Spider-Man 2 on PS5: flawless visual victory, ray tracing looks incredible, 60FPS too

Insomniac Games is one of my favorite game developers on the planet, creating the absolutely beautiful worlds of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Marvel's Spider-Man as well as the Remastered version, and Spider-Man Miles Morales on the PlayStation 5 (at first) and then the PC.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has just launched on the PlayStation 5, and now the fine folks over at Digital Foundry have done a deep dive on the game. This includes testing between the Fidelity and Performance modes for Spider-Man 2, where Fidelity Mode renders Spider-Man 2 at a dynamic 1440p or 4K while holding to its 30FPS target. However, if you've got a 120Hz display, enable the 120Hz display and then you can access 40FPS for Fidelity Mode.

Spider-Man 2 also has a Performance Mode, which will run at a dynamic 1008p to 1440p -- so, a much lower rendering resolution -- but has a pretty solid 60FPS performance to enjoy. Spider-Man 2 is the kind of game where 60FPS is going to feel buttery smooth to play, versus the much slower 30FPS -- although, I will add that the 40FPS mode on a 120Hz display option is nice to see -- but 60FPS is where it's at in a game as gorgeous as this.

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Spider-Man 2 vs Spider-Man on PlayStation 5 (source: Digital Foundry)

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Spider-Man 2 vs Spider-Man on PlayStation 5 (source: Digital Foundry)

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Spider-Man 2 vs Spider-Man on PlayStation 5 (source: Digital Foundry)

The ray-tracing effects (shadows, reflections, and new water reflections and effects) are world-class from Insomniac; the Digital Foundry video has some fantastic breakdowns and close-ups of Spider-Man 2 running at its visual best.

Insomniac Games goes as far as offering other visual settings in Spider-Man 2, offering multiple VRR options: "Smoothed", which caps the game to 60 FPS or "Uncapped," which sees 65FPS through to 80FPS in the Performance Mode, while hitting 45FPS to 60FPS in Fidelity Mode.

• Read more: PlayStation 5 Pro specs: CPU clocks higher, heavily beefed-up GPU in 2024

Spider-Man 2 seems to be the perfect game to showcase Sony's purported PlayStation 5 Pro console, which we're hearing some leaks that require a tub of salt to be placed next to you. We're hearing higher 4GHz+ CPU clocks, a heavily upgraded RDNA 3-based GPU that should offer 8K gaming... perfect for Spider-Man 2 on the PlayStation 5 Pro, right?

Insomniac Games would surely have some PlayStation 5 Pro developer kits in-house by now, being a close ally of Sony and one of the -- if not the very -- best game developers publishing games on PlayStation, and not Xbox. An upgraded PS5 Pro running something as graphically beautiful as Spider-Man 2, will only act as one of the shining star examples of what to expect with the upgraded PlayStation 5 Pro console.