 on the PS2. The minor detail of your web actually sticking to buildings as you swing around ends up offering an enormous level of freedom while traveling around, letting you build up momentum in the most natural ways. Combine that with a variety of other moves, such as the point launch, and even the minor ability to do fancy tricks while swinging around, goes a long way in making you feel like Spider-Man.

Combat, on the other hand, never gets too complicated. You have your attack button, the ability to dodge, Spider-sense to tell you when you should dodge, and a few aerial combos to get you started. Where a tiny bit of complexity does come in is the ability to use various gadgets to help you out in fights. These gadgets range from simple concepts like making your web more powerful to tie up enemies, to being able to use a drone to cause more chaos and distract enemies.

An interesting aspect of Marvel’s Spider-Man is how all of its gameplay systems seamlessly feed into each other. Exploration leads you to find puzzles, collectibles, and small side-missions, all of which reward you with tokens. These tokens can then be used to unlock new suits and upgrade your gadgets, which in turn can be used in other aspects of playing the game. It’s all quite cleverly done, and even just roaming around New York City collecting hidden backpacks ends up being quite rewarding.

"Traveling around New York City using Spider-Man’s web slinging hasn’t been this fun since Spider-Man 2 on the PS2."

Unfortunately, there is a downside to all of this—the rather dull and boring science puzzles that you end up having to do. The idea behind these puzzles is great, and they fit well with Peter Parker as a character. Unfortunately, they have the tendency to kind of break the game’s flow and pacing, since when you do need to do them for the rewards, they can either take you so long that it starts getting annoying, or they take you so little time that they might as well have not been there to begin with. These puzzles have some clever ideas behind them, but completing circuit boards or matching slides to recognize chemicals doesn’t really fit in with the rest of Marvel’s Spider-Man’s gameplay.

The other downside to Marvel’s Spider-Man is its tendency to randomly decide to make you play as Mary Jane. Sure, it fits in quite well with the game’s story, but in general, these stealth sections where you’re doing little more than slowly walking around are not only boring, but they can also get annoying, since getting spotted often means you have to do the whole thing all over again.

Now, on to the story. Marvel’s Spider-Man has one of the most engaging, creative stories I’ve seen from a Marvel property for a few years now. Kicking off with a bang with the takedown of Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk, the game takes a breather to introduce all of the important characters, and then slowly ramps up the threats leading to an excellent finale. Throughout its story, however, the humanity at display is what keeps Marvel’s Spider-Man compelling.

Peter Parker goes through a lot throughout the game. Forced to deal with having to balance his life as Peter Parker alongside his crime fighting as Spider-Man takes a heavy toll on him, and the game will never let you forget it. Parker’s struggles, and the fact that he has to often keep a brave face on by being the wisecracking Spider-Man while his world is collapsing around him ends up forming a core part of the game’s story.

"Marvel’s Spider-Man has one of the most engaging, creative stories I’ve seen from a Marvel property for a few years now."

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC is an easy game to recommend. Maintaining everything that made it good when it was first released, the PC version is quite easily the definitive version of the game, with support for PC-exclusive features like ultrawide monitors and RTX support. The fact that it’s Steam Deck verified also offers a few fringe benefits to PC gamers, such as the ability to play the game on Linux operating systems, and even the ability to play using the Steam Controller. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC is a fantastic game, and if you have the option, this is the best way to play it.

This game was reviewed on PC.