Spider-Man 2 Just Removed One Of The Game’s Coolest Hidden Features

While Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the biggest releases of the year, it also came with a number of bugs, which a recent update has helped to alleviate – unfortunately, the patch has also removed a hidden exploit that allowed players to free-roam the city as Venom. The first game in the series to feature both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as playable protagonists, Spider-Man 2 also had a major focus on adapting the popular symbiote storyline from the classic comics, including the introduction of iconic Spider-Man villain Venom alongside fellow Marvel antagonists Sandman and Kraven.

While much of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 revolves around the symbiote and its effects on Peter Parker, affecting the way the story plays out and giving him new abilities to differentiate his gameplay from Miles, it also inevitably marks the introduction of an adapted version of Venom. However, as Kraven takes up the main villain role for much of the game’s first half, Venom’s first full appearance doesn’t come until a story mission relatively far in the game – where players get to take control of the character and fight enemies with a unique moveset and abilities that don’t appear anywhere else in the game. However, by using an exploit, players could continue to play as Venom in free-roam.

Spider-Man 2’s Playable Venom Glitch Has Been Fixed

Unfortunately, a recent patch for Spider-Man 2 has removed the exploit – a glitch that allowed players to break out of the bounds of the story mission while playing as Venom and get back to free-roaming the city while still controlling him. Similar glitches were found for story sections where other characters, like MJ, were playable, but the Venom glitch was especially popular, as it allowed players to access a sort of third “Spider-Man” playstyle, with heavier attacks and different abilities from either Peter or Miles.

While the amount of players who would have known about and used the glitch is likely only a small portion of the game’s wider audience, the removal of a relatively harmless bug has been somewhat unpopular – exacerbated by the inability to replay missions in Spider-Man 2, a feature which Insomniac Games have confirmed is in the works. Now, to replay the Venom sections, players would have to either restart the game or keep a save just before the start of the story mission where they happen. Even then, playing Venom in the same exact sections multiple times wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as getting to take him out into free-roam.

Why The Exploit Was Removed, & How Playable Venom Might Come Back

Although the removal of the exploit is unfortunate for those who enjoyed playing as Venom, there are a few legitimate reasons for its removal. First and foremost, the glitch did have a tendency to corrupt any save that it was used for, which could potentially lose players a large amount of progress if they weren’t being careful – something that no developer would likely want to keep in their game. Additionally, as Venom’s abilities and moveset are focused solely on combat, his lack of traversal abilities made it more of a novelty than an actual third playable character. The actual Venom mission itself is rather straightforward, consisting of almost entirely combat, making it more or less an interactive set piece.

More speculatively, although no official announcements of major DLC for the game have been announced yet, future updates or DLC could bring more playable Venom content with them – especially as Venom in Spider-Man 2 already has a fairly fleshed-out moveset, which, with some expansion, would lend itself very well to something like short extra missions or an alternate game mode. Considering Venom’s status at the end of Spider-Man 2‘s story, however, the possibility of a DLC or update making him playable again is very much up in the air, as it might be hard to justify the return of the character without resorting to something like a simulation or alternate scenario.

If the plan is to re-introduce playable Venom in a future update or DLC, then it would make sense to remove the free-roam Venom glitch, as aside from corrupting saves, it might take away from a more cohesively-designed experience intended to be released later on. Still, in the meantime, the lack of any ability to replay specific missions and the removal of the glitch means that players who want to keep playing as Venom will have few avenues to do so.

While fixing and patching the bugs of Spider-Man 2 is understandably a priority for Insomniac – especially bugs like Spider-Man turning into a small cube during gameplay – it does come with the unfortunate removal of a fun exploit that partially made up for something that the game was arguably missing, more playable Venom sections. Hopefully, future updates or DLCs will introduce more fleshed-out ways to play as the villain, and bring more playstyle variety to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, further complementing the distinct characters of Peter and Miles with the heavier, more violent moveset of Venom.