Whether it’s the allure of previously being exclusive to PlayStation or simply the fact that the games are good, Sony Interactive Entertainment has enjoyed considerable success on PC.

The 2018 hit God of War sold 971 000 copies by May of this year and now another 2018 has landed on PC in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. Having played the game at launch in 2018 we were excited to swing through New York once again and see what Insomniac Games and Nixxes had done to bring an already great experience to PC.

So then, let’s take a dive into Sony’s latest foray into the PC market.

“You’re not Peter Parker”

One of the downsides of reviewing videogames is that when you’re done with the game, you’re less likely to play it again. Something about being critiquing a game and picking it apart really just sours the experience.

When loading up Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered (we’re just calling the game Spider-Man from here on out for brevity’s sake) I was shocked to see that the face of Peter Parker was different. Upon further investigation I discovered that this change was made in 2020 and it works.

We have nothing against John Bubniak, who was the original facial capture for Peter Parker but the recasting of Ben Jordan was a great decision. The raw emotion you can see on Parker’s face in this iteration is just better and helps you believe that Parker is experiencing the emotions the voice acting conveys.

We also think it’s worth pointing out again that the voice actor for Spider-Man and Parker, Yuri Lowenthal, had to record some voice-lines twice. This is because, when Spider-Man is swinging or running through Manhattan, he needed to sound like he was exerting himself. However when Spider-Man sits still, the voice actor needs to sound more relaxed.

The entire cast here does an excellent job with the exception of Scorpion, Vulture and Electro. These aren’t necessarily bad, but they aren’t necessarily great either when contrasted against the likes of Mark Rolston’s Norman Osborn or Nancy Linari’s Aunt May.

Explore the city, quickly

Enough about voice and facial acting, let’s talk about actually playing Spider-Man.

Much like the 2018 version, players are dumped right into New York City where 23-year old Peter Parker has been swinging around and fighting crime for eight years. Travelling through the city is the best part of this game.

As you progress, you open up the ability to do aerial acrobatics, shoot yourself off of building ledges and even dodge mid-air. Everything just flows and transitioning from swinging to running on the ground to take selfies with New Yorkers still feels great four years after we played Spider-Man for the first time.

After completing an introductory mission which serves as a tutorial, you are given free rein
of New York and a few side quests and missions open up. These quests include dispatching enemies from a base, chasing down criminals, catching birds, completing research missions and chasing drones. While fun distractions, players need to complete at least a few of these side quests to unlock tokens that are used for upgrades and to purchase new suits for Spider-Man.

And here is where our first problem with the game arises – it rushes the player. Between missions you will hear Spider-Man say he needs to patrol the city hinting that the player should complete some side quests and earn tokens. After completing two of these side quests the player will then be prompted to continue with the main mission.

Of course you can ignore these queues but it’s clear that Insomniac doesn’t want you to do that. During the second act after completing two side quests I ignored the calls to continue with the main mission only to hear a voice-line reminding me I need to head to the main mission. This voice line was delivered enough times that I abandoned my quest for Challenge Tokens and did the main quest.

This just makes the game feel like it’s pushing you to move the narrative forward to hit New Game+ where you can then spend your time catching birds or searching for backpacks. We would really like if Insomniac gave the player a bit more freedom to do things other than the main mission without being reminded of the end-goal constantly.

Swinging around as Spider-Man is great but combat gets very stale very quickly. There are only so many ways you can web up an enemy before it looses the appeal. The stealth sections of the game as Mary Jane and Miles Morales are painful and should’ve been switched out for cutscenes in this remaster.

While speeding through New York City is at the core of the Spider-Man experience, we really wish the story didn’t rush us to finish it.

The PC port

The PC port of Spider-Man is good but not great. We’ve had three crashes in the 16 hours we’ve spent in the game. These present as the game simply kicking us to the desktop along with a prompt to inform Sony of the crash.

Our review PC looks as such:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• Memory: 16GB DDR4 @ 2133
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
• Storage: SATA SSD
• Display: 1080p @ 144Hz

Running at the High preset with V-sync on, and FSR off, we averaged 51FPS through our entire playthrough. There was no stuttering to speak of and aside from the three crashes, things were stable.

The graphics options are about what we’d expect and we didn’t feel like we were missing things. We like that you can adjust how busy the streets of New York City are, how detailed hair is and more to eke out a few extra frames per second.

Buy or wait for a sale?

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is a lot of fun and it will keep you coming back for more as you progress through the story, especially if this is your first time with the game.

The narrative on offer here is great. We would have loved to see more iconic Spider-Man villains – and in a larger role than those present played in the story – but what we have will do.

Our recommendation then is that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is absolutely worth the R699 entry price. For those who want to wait to see if Sony will bundle this title with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, that might be a direction to take.

If all you want is to experience this fantastic game and enjoy a great Spider-Man story, do yourself a favour and get it now.

Review code for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC was provided to Hypertext by Sony Interactive Entertainment.