Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered: Why my favorite thing to do is swing around New York on the Steam Deck

Boring side quests can do little to harm the lavish staging and first-class imitation of Spiderman’s skills.

I’m not the biggest superhero fan, especially when it comes to the well-known comic book characters – but gentlemen: The masked and capped ones fit into the action-packed video game like a lid on a pot! Whenever the developers capture their superhuman abilities so skilfully that you tumble through turbulent showdowns with cool maneuvers, it’s always great fun. I played even the original Marvel’s Avengers for more than a hundred hours and I’m still playing it because the combat system is just fantastic.

And the current Spider-Man from Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Resistance) can do that too. It simply feels terrific to swing through the iconic urban canyons of New York to photograph a sight in mid-flight and to be on your way to the next without landing in between! The fighting is in no way inferior, when you pull baddies into the airy heights in order to kick them over the edge of the roof with a curved kick, triggering slow motion with perfect dodges and thereby initiating a finisher at the same time.

Spinning webbed enemies around before throwing them into the arms of one of their buddies, quickly deploying numerous spider gadgets, and sometimes standing in the air for seconds while stringing together stylish moves: the action in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is simply spectacular! Think of a story that Marvel could have told on the big screen, complete with some boldly staged highlights that almost rival Batman: Arkham Knight, and you pretty much know what’s finally in store for PC.

Well, when it comes to filling material, the local Spidey falls behind quite a bit. The tedious scouring through the mostly quite boring repetitive tasks is not exactly its strength. Where Insomniac captures him perfectly as an action hero, his abilities as an investigative scientific genius succeed far less accurately. At least you’re a long way from the clever puzzles and entertaining side missions of the Arkham series. I even find the hidden object search for a little cat downright dreadful and clicking on 55 backpacks really has nothing in common with an exciting search for interesting collectibles.

But that’s exactly why the game fits so well with the Steam Deck. It just doesn’t bother that much if you grab your handheld while lounging on the couch, rush through New York a little, do such small things on the side and then put the device to the side again. The relatively carefree enjoyment of the great superhero sim can also be extremely practical on the go.

Only half the rate

I was initially quite disappointed that Marvel’s Spider-Man doesn’t run with 40 second frames on Valve’s deck. Because no matter how you do it – lowest level of detail, shading reduced by half, variable resolution with a target frame rate of 45 or even 60: the deck only manages 40 frames per second sporadically. Usually, on the other hand, it trembles very inconsistently somewhere underneath, which feels uncomfortably nervous. Pity!

That’s why I thought at first that I could take my make-up off the spider date on the deck. In fact, I soon found that capping it at 30 frames per second was less detrimental to gameplay than I thought. On the one hand, you don’t need the precision of a shooter or the high-frequency input feedback loop of a racer, since many actions run more or less automatically and only require input at relatively long intervals. And so, even at 30 frames per second, you beat yourself up with Spidey’s villains as nimbly as you do on a powerful computer at sixty plus.

On the other hand, and I give Nixxes credit for that, the program keeps the 30 extremely safe apart from tiny fluctuations and even at the medium level of detail. The battery lasts for almost two hours. You can tell that Nixxes is familiar with the PC versions, having made a name for themselves there with the very good conversions of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, among other things. For example, the developers regulate the setting of the controls via the controller assignment in Steam, which is easier to handle on the handheld at the latest than with an in-game solution. I really like that they think of such a “little thing”.

On the other hand, button overlays are sometimes difficult to make out, even with enlarged symbols, which is why I had to repeat a QTR sequence because I simply couldn’t see which shoulder button was required. That being said, I’d prefer the black and white button icons (A, B, X, Y) to be colored like they are on a regular Xbox controller, since then I’d be more intuitive to grasp them even on the colorless deck. But I really just want to mention that for the sake of completeness.

Unfortunately, there is an odd phenomenon that weighs a little more heavily, where the game doesn’t recognize that I want to trigger a finisher for about 30 seconds (I’ve never measured) – something that I otherwise manage without any problems. Then Spidey keeps doing an evasive step and doesn’t seem to realize that I’m pressing the second button for the finisher at the same time. I observed this both on the deck and on the PC. Now that will probably be fixed quickly. But for that to happen, I want to mention it.

Right: Of course I also looked at the whole thing on my relatively powerful computer, where it looks two classes better thanks to extended raytracing shadows and reflections. I was only a little disappointed when about half of the story in the small hall of mirrors almost exclusively rigid fake pictures were “mirrored” – there really wasn’t a little bit more music of the future in it?! Don’t get me wrong, this Spider-Man looks and plays great. Its roots as a game of the past generation can also be seen in the remastered PC version.

Spider-Man Remastered Review Verdict

And of course, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered isn’t just a casual companion to be enjoyed exclusively on the Steam Deck, but also as a grand adventure in long sessions! The Hollywood-compatible narrative, the excellent swinging through New York’s narrow streets and a combat system that, even after a few dozen hours, still amazes me at how casually cinematic highlights are shaken out of your fingers: Despite the small weaknesses, this is great cinema, which I love thanks to the careful customization just as much on Valve’s Steam Deck as on the PC. Will I still become a superhero fan after all? Rather not. However, if I can imitate her so skilfully, I will continue to slip into her virtual skin with great pleasure in the future!