Spider-Man Remastered PC Review – Finally Swings To PC

It’s hard to believe that Insomniac’s Spider-Man is finally on its way to PC after it was initially announced to be exclusive to the PlayStation 4. Sony has certainly been investing more and more in the PC and trying to establish a fanbase on the platform. Even the critically acclaimed title God Of War also made a debut on Steam earlier this year. And so, to mark the occasion, we have prepared this Spider-Man Remastered Review.

The original game was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Insomniac Games, the studio behind other well-known darlings such as Sunset Overdrive and the Ratchet And Clank series. The Remastered version, however, was developed by another studio under PlayStation named Nixxes Software, which specializes in making PC ports.

And so, with this article, we hope to highlight all of the improvements that have been made with this re-release.

Story And Overview

The story of Spider-Man Remastered is the same as it was back when the original was released in 2018. Players take on the role of the charismatic Peter Parker, who has to keep his secret identity as Spider-Man hidden from the world, all the while keeping the city safe from the classic and iconic villains such as Kingpin, Norman Osborn, Rhino, and a few more. But the story is not perfect by any means.

Spider-Man at its core is an action game, and when it tries to implement stealth in some parts of the story, it does not quite pay off. The Mary Jane and Miles Morales sections where players are forced to slowly make their way through various locations really break the flow and pacing of the game, and some people rightly consider them the worst parts of the game.

When it comes to the villains in the story, Spider-Man has one of the most iconic rosters of villains in comic book history, directly rivaling some of Batman’s enemies even. Yet it is disappointing to see most of these characters only restricted to the main missions of the game.

In contrast, in Batman Arkham Knight most of the villains were used to affect the open world, and you had the choice to deal with them whenever you are ready. In Spider-Man however, all these villains are restricted to the story and the player will not even know about their presence until the second half of the game. I consider this wasted potential, and it is definitely one of the downsides of the game for me. 

Also, if you didn’t play the remastered version of the game that was released back in 2020 for the PS5, then there is one significant change that you will notice quite instantly. Peter Parker’s face model was changed in this version of the game, which can either be a good thing, a bad thing, or no issue at all depending on the player. But aside from the face model, everything else is the same as it was back in the 2018 release, except for the visuals, but we will get to that later.

Gameplay 

At first glance, it seemed like every single thing in Insomniac’s Spider-Man was designed around the layout of a Playstation controller, all the way from the QTEs to the combat mechanics. And so when the PC port was announced, a lot of players were skeptical because it was no easy task to properly optimize every single action to a keyboard and mouse layout without some awkwardness. 

But it is truly astonishing to see that Nixxes Studios were not only able to map every single move of Spider-Man quite flawlessly to the keyboard and mouse, but they were actually able to make the experience feel superior at certain times compared to on the PS4.

A mouse allows the players to properly set or change the position of the camera more quickly and precisely. And thanks to it, I was able to move through the tight spaces between buildings and the other city infrastructure more promptly while swinging through this fictional New York.

Aside from swinging, the combat is also implemented perfectly on the keyboard and mouse, considering how diverse the movesets are. Every single key required in combat is comfortably reachable with the left hand, making it so you don’t ever feel that your fingers are placed in an awkward manner.

Developers of the critically acclaimed Batman Arkham Series are originally the pioneers of the combat system used in this title, as well as many other games such as Mad Max and even Shadow Of Mordor. And while Spider-Man has near flawless combat which even improves on the Arkham Series systems in some ways, it does fall a bit on the repetitive side, especially near the end-game.

And while we are on the topic of gameplay, let’s talk a bit about the open world. While the developers have done an outstanding job designing the map, they have not done a proper job filling it as most of the side quests just boil down to icon chasing on the map. It’s definitely pretty disappointing, but not significant enough to ruin one’s experience since it is all optional.

Visuals And Performance 

Naturally, whenever a console exclusive gets a PC port, it also gets a new set of superior textures, improved shadows, more details, and whatnot. Spider-Man Remaster is no exception in this case. After already being remastered for the PS5, the game was once again “Remastered” for PC.

Aside from having the option of better visuals than their console’s counterpart, the game also features all the goodies that PC players adore such as unlocked framerates, DLSS, DLAA, and widescreen support. As the cherry on top, the PC port has official compatibility with the PS5 controller, allowing players to utilize all the PS5 controller features such as Haptic Feedback on PC.

However, this does not mean the port is perfect. As much as I hoping for the Spider-Man PC port to be as flawless as the God Of War PC port, It does have some shortcomings. The prime issue in the PC port is the ray-traced reflections. If you stop to look at reflections on vehicles and such, you can easily tell that they do not look quite right. And if you do decide to run the ray-tracing at high, be prepared to constantly dip below a stable 60 FPS.

If you are not interested in ray-tracing, or if you do not have an RT-compatible GPU, then this should be no problem for you, however, the issue still exists. But who knows, perhaps Insomniac Games will patch the problems in the near future with a patch or two.

Verdict

Spider-Man RemasteredSpider-Man Remastered Implementing one of the best traversal systems ever seen in any game, featuring near flawless combat, with a relatable protagonist that ticks all the boxes in being a perfect protagonist for arguably any game, Insomniac’s Spider-Man has everything a fan of the webhead ever wanted plus more.

However, this does not mean that the game is perfect. It has its fair share of flaws, but none are significant enough to ruin one’s experience. I would say that the game is indeed worth it, and Spider-Man fans on PC who weren’t able to play the game on the PlayStation 4 or 5 are in for an unforgettable ride.

That concludes our detailed review of the Spider-Man Remastered PC port.

We hope our review helped you in deciding whether Spider-Man Remastered on PC is worth it for you or not. The game is available to purchase now on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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