Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC Review – Spectacularly Sublime

Reviewed on PC. Review copy provided by PlayStation.


Spider-Man needs no introduction. Unless you’ve been living on a deserted island for the past 100 years, there’s a strong chance you know Spider-Man. And if you’ve been playing or following video games for the past couple of years, you know of the Spider-Man game by Insomniac Games.

To catch you up though, Spider-Man Remastered is an updated version of Insomniac’s Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4 that was released in 2018. This updated version for the PlayStation 5, and now PC, features upgraded visuals, resolution, faster load times, more framerate options, and includes the DLC as part of it.

This review will focus more on the PC side of things so let’s start with what’s new and interesting on the PC side of things.

With Great Power…

  • So the PC port comes with all the bells and whistles that the PS5 version has and then some. To start off, one of the big great features of the PC version is the support of ultrawide resolutions. This isn’t some half-measure support either, the game properly supports ultrawide monitors. The HUD can be adjusted properly but best of all, no annoying black bars during cutscenes. Every single cutscene in the game works great in Ultrawide.

  • And then of course we have the framerate. On the PS5, with supported displays, you can get up to 100 FPS in the game. On PC, you can go all the way up to 144hz if you want but that’s a bit of a challenge. I’ll get to that in a bit. But overall, the game does play well with different framerates most of the time.
  • The game features a good set of graphical settings to play around with to make it run well on your system. In terms of scalability, the game runs quite well on low-end systems. It also runs quite well on the Steam Deck and is completely playable on it.

  • However, if you’re on the top end of the spectrum, things aren’t the best. For starters, the game’s multicore CPU performance isn’t the best. This means if you want to hit framerates above 100fps, you might struggle to do so. And as of writing this review, there’s also a memory leak issue that rears its head after a few hours of gameplay. Additionally, some minigames don’t seem to work too well on high framerates but this is being worked on.
  • The game also ships with DLSS, FSR, and Insomniac’s own in-house Temporal Upscaling. This is fantastic because you can choose which offer works the best for your use case. Especially if you’re trying to eke out performance on a low-end system or want to use Ray Tracing.

Sometimes PC good, Sometimes PS5 good

The PC version of the game also comes with an HDR mode but when compared to the PS5 version, something definitely feels off about it. The PC version just doesn’t seem to be as good as the PS5 version, with colors looking slightly washed out and highlights not popping as much as they should. Hopefully, this can be fixed in one of the upcoming patches.

One of my favorite features that I absolutely wish they can add to the PS5 version or Spider-Man 2 is the FOV setting. Setting the FOV to be wider makes swinging feel so much faster. I didn’t think it would have such a drastic effect but setting the FOV to the narrowest and then widest shows such a massive difference in the “speed”.

And since you’re playing on PC, you also have support for a keyboard and mouse. Nothing too fancy or extraordinary here. It’s solid and people who have played the Batman Arkham games on PC will find this similar.

Finally, the PC version also comes with DualSense support. So if you’re someone who owns a DualSense controller and wants to get the most out of it, this game allows you to do so.

…Comes Great Responsibility

  • I’ll try to keep the story parts of the game as spoiler-free as possible. Primarily because I know a lot of people will be playing the game for the first time. And secondarily because I genuinely love the story of this game. I personally feel it’s one of the best Spider-Man stories to have come out in recent times. Be it in movies, shows, games, or comics.
  • And one of the big reasons for that is the writing and performance. The writing is really fun especially if you’re new to Spider-Man. This isn’t high-school Peter Parker learning to become Spider-Man. This is a mid-20s Peter Parker who has 8 years of being Spider-Man under his belt, and all the baggage that comes with it.

  • And all the amazing writing is brought to life by some incredible actors. Yuri Lowenthal absolutely nails it as Spider-Man and Peter Parker. He’s very likely to go down as one of the most iconic voices for Spider-Man. There are moments in this game that are quite heavy and emotional, and they hit you like a truck because of just how good the performance is. Even after playing through the game 6-7 times, there are moments that still get me every single time.
  • The game also respects a lot of its source material which is probably why it’s done so well. It’s made changes but never out of “shock” or “subversion”. And I’m genuinely excited to see where the story goes from here.

Pulling Your Punches

I know this has been memed a lot but I have to say it. This game makes you feel like Spider-Man. The swinging and web traversal are so much fun. As you unlock new skills the swinging gets even better and faster. I barely used the fast travel system in the game because web-swinging is so much fun. And that’s true for a majority of the people who I’ve spoken with as well.

If you’re expecting Spider-Man 2 like swinging, it’s not that. But it’s fun and satisfying nonetheless. I do hope they add more to the swinging mechanics of that game in the sequel though. Not because something is broken or not fun but simply because I want more. Maybe some more momentum-based stuff, or being able to aim your web for swings. I’m sure the wizards at Insomniac are already working on something so I trust they’ll deliver.

In terms of story, the main game is about 17-20 hours long, depending on how much side activity you do. And the side activity in this is actually pretty fun. There are collectibles that aren’t a pain the butt to get, there are combat challenges that make you better at the game and side-missions where you interact with some of the people of NYC.

Getting 100% completion in this game isn’t a chore. So if you want to get 100% achievements, it’s very doable. It will take you two playthroughs though because 2 achievements are tied to NG+. The DLC isn’t too long and will take you about 8 hours to finish.

Suiting Up

Now the game has tons of suits. And there are a lot of great suits to choose from. If you’re a fan of the movie suits, be it the Toby suit, the Andrew suit, or the Tom Holland one, they’re all here. Most of the suits that are unlocked via game progression have unique suit abilities as well that can change up your play style. Thankfully, you can mix and match suits and their powers.

There are a lot of suits to choose from so make sure to play around and find your favorite one. And since we are on PC, modders have blessed players with some great suits. Like Pepsi-Man. There’s a Kermit the Frog one too which is great. Or my personal favorite, Saul Goodman. That’s right, with the power of mods you can play as Albuquerque’s best lawyer and protect NYC.

TL;DR

If you like video games, then you need to do yourself a favor and play this. If you like superheroes, play this. Also, if you liked the Batman Arkham games, play this. And if you want a fantastic experience from start to finish that you’ll have an absolute blast with, play this. What I’m trying to say is, go and play Spider-Man Remastered.

Spider-Man Remastered is a spectacular game that mixes fun gameplay and combat with a story that will keep you hooked throughout. The visuals are an absolute treat for the eyes and the voice performance not just for your ears but also for your heart. The PC version makes it way more accessible to countless gamers with good technical performance and only a few bugs that will hopefully be ironed out soon.


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