What are the best games like Spider-Man on PC? Before Sony realized it could make money from PC gamers by selling old PlayStation games to us, we used to have to find alternative titles to get our spidey fix. For instance, we can find elements of Peter Parker’s rhythmic combat system in Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series.
Though we have access to both Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PC nowadays, the series does come to PlayStation first, so we’ll be waiting a while for the newest game: Spider-Man 2. You may want to play some of these superhero games if you’re looking for a familiar experience in the meantime. Whether you want to play something with similar combat or you want to web-sling around a different city, there’s something for everyone on this list.
The best games like Spider-Man on PC are:
Halo Infinite
If Spider-Man ever decided to use guns, we imagine he would fight a lot like Master Chief. Equipped with a sturdy super soldier suit with a shiny new grappleshot attachment, Halo Infinite gives Master Chief the freedom to roam around the world just like Miles Morales himself. The grappleshot isn’t as good as Spider-Man’s web shooters as the Chief can only fire it from his left wrist, but it’s still useful enough to get him from A to B in a flash.
If we had the option, we would upgrade Master Chief’s suit with a second grappleshot on his right wrist to turn him into the greatest super-soldier-spider hybrid the world has ever seen, but it’s clear the Halo audience isn’t ready for that one just yet. Be sure to check out our Halo Infinite review to see what we thought of John Halo’s latest adventure.
Fortnite
Okay, hear us out. When Fortnite wants to incorporate Spider-Man elements as they did with the web shooters in the past, you cannot deny how good the web-slinging was, even in a battle royale filled with 99 other players. You can even unlock Spider-Man skins for Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and Gwen Stacey if you want to take the fantasy to the next level.
We understand that Fortnite isn’t exactly like Spider-Man on PC, but the costumes are just as good, and occasionally, we see a return of the web-slinging mechanics, which are always one of the favorite methods of traversing the Fortnite map quickly.
Just Cause 3
Just Cause 3 sees Rico Rodriguez return to what he does best: dispatching baddies with a massive goody bag of tools while flying effortlessly through the air. Sound familiar? The fictional island setting of Medici is a noticeably different environment to zip through than the concrete jungle of New York, but using Rico’s wingsuit and grappling hook is just as enthralling as Marvel’s Spider-Man.
You take on the evil forces of DRM, that’s the Di Ravello Militia, which provides a literal as well as emotional pull for you to use your tether device to yank explosives into the path of restrictive digital copyright… erm, we mean militant bad boys, and vice versa. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though, as you can provoke from the top of mountains, from the air while attached to a helicopter, or as you race jet skis across tropical waters. And, in case you’re all finished with this entry, use our Just Cause 4 review to see if you’re up for another dose of open-world adventuring.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
The Assassin’s Creed series has been very influential in open-world game design. But it’s Syndicate, Ubisoft Quebec’s Victorian London adventure, that’s most redolent of Marvel’s Spider-Man. The towers that reveal the surrounding area on the map and that first appeared in the inaugural Assassin’s Creed game find their way into Marvel’s web fest. But the similarities to Syndicate go further, as the tools you use to traverse London, plus the tone of the story, has it resemble Insomniac’s take on the famous webby hero.
Syndicate’s dual protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye, stab and sneak their way through one of the most charming and eccentric Assassin’s Creed narratives to date. It certainly has some of the cheek of Spider-Man, and you get to bust ghosts and blow up drug labs with two of the most celebrated called Charles in history: Dickens and Darwin.
But it’s the introduction of the Rope Launcher grappling hook that gets our Spidey Senses tingling. It might not be as flexible or fluid as Insomniac’s traversal system, but it remains a useful way to scale London’s landmarks and to zip across this large and dense turn-of-the-century city. That said, it does lack the freedom of Ubi’s Greek adventure, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. If you want to take a virtual trip to ancient Greece, do give our Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review a read.
Sunset Overdrive
One of the core appeals of any Spider-Man game is the feeling of tumbling through the sky at high speed. To that end, it would be remiss of us not to include Sunset Overdrive in this list. A zany game that sees developer Insomniac perfect the aerial formula that it would later bring to the Spider-Man games. In this bright action-adventure game, you’ll find yourself in the zippy shoes of a FizzCo employee facing a wave of mutants infected by the company’s energy drink, Overcharge Delirium XT. At least it’s tastier than being bitten by a spider.
What makes this feel like a Spider-Man game is its amazing sense of momentum. As you dart through Insomniac’s colorful metropolis of Sunset City and hit the ground, you’ll be straight off again in the blink of an eye. Sure, Sunset Overdrive will have you trading web-slinging for rail-grinding, but it is its wondrous physics that makes its thrilling parkour stand out. It isn’t surprising that Insomniac’s Creative Director has credited the game with laying the foundation for our friendly neighborhood web-slinger.
Where Spidey gradually develops his silky skills without firing a shot, Sunset Overdrive gifts you a ridiculous arsenal of them with which to wreak havoc. Firing an explosive teddy bear into a horde of mutants just never gets old. Perhaps a tad more joyful than it should be.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
We’re not sure if missing out on Marvel’s Spider-Man is more painful than stepping on a Lego brick, but if you’re dead set on swinging through New York as Spider-Man on PC, then Lego Marvel Super Heroes is your best bet. By 2013, Traveller’s Tales got its Lego games formula down to a tee so that its take on the Marvel universe became one of the best games in the Lego series.
Due to the bulging roster of heroes and villains that make an appearance, you don’t get as much of your favorite wall-crawler as you do in Marvel’s Spider-Man, but you do get the breadth of Manhattan to swing through, as well as a chance to poke around the S.H.I.E.L.D heli-carrier. Fans of the Lego games will know what to expect – it’s a zany take on the Marvel franchise with enticing co-op gameplay and lots of collectibles – but it’s also the best way to swing around NYC as Spider-Man on PC, albeit in a blockier form.
Batman: Arkham City
If you’re looking for games like Spider-Man, the Batman Arkham series should be your first port of call. Batman: Arkham Asylum kicked off the trilogy and made superhero games cool once more in 2009, but it’s the sequel that’s most reminiscent of Peter Parker’s newest romp.
This is due to Arkham City taking place in an open world, er, city, rather than the more confined but still extraordinarily detailed asylum for the criminally insane. You can have a great time gliding around it, employing the grappling hook to regain the height you lose, and then pouncing on unsuspecting criminals from above. Bats also has his own Spidey Sense equivalent and is just as good – if not better – than Spidey when it comes to dishing out combos of punches, blocks, and counters.
Arkham City also features an excellent cast of goodies and soon-to-be-busted baddies, so long as you can stomach the move from Marvel to DC. Included are the likes of Catwoman, Oracle, Penguin, Joker, Harley Quinn, and Two-Face. All of them weaved into a great story that feels as good as most superhero comic runs.
Prototype
The main appeal of Marvel’s Spider-Man is how you get around. Much of the same goes with Prototype. Instead of Peter Parker, you play Alex Mercer, a decidedly moody man who wakes up without any memory of how he acquired his powerful shapeshifting abilities. From combat to movement, Mercer boasts a moves list as long as Spider-Man’s, as he vertically runs up skyscrapers and leaps off them with equally reckless abandon.
Prototype even shares Spider-Man’s playground of NYC, so if you squint while you play this 2009 release, you can even pretend it’s the same game. Almost. One feature that marks Prototype as markedly different is Mercer’s massive arm blades, which allow him to put his foes to the kibosh. Don’t expect a protagonist as cheery as Peter Parker, either: Mercer is more of an anti-hero, so much so that, in fact, he serves as the big bad of Prototype 2. Prototype could act as the template for a future Marvel Venom game. Here’s hoping.
There you go, eight games like Spider-Man you can play on PC right now. Still, there’s always plenty more for you to find in our best sandbox games and best PC games lists, and you can always stick a Spider-Man film on while playing the games featured in this roundup, right?