Best PS2 games: The biggest hits from Sony’s most beloved console

23.04.2019

15 of the perfect PS2 games ever

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

GTA III may need nailed the mechanics first time – and the dreary spirit of Liberty City continues to be a part of Rockstar’s design DNA immediately – however Vice City was the entry to ship on sense of place. It constructed a complete world across the ‘80s of the general public creativeness: pastel fits, Motley Crue extra, and cash.

Vice City was much more densely packed than the GTA that got here earlier than it, presenting a livelier play space with much less downtime and extra ice cream vans. What’s extra, whereas Rockstar was nonetheless ripping – sorry, riffing off Hollywood gangster classics, it discovered a protagonist value voicing in Tommy Vercetti: hot-headed and bold, a match for the fast-living tempo of the game.

Gran Turismo 4

The license exams could make Gran Turismo Four really feel austere in comparison with immediately’s vibrant simulators and their open-world spin-offs, because the game solemnly asks you to show your understanding of braking distances. But the time you set into understanding what’s happening beneath the hood will likely be rewarded tenfold.

The DualShock 2 may not have fairly had the nuance that modern controllers provide, with their half-trigger squeezes as you gradual for a nook, however the rumble of the pad alone gave you all of the suggestions you wanted to know what was taking place beneath the wheels. Polyphony Digital displayed mastery of its devices with Gran Turismo 4, and demanded no much less from you to get essentially the most out of its unparalleled simulation.

Psychonauts

Let’s be frank: Ron Gilbert, not Tim Schafer, is level and click on journey gaming’s finest ever designer. But Schafer is undoubtedly its best worldbuilder, and it’s that high quality which he utilized to the 3D platformer with Psychonauts. Where others within the style had merely related hubs and ranges, Double Fine created a complete different existence to hop about in. As with all of Schafer’s games, it mashed collectively his obsessions on the time, providing a spy story that performed out contained in the brains of its characters, set in opposition to the backdrop of a stunningly-realised summer season camp.

No marvel it took so lengthy to make – each journey right into a thoughts is a definite expertise, casting you as a kaiju monster, a bit in a technique common’s marketing campaign, or a device of surveillance within the head of a conspiracy theorist. Rarely has a lot invention been packed onto one disc.

Shadow of the Colossus

What’s extraordinary a couple of game that has influenced a lot within the realms of motion, monster-hunting, and storytelling, is simply how little there is happening with it. Shadow of the Colossus is a masterpiece of stripped-back design, sending you out throughout mostly-empty landscapes to convey down 16 bosses. Where games immediately generally drown us in codex entries, Colossus attracts you in by telling you nothing in any respect, filling its otherwise-vacant world with a palpable sense of thriller and unhappiness.

Bluepoint Games, the Austin grasp of remasters, rebuilt Colossus from scratch for the PS4. But if you wish to play the model Fumito Ueda and his staff of visionaries had their palms on, you’re finest returning to the PS2.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run

GTA III impressed many copycats, however the system served few in addition to it did The Simpsons. Springfield’s riotous set of residents and acquainted places have been the proper match for Hit & Run’s delinquent driving sandbox. The drive of Radical Entertainment, who would go on to make the Prototype games, will need to have been infectious – the game managed to muster not solely the correct voice forged however a script written totally by the telly staff, which resulted in a genuinely humorous journey by means of the present’s most well-known spots. Who knew there was a street that took you straight by means of the centre of the nuclear plant?

Final Fantasy X

Sadness grew to become a trademark of the perfect games on the PS2. Perhaps Sony and its collaborators might sense that these have been the platform’s glory years, and so they might solely go downhill from right here. Whatever the explanation, Square determined to set Final Fantasy X in a world the place even the prospect of saving everybody from whale-god Sin carried an aftertaste of loss. This was a bittersweet, and at occasions stunning, twist to the collection system.

The unusual pacing and enhancing of the cutscenes doesn’t stand as much as the cinematic requirements of immediately. Let us not overlook, this was Square’s first fully-voiced game, and it reveals. But hey: laughter yoga is again in vogue once more, and in that sense Tidus was forward of his time.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

When Ubisoft acquired Far Cry it made a clear break from Crytek’s authentic – which makes its method to rebooting Prince of Persia all of the extra shocking looking back. The writer employed collection creator Jordan Mechner as designer, which turned out to be an impressed transfer.

Mechner introduced with him an obsession with time, earlier explored within the authentic 2D platformer and journey game experiment The Last Express, which yielded a rewind mechanic that has unfold into many genres since. The potential to reverse a mistake not solely made for nice spectacle, however inspired you to deal with Prince of Persia’s ranges as environmental puzzles to suppose your approach by means of.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

With Sam Fisher on prolonged go away, the deep cuts of Splinter Cell’s catalogue are all of the extra engaging, and Chaos Theory is the perfect. Under the course of Far Cry 2’s Clint Hocking, the collection took on influences from immersive sims, putting a brand new onus on staying quiet in addition to unseen.

Chaos Theory featured Ubisoft’s most considerate tackle worldwide espionage, too, exploring the underhand methods superpowers wage warfare. In truth all the dialogue right here, from Fisher’s wry exchanges together with his handlers, to the conversations overheard between guards, is infused with a subtlety that winds up being the game’s defining trait. Blacklist, for all its appreciable deserves, has a plot that comes off as bluster and scaremongering by comparability.

Resident Evil 4

You can see the facility of Resident Evil Four in all of the games which have cribbed its finest concepts – not least God of War (2018), which took the over-the-shoulder digicam. And the zoom that mimics Leon Kennedy’s intention as he appears to be like down the barrel? That’s been adopted by virtually each third-person game to function a gun since.

That redistribution of concepts may rob Resident Evil Four of a few of its preliminary shock immediately, but it surely’s obtained loads of different surprises within the plotting and enemy departments. By shifting from lumbering, conventional zombies to the unpredictable Ganados, Capcom actually gave us one thing to intention at. This game marked a shift for the collection into full-fledged motion, and was a excessive level the writer would chase for a few years afterwards – solely actually succeeding with 2019’s barnstorming Resident Evil 2 remake.

Guitar Hero 3

This isn’t essentially thought of the quintessential rock star rhythm game – by this time, authentic developer Harmonix had been snatched away to make Rock Band. But by the third iteration Guitar Hero was at its peak – and the standing of the collection, each culturally and as a severe money-earner for Activision, resulted in coups like a specifically re-recorded model of Anarchy within the UK courtesy of the Sex Pistols. The cowl variations that had cheapened earlier entries within the collection have been fewer, and Slash featured as a playable character.

New developer Neversoft made observe placement a extra forgiving expertise, permitting Guitar Hero Three to change into essentially the most celebrated celebration game of its period. And it nonetheless had its challenges: is any boss battle extra iconic than Dragonforce’s Through the Fire and Flames?

TimeSplitters 2

In later years, as multi-platform releases grew to become commonplace, first-person shooters from the PC and Xbox would form expectations for the style. But for a short time, every console loved its personal tackle the FPS, and TimeSplitters 2 was the top on PlayStation.

The phrase ‘zany’ is commonly a purple flag in videogames, however this shooter had a playful vitality that made a advantage of the time period. TimeSplitters 2 was solely improved by its peculiarities – just like the watermelons that cropped up at common intervals as you chased aliens backwards and forwards by means of historical past. The premise allowed Free Radical’s degree designers to hop between the Wild West and gangster-heyday Chicago; Assassin’s Creed Unity isn’t the one place you possibly can nonetheless go to Notre Dame.

Silent Hill 2

You might argue that the Silent Hill collection has had an element within the invention of two distinct genres: first the horror game, then the psychological thriller. Rather than an ensemble piece, Silent Hill 2 was a deep dive into the mind of a single man.

James Sutherland haplessly follows the ghost of his spouse to the titular foggy city, and as you change into acquainted with the monsters and the puzzles, you unlock the secrets and techniques of his psyche too. In an period of leap scares, it was like nothing else. Sadly, as a result of abandonment of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s Silent Hills, it’s but to obtain the modern follow-up it deserves.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Metal Gear Solid 2 may need been a masterpiece in self-commentary, however the Big Shell was hardly a location anybody relished holidaying in. Kojima had intentionally echoed his first 3D game, and in doing so created two entries totally about crawling by means of the interiors of gray services. In that context, Metal Gear Solid Three was a revelation, escaping the winding ranges and plotting of its predecessors for the Cold War and the jungle.

What a journey the collection went on from the unique game’s satisfyingly simplistic stealth to right here, the place imaginative and prescient cones have been lengthy and Snake needed to depend on camo and the setting to go undetected. Wide-open areas allowed you choices, as did the addition of close-quarters fight, really viable for the primary time within the collection.

Beyond Good & Evil

In the wake of an unexpectedly atmospheric and extremely profitable Rayman 2, Michel Ancel’s Montpellier staff felt emboldened to attempt one thing doubly odd. The Ubisoft builders coupled their admiration for Studio Ghibli, and notably its anthropomorphised beasts, to a post-9/11 unease with the individuals in energy.

In Beyond Good & Evil, a European-styled idyll is stored beneath the thumb of its army – which has launched draconian new measures of management beneath the guise of safety from unseen invaders. Hint trace: the game’s most memorable piece of music is a hip hop observe known as ‘Propaganda’.

It’s exceptional that this tribute to photojournalism obtained made by a significant writer. Your protagonist, Jade, is helpful together with her preventing stick – however can solely remedy the world’s issues together with her digicam.

God of War II

Where Final Fantasy X arrived early within the PS2’s lifespan, proving its potential, God of War II acted as its swansong. It did the console justice in each respect. This was Cory Barlog’s first stab at directing the collection, and his method was to go massive, pushing his artwork staff to seize the Homeric world with unprecedented scope and spectacle.

Thankfully, although, God of War II wasn’t hamstrung by respect for its literary forebears. An early betrayal by the hands of Zeus meant Kratos wasn’t a lot stepping by means of the halls of Greek mythology as toppling its pillars. If Icarus continues to be regretting that enterprise with the solar, he’s additionally cursing Kratos for making of together with his wings through the occasions of this game. God of War II was a loud celebration of its console, and a greater celebration than any obtainable on the launch of the PS3.

Now you’ve had your nostalgia repair, take a look at our listing of the best PS4 games.