Insomniac’s Latest Spider-Man 2 Patch Removes Popular Venom Free Roam Glitch

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This article contains spoilers for the story of Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2.

Insomniac’s latest patch has removed a popular glitch for Spider-Man 2, which allowed players to escape the confines of a main story mission to free roam through the digital streets of New York city while controlling the symbiotic supervillain Venom.

After playing through Spider-Man 2’s expertly crafted main story, some fans were left disappointed with how little time they got to spend playing as the title’s main antagonist: the shape-shifting alien symbiote Venom.

A subset of the Spider-Man community was therefore ecstatic when a glitch was discovered that allowed players to freely explore Insomniac’s New York as Venom, after performing some glitchy shenanigans in the late game story mission ‘Don’t be Scared’. The video below shows off it was done:

Sadly, the glitch was something of a monkey’s paw, as while it did grant players their hearts desire of exploring as Venom, it also had a nasty habit of corrupting the save file in which it was exploited. As a result, Insomniac’s latest patch included a fix for the game-breaking aberration, much to the disappointment of some players, who live in hope that the developer may add more symbiote-centric content to its game.

“Here’s hoping they actually give us more Venom gameplay as a bonus in the future,” chimed in Reddit user InvestigatorUnfair. “Clearly they saw people having fun with free-roam Venom. Surely they wouldn’t just completely ignore the people that enjoy playing as the big buff goo alien.” Others went even more ambitious with their Venom thirst, asking for bespoke game modes, or even an entire spinoff title centred around the comic book inspired character.

“They need to add Venom challenges or something so we can go back and play as him,” said SVALTACT. “Imagine a roguelike open world mode where you have to try to survive for as long as possible while being hunted.”

This isn’t the first time Insomniac has removed a popular Spider-Man 2 bug. Just last week the developer patched out an error that caused Peter and Miles’ character models to be replaced by a small white cube, which was quickly dubbed Spider-Cube by the fanbase.

Here are the Spider-Man 2 version 1.001.005 patch notes in full:

General Fixes & Polish:

Addressed an issue where NPCs could spawn on top of each other in boatsAddressed an issue where MJ could be defeated in one hit on higher difficulty settingsAddressed multiple issues where hiding the HUD would cause some missions to fail to triggerAddressed an issue where collision was missing on the floor in the harborFurther addressed issues where players could become stuck in the finale of Marko’s MemoriesAddressed an issue where players could switch character during the defeat sequence.Addressed an issue where the player could become stuck running on a wallAddressed an issue where the wrong Spider-Man could receive phone calls if the player switched characters during a callAddressed an issue where the player could lose the ability to jumpAddressed multiple issues where inputs would not register after zipping to a pointAddressed an issue where the game would not properly reload after being defeated by a boss.Addressed an issue where Peter Parker could become stuck on a bench or railing.Addressed an issue where Spider-Man could clip through the map and become stuck during combatAddressed an issue where the Hang Ten Trophy would not count flips accuratelyAddressed an issue where inputs would not register after grabbing a memory crystalFurther addressed issues where models would not load properly after long play sessionsAddressed an issue where the player character could leave a mission and enter the open world resulting in corrupted savesImproved stability

Earlier today Insomniac announced Spider-Man 2 has sold over 5 million copies to date. Be sure to check out IGN’s comprehensive guides and interactive map to ensure that you get the most out of your time with Insomniac’s latest web-slinging adventure.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer