Absolute Must Play Games for the Playstation 2

[RetroSonicHero]

Hello again, it's been awhile since I posted. I've decided to return because I adore this community and the people who frequent here.

 

I've recently ordered a fat PS2 (39001). I have fond memories of playing the console at friends' houses back in the day, but never got the opportunity to own it myself. I grew up as a PC gamer, so I want to know precisely what kinds of masterpieces I've missed out on in the console space. Surely there's a reason why this is the highest selling console of all time, no?

 

 

I've got all the classic GTA games on the way:

3
Vice City
San Andreas

Liberty City Stories

Vice City Stories (god this game isn't cheap to buy second-hand)

 

I've also got the first three Gran Turismo games coming as well. Other than that, that's where my small collection unfortunately comes to an end, save for a couple of budget games my mom owned back in the day. Which are now all located under my bed in a very stylized Hello Kitty pink DVD/CD holder.

 

 

So, AtariAge... what kinds of PS2 games would YOU say I should play?

[Austin]

I don't really know your tastes, so I'm not going to say you should play anything.

 

However, my most played games were (and still are) Devil May Cry, Ridge Racer V and TimeSplitters. All pretty early games for the system.

[Creamhoven]

Tokyo extreme racer 0

Densha De Go (the first one on the PS2)

Gran Turismo 4

Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (be careful it is conspiRatoral)

 

[RetroSonicHero]

1 hour ago, Austin said:

I don't really know your tastes, so I'm not going to say you should play anything.

 

However, my most played games were (and still are) Devil May Cry, Ridge Racer V and TimeSplitters. All pretty early games for the system.

That's fair.. I'll play pretty much anything to be honest. My interests for gaming are wide.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Wayler]

1 hour ago, Creamhoven said:

Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (be careful it is conspiRatoral)

So close, so close...

 

 

My suggestions would be the big-hit exclusives:

 

Ico

Shadow of the Colossus

Okami

Final Fantasy X's

 

And perhaps not so well known Gradius V for an excellent playing and sounding space shooter. 

 

[Creamhoven]

6 minutes ago, Wayler said:

So close, so close...

 

 

My suggestions would be the big-hit exclusives:

 

Ico

Shadow of the Colossus

Okami

Final Fantasy X's

 

And perhaps not so well known Gradius V for an excellent playing and sounding space shooter. 

 

Those are great as well. I didn't like Okami, because it felt slow to me (didn't play much). How do you play these, on a ps2 and a CRT or do you use emulators? I have heard the ps2 emulator supports vulkan rendering. Did you know that?

[Rhomaios]

I like my racers, and the PS2 has one of my favorites: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2. It's the last of the great NFS games before it jumped on the customizable bandwagon with Underground. I don't want to buy decals. I want to race in the gorgeous Italian countryside. I wish more games had come out like it.

 

The two other most-played racers on the system for me are Extreme G3 Racing, which is an excellent futuristic racer with a good soundtrack, and OutRun 2006.

 

Two other non-racing games I love are NBA Street Vol. 2 and Red Faction (chiefly the first one, though the second one wasn't that bad).

[+GoldLeader]

Twisted Metal games are fun as Hell!   And...I might mention Burnout 3: Takedown has a Crash Mode,  where IIRC, you just gather as much speed as possible and cause the Biggest Wreck Imaginable!  (It's almost like they answered the prayers of every kid who has ever played a racing game Ever

 

Also depending on tastes (some already mentioned, some PS1) Red Dead Revolver, God of War, Devil May Cry, Arc the Lad, Shadow of the Colossus, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Oddworld, Ratchet &Clank, Jak & Daxter, Wipeout games,  Resident Evil and Silent Hill games ...

[RetroSonicHero]

1 hour ago, Rhomaios said:

I like my racers, and the PS2 has one of my favorites: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2. It's the last of the great NFS games before it jumped on the customizable bandwagon with Underground. I don't want to buy decals. I want to race in the gorgeous Italian countryside. I wish more games had come out like it.

 

The two other most-played racers on the system for me are Extreme G3 Racing, which is an excellent futuristic racer with a good soundtrack, and OutRun 2006.

 

Two other non-racing games I love are NBA Street Vol. 2 and Red Faction (chiefly the first one, though the second one wasn't that bad).

I've heard great things about PS2 racers, especially. Including things like the EA Sports titles such as the NASCAR games, those are arguably some of the best NASCAR games ever made if you're into the sport.

[RetroSonicHero]

2 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

Twisted Metal games are fun as Hell!   And...I might mention Burnout 3: Takedown has a Crash Mode,  where IIRC, you just gather as much speed as possible and cause the Biggest Wreck Imaginable!  (It's almost like they answered the prayers of every kid who has ever played a racing game Ever

 

Also depending on tastes (some already mentioned, some PS1) Red Dead Revolver, God of War, Devil May Cry, Arc the Lad, Shadow of the Colossus, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Oddworld, Ratchet &Clank, Jak & Daxter, Wipeout games,  Resident Evil and Silent Hill games ...

All of those sound fantastic! I'll definitely get around to trying them at some point, it's difficult to choose what in particular since this system has so many damn good games to play.

[Reaperman]

I mostly do racers, and I've tried to put a few 'inside baseball' picks into my list along with the usual suspects:

 

• Gran Turismo 4 (has real FFB wheel support and 1080i mode, best GT game IMO)
• Burnout 3: Takedown
• Downhill Domination
• Sega Rally (jp region exclusive) 
• XGRA (extreme G 4)
• Enthusia Professional Racing (great physics, needs a wheel to appreciate over gt4)
• wipeout pulse (eur exclusive, but it detects 60hz)
• Motorstorm Arctic Edge (is going to want 16:9 screen)

Edited May 28, 2023 by Reaperman

[RARusk]

Since you listed the GTA games I also recommend Bully which is also done by Rockstar Games.

[roadrunner]

F1 2002


 

 

[Lord_of_Sipan]

I think that Shadow of the Colossus is still the best looking video game ever aesthetically speaking and I say that as an art historian.

 

I would also recommend Twisted Metal Black but only if you are fairly experienced with other games from the series as everyone moves too fast making the game borderline unplayable with certain characters like Mr. Grim unless you really have a lot of familiarity with the series. It is by no means the best game in the series nor would I say it is the worst. I just have a soft spot for the whole goofy series as it is kind of a relic of another age since its whole genre is about as dead as Space Invaders style shooters or pong clones.

[Mikebloke]

Honestly I think everyone should play at least one dynasty warrior game in their lifetime. If they are sensible, just one. 

 

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 I would argue are must play, Zone of the Enders 2 as well, though it is on pc now with VR (MGS is, on pc as well, technically). 

 

RPG wise, Rogue Galaxy is a 'spiritual successor' to the dark cloud series, I would agree with FF X especially if you prefer chill turn based rpgs. For more of a traditional JRPG experience go for Star Ocean, till the end of time (plays a bit like tales of games from what I remember). Grandia 2 is on there, but it's on other things including pc again too now. 

 

A lot of people like onimusha too, I think it's basically resident evil but medieval japan with spirits. 

 

[+Cafeman]

Some games also were on GameCube and Xbox.  
 

I recall several fun 3D platformers on PS2. Jack and Daxter, Katamari Damacy,  Ratchet n Clank, sly Cooper , I also liked Pitfall. 

DOA2 , VF4, Soul Calibur 2 were great in the day. 
 

I found Beyond Good and Evil to be excellent. 
 

outrun 2 coast to coast is excellent. 

[jhd]

 

There are tons of great RPGs on the PS 2. Personally, I enjoyed Final Fantasy XII more than than X (or X-2). There are many optional side-quests in addition to the main story. 

 

There are also many, MANY compilations of classic video games, including the Atari 2600, the Intellivision, the Genesis, and lots of arcade games. 

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ab443/arcade_games.htm

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by jhd

[Mikebloke]

45 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

There are tons of great RPGs on the PS 2. Personally, I enjoyed Final Fantasy XII more than than X (or X-2). There are many optional side-quests in addition to the main story. 

FF XII is definitely the better game, but think the problem is it can be too dense for some people so it's difficult to label it a "must play" for everyone. Same for games like Ring of Red, love that game, just not sure I'd put it in front of anyone who isn't into turn based strategy, or well anyone else! 

[dudeguy]

Katamari

[pablum]

Gradius V

[dudeguy]

I dont think I saw it mentioned but Contra: Shattered Soldier is a must-own for me. The visuals are great and it's just satisfying to unload hundreds of rounds into aliens as they break apart. Difficulty is on par with most old school shooters but I believe the Konami code works if thats your thing

[Reaperman]

I think that contra's art style took itself a bit too seriously for my taste. 

But that does remind me of Alien Hominid--a run-and-gun that could never be accused of that. 🤣

It's a blast. GC and GBA versions also recommended.

 

 

[Cynicaster]

I love Contra Shattered Soldier, such a great mix of updated audiovisuals with the classic Contra gameplay.  I also enjoy Neo Contra (despite its dumb name).  It’s a cool overhead run ‘n gun.  
 

Alien Hominid is cool but the difficulty is a bit off-putting for me.  
 

If you enjoy shoot ‘em ups, there’s Raiden 3, Thunderforce VI, Gradius V, R-type Final, Rez…

 

If you enjoy pick up and play games as I do, there’s the Sega Ages 2500 series of games that provide re-imaginings of various classic Sega arcade games with varying levels of quality.  
 

I play lots of driving games with my Logitech wheel; some suck with the steering wheel and some are great.  I really like the GT games and Burnout: Takedown.  
 

 

 

[+wongojack]

So many of the great games (God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Lego Star Wars) can be found on successor systems.  It is sort of a shame in a way, but you can play A LOT of the great games from the PS2 library on a handful of other systems.  However, there are a few games where the license has prevented that from happening.  The original Guitar Hero games were only on PS2 and are still a treat to play today.  Although many of the songs from those versions were ported forward.  IMO the best James Bond games of all time were on PS2 in Everything or Nothing and From Russia with love.  You can also only find the ESPN NFL 2k Series on PS2 (and orig XBox).  I'll probably think of a few more.

[+wongojack]

On 6/16/2023 at 8:06 PM, Cynicaster said:

If you enjoy pick up and play games as I do, there’s the Sega Ages 2500 series of games that provide re-imaginings of various classic Sega arcade games with varying levels of quality.  

 

 

Never heard of this one.  I will have to check it out.  I have gone through the process of Memory Card boot and installing a HD, so I should be able to get to this collection that way.