Modders have offered up an impressive amount of mods soon after Marvel's Spider-Man's PC release, from visual styles to new playable characters.
Ever since Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered was released on PC earlier this month, modders have taken to the title to bring a wealth of new costumes, skins, and somewhat bizarre features to the popular superhero title. These range from long-requested suits that fans wished were in the game since its launch back in 2018 as a PlayStation exclusive, to honoring the web-head's creator by making him playable in Insomniac's take on Manhattan.
The Marvel's Spider-Man series has already been a huge success for PlayStation, with an announcement for the games' PC ports stating that over 33 million copies had been sold globally as of May 15, 2022. Nixxes Software's PC port has been successful too, becoming the second-highest PlayStation Studios launch on Steam behind God of War. Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered's PC port has new features such as several graphical and performance enhancements that are to be expected when releasing modern titles on the platform, utilizing GeForce RTX GPUs to take full advantage of Deep Learning Super Sampling to boost frame rates, and the AI-based Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing to improve visual quality for those who have bought NVIDIA's hardware for their set-ups. For those who don't have GeForce RTX GPUs, the title still boasts unlocked frame rates, options for ultra-widescreen optimization, and improved ray tracing when compared to the previous version that came included with Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PlayStation 5 (Miles Morales' PC release is also in 2022). As an added bonus for those who wish to experience Peter Parker's story portably, Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered has also received Verified status on Valve's handheld device, the Steam Deck.
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While the official enhancements alone make Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered a worthy purchase on PC, even for those who have already played it on PlayStation since its 2018 release on PS4 or 2020 remaster on PS5, it's somewhat inevitable that when any title is released on PC, mods soon follow, and many fans were eager to see what the modding community would create, especially after seeing the mayhem caused by ridiculous mods in God of War, which saw Kratos and his son Atreus transformed into Homer and Bart Simpson, and one of the title's bosses morphed into modding favorite Thomas the Tank Engine. Fortunately, in less than a week since Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered's PC release, modders have not disappointed fans, giving them costumes that may have been reserved for Insomniac's upcoming sequel such as a variety of new Spider-Man suit mods with designs spanning the character's 60-year history, to the option to make the title even more cinematic by removing the HUD.
The game opens with a sequence showing Spider-Man working alongside the NYPD to take down the New York crime lord Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, before Spider-Man subtly shows his backstory. The opening level throws players straight into the action with a boss battle against the non-superpowered foe that also acts as a tutorial for dealing with types of villains the web-head will encounter in the game. Lucifer6667676 uploaded a mod created by Robin to Nexus Mods that enables players to experience a What If scenario that shows the crime lord having a change of heart following his arrest and also gaining Peter Parker's spider-powers to help protect the citizens of New York. Although his facial expressions are limited in gameplay and make him look perpetually sad - likely due to animators not having to add many with Spider-Man's changing face being hidden behind a mask - it is entertaining to see Fisk, who is traditionally a larger, slower, more tank-like foe moving with the speed and agility of Spider-Man whilst carrying out his heroic deeds.
Marvel's Spider-Man has always been a game that was praised for its high level of detail, however, fans did respond well to stylized suits that, despite looking out of place with the rest of the game, matched their comic counterparts with a more cel-shaded look. The Into the Spider-Verse suits from both games also became fan favorites, matching the film's versions of Peter and Miles. Official cel-shaded suits were unlockable in Spider-Man such as the Vintage Comic Book Suit, or the Spider-Clan Suit. The Amazing Universe Preset mod from Nekri_Techne on Nexus Mods changes the aesthetic for the rest of Insomniac's open world to match this style, invoking memories of Ultimate Spider-Man and some of the universes depicted in the Spider-Verse inspiring Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
NexuxMods user tiffsomniac has allowed players to experience Insomniac's open-world Manhattan as one of Spider-Man's co-creators, the late Stan Lee. Stan Lee was also known as the self-proclaimed "King of Cameos" due to his appearances across the majority of Marvel-based media from movies to TV shows and games, with this Marvel's Spider-Man Stan Lee PC mod being something of an unofficial second cameo in-game. Sadly, Stan Lee passed away in November 2018, shortly after the initial release of Marvel's Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4, making his cameo in the game - as the owner of Peter and Mary Jane's favorite restaurant, Mick's - his final video-game cameo, and one of his last cameos in general.
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Upon his passing, Insomniac honored Stan Lee by retroactively adding a tribute at the end of Marvel's Spider-Man's credits alongside the credits for the game's The City That Never Sleeps DLC, and by putting a statue of his character into Spider-Man: Miles Morales outside of Mick's Diner. Stan Lee's cameo did, however, grant modders access to a detailed character model for him, which tiffsomniac used to develop their Stan Lee mod for Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. The mod is essentially a reskin granting Stan Lee the powers of the web-head, but Marvel fans are enjoying playing the title as the man who created so many of their favorite characters, much as they had done in the Stan Lee Adventure Pack DLC - which celebrated 50 years since the web-head's creation - for 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man movie tie-in game.
Marvel's Spider-Man was highly praised for its cinematic tone and visuals, and the game's built-in Photo Mode was a testament to how impressive it could look. Insomniac even granted Spidey fans a good middle-ground with Miles Morales' Performance RT mode on PS5. Some players, however, wished for the title to look even more cinematic, eschewing some of the elements that were more game-like. NO HUD by Mixerced has been uploaded to NexusMods by FashionSkyrim to grant those players' wishes, doing away with every single element of the on-screen HUD seen throughout Marvel’s Spider-Man. Mixerced had previously made a similar mod for Marvel's Avengers, removing the HUD to allow for more cinematic visuals that are more akin to watching a Marvel movie. Whilst this mod is great for those who are already well versed with Marvel's Spider-Man and is extremely satisfying when traversing around the city, it can get a little confusing at times during the title's action-packed fights as players are left unaware as to how many gadgets are left available in the webhead’s inventory, or how much health he has.
Insomniac's take on Peter Parker's long-term love interest Mary Jane reinvents the Spider-Man character as an investigative journalist for the Daily Bugle who had broken up with Peter prior to the events of Marvel's Spider-Man due to Peter's double life as Spider-Man making him protective of his loved ones to the point that it could be perceived as controlling in a relationship, especially for someone as fiercely independent as Mary Jane.
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Mary Jane reenters Peter's life when an investigation into the criminal activities in New York in the wake of Fisk's arrest, and over the course of the story, she and Peter begin to work together on the case as partners as Peter acknowledges her capabilities. Players can play as Mary Jane in a series of stealth-based missions as she carries out her investigations throughout Marvel's Spider-Man's campaign, however, Robin's mod, which was uploaded to Nexus Mods by Lucifer6667676, grants Mary Jane spider-powers, allowing her to get involved with the super heroics as well.
Although players did get to take control of Miles Morales on several occasions throughout Marvel's Spider-Man, they were in stealth sequences, much like Mary Jane's, rather than as his web-slinging alter ego seen in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. This was due to the story taking place mostly prior to Miles getting his powers. Another mod by tiffsomniac changes this, allowing players to fight crime as Miles Morales prior to his days donning a costume. In the "Miles Morales (Red Hoodie Variant)" mod, Miles can be seen wearing his red hoodie and Brooklyn Visions Academy t-shirt as he does throughout Marvel's Spider-Man, but with all of Peter's gadgets and abilities. Sadly, however, Miles' specific spider-powers such as Venom blasts and invisibility aren't included.
The Symbiote suit is a fan favorite, with various retellings of the Venom story showing Peter Parker corrupted by a living suit, whether it's the alien suit of the classic comics or the notoriously panned Spider-Man 3 movie directed by Sam Raimi, or a man-made creation designed to cure diseases like that of Ultimate Spider-Man. Insomniac's take on the Spider-Man mythos seems to be taking more from the latter, as the symbiote can be seen in an Oscorp container surrounding Harry Osborn - who is suffering from a terminal disease - in both the post-credit scenes for Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It is because of this ongoing story surrounding the Venom symbiote that Insomniac purposefully omitted the suit from the first entry in the series. Fans have taken it upon themselves to imagine what Insomniac's take on the symbiote could look like, with a mod by jedijosh920 redesigning Marvel's Spider-Man's Advanced Suit with a black and white style that is inspired by the classic Symbiote suit, whilst embracing Insomniac's distinct look for the character.
With Venom's confirmed arrival in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and rumors circulating that the title could bring the option to have "Venomized" Symbiote versions of all of the unlockable suits, it's yet to be seen whether jedijosh920's design turns out to be accurate. Currently, not much is known about Marvel's Spider-Man 2, other than its darker tone, and the reveal of Spider-Man villains Kraven and Venom, the title is due to release exclusively on PlayStation 5 in 2023. A Disney & Marvel Games Showcase has been confirmed for September 9th in tandem with D23 Expo, so fans hopefully won't have long to wait for further details. Until then, Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered's PC release seems to be keeping fans of the web-head entertained for now, with the mods mentioned above being only the tip of the iceberg.
Sources: Lucifer6667676/Nexus Mods (King pin), Lucifer6667676/Nexus Mods (Mary Jane), Nekri_Techne/Nexus Mods, tiffsomniac/Nexus Mods (Stan Lee), tiffsomniac/Nexus Mods (Miles Morales - Red Hoodie Variant), jedijosh920/Nexus Mods
Glenn Bunn is a UK-based writer for the Gaming News team at Screen Rant, and joined the team in 2022. An avid gamer for most of his life, Glenn plays across PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo consoles, as well as on PC.