10 Best PS2 Games We Overlook

Today, we are highlighting the PS2 games that are underrated gems. We also wanted to highlight some games that reach some tremendous heights but are basically extinct or not talked about in 2020. There's so much to cover and we can't even fit all the games in one post. So consider this an ongoing series. Anyways, there's a lot of fun stuff to talk about so let's get started off.

10. Jet Li (2004)

Jet Li: Rise to Honor

Talk about gently rise to honor this 2004 came with actually as a total surprise and I feel like we never get a game like this now in 2020 essentially what it was was a third-person action-adventure game starring gently, like straight-up real actual gently in the height of his career in his prime. He provided his likeness voice acting motion capture for all the fight moves and stuff like that. And the game was the surprising amount of fun. It was a good mix of a lot of fun. Brawling and occasional shootouts and stuff. That was just based really well for the time. Fighting was a little weird. It was very much of the time where you have to use the analog stick to it in different directions, but still it was a ton of fun and we don't get games like this anymore. Just Action Hero games, you know, it went on to sell a lot of copies. It was a big hit and became like a PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits game, but that was it. We never got like a remaster re-release or anything else.

9. Freedom Fighters (2003)

Freedom Fighters

It was Developed hot off the heels by IO Interactive the studio that brought us Hitman 2 Silent Assassin. They change gears here with more of a 3rd person shooter action game where you are Chris Stone, a plumber in New York City. When suddenly It's invaded by the Soviets. So you basically get thrust into this resistance and you fight your way through NYC, battling the Soviets and then slowly becoming more and more of a badass resistance fighter all what building up your resistance Camp becoming leader and eventually leading New Yorkers. And the rest of America to freedom to the shooting mechanics were kind of wonky at the time but commanding troops and sending them into battle was a lot of fun especially for what was otherwise a straightforward third person game the team mechanics was a lot of fun. It was fast-paced. It had some epic music by Jesper kyd, the five and atmosphere was perfect. This game is truly special hard to put my finger on why we've talked about this so many times if you guys know me, you know, I love Freedom Fighters IO interactive does technically have the rights now, I believe. Star who knows if we'll ever see a sequel.

8. The Thing (2002)

The Thing

Another game that people really forget about this one is totally ignored. Especially in terms of licensed games. It's the thing. Yes, they made a game in 2002 called the thing based off of John Carpenter's classic genre-defining Ruby straight up it takes place after the events of the movie. But essentially you have to explore an Arctic Base fighting off against an unknown threat and managing your teammates. The game's most unique feature was essentially you managing the fear at sanity level of your teammates say they can seek or they can see violence and slow.

Become more and more stressed out and eventually trigger a freakout mode where they can hurt you themselves or just like straight up have a heart attack out of stress at died and this It's all of course is because of the tension the lack of trust. If you saw the thing movie, you know that there is an underlying theme of who is real who's not the fact that they took that concept and made it a actual gameplay mechanic made the game really succeed movie fans game fans, really love this thing. And that was it. It was just a flash in the pan. I would love a modern update or something. But still it still exists. You can go back and play it at least.

7. XIII

XIII

Three based off of Belgian comic books graphic novel. This was a first person shooter that First glance looks kind of just like a TimeSplitters type thing, but the cel-shaded art style and presentation really knocked it out of the park. It was very spy Thriller Archer style stuff with sound effects that actually popped up in the air like bang bang bang like kind of like the old Batman TV show there will be picture-in-picture moments where you get a headshot or like a cutscene will be happening on the side ball in the style of making it feel like you're playing on a comic book page and it actually worked kind of elevated just like an okay playing first-person shooter to the next level, which is Ori atmosphere voice acting stuff like that. This was really like a unique game for the time that people really liked especially considering cel-shaded games were kind of a dime a dozen at the time this one took a really creative approach and although this one is kind of ignored today. It is actually getting a PS4 version pretty soon. So keep your eyes peeled for that.

6. Onimusha Warlords (2001)

Onimusha Warlords

This is an interesting one, you know after Resident Evil. It was awesome to get like a ninja survival Horror game. That's how me and a lot of other kids depth. It just like Resident Evil get had pre-rendered backgrounds with a fixed camera there were puzzles, but unlike Resident Evil have a bigger focus on combat. You're a man with a sword. So, of course they were going to give you some really fun action moments and you'll frighten awesome months just demons to people really loved it. It reviewed very well. So ponds of copies actually being the first PS2 game to sell a million copies eventually surpassing coup million units sold, there were sequels and spin-offs. Third game with a genre know that was a thing that was weird after all those games and Future Generations things kind of died down for the onimusha series. It was pretty quiet until a remaster of the first game that released in 2019, which was cool. But that was about it besides that cap has seemed to have left the series behind which is a bummer because they had something really cool and different and hopefully a day comes where Capcom decides that the world is in need of another onimusha game.

5. Red Faction (2001)

Red Faction

Let's talk about Red Faction 1 and 2 because while the games like Red Faction gorilla didn't go on to current generation and become big hits. The original games are totally forgotten. So Red Faction One released in 2001 was a PS2 first person shooter. That was pretty good. It took place on Mars. It was all about Revolution and it has some really interesting mechanics in terms of destructive bility. You could have a rocket launcher shoot it into a cave wall and continue to just blow holes deeper and deeper into that wall in like a realistic fashion was a lot of And it was Cory was very sci-fi and Then followed up right in 2002 with Red Faction to this one's forgotten about even more but it had a sweet spot in my heart. It was a little bit more arcadey over-the-top action e really fun though. It's some exciting weapons some good dual wielding and a really interesting like sci-fi fascist Vibe with some great split screen play. This one was really underrated and like other games like TimeSplitters really kind of steal the show Red Faction to was totally ignored. I want them to bring back not only Red Faction but bring it back as a first person shooter. 

4. Shadow of Rome (2005)

Shadow of Rome

Here is another one that was really cool when it came out, which is completely flew under the radar for most people and then when pretty much unnoticed, you know taking place in ancient Rome as I'm sure you could have guessed from the title the game to had you play as a centurion name Agrippa and because of his job you spent the most of the game just kind of wrecking house you get to do a lot of fun gladiator-style combat stuff that you'd expect from a game.

Like this and we could get pretty wild letting you chop off enemy Limbs and then picking those limbs up and you can see people to death with them, you know, just cool guy stuff. There was a gameplay system where you could amp up the crowd with certain actions are combinations of actions, which would then great you Salvo points, which would fill a meter which then when you're full you can do more crowd work in the audience would throw you rare and more powerful weapons and stuff. It was kind of wild and almost like wrestling there was like a whole other part of the game focused on vehicle combat at church. Chariot races which you'd have to come in first or kill everyone and there were other elements like some weird stealth sections and puzzles, but overall it was just a really cool Roman-style hack and slash get that didn't get enough look at all and the it's Japanese development and influence was actually really apparent. Yes, This was actually a Capcom game Believe It or Not executive produced by the famous producer Keiji inafune. Yeah. They canceled shadow of Rome sequel would then go on to become Dead Rising?

3. Psi - Ops the Mindgate conspiracy (2004)

Psi - Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

This multi-platform game was released at a time where there were a lot of games about bald men with psychic powers. I'm looking at you Second Sight another game that we don't have time to talk about but maybe we'll talk about in another video. This is just like a really fun mid-tier action-adventure super mm type of game like it was really corny. You were just kind of like a badass dude, but you were able to shoot in third person and also grab things and grow things with your mind and the way the game did it was very Intuitive at the time and it made for just like a really special fund of a good time. This is one that was like marketed like hell and a lot of people played it but then that was it there was just a psi-ops game and then nothing else kind of reminds me of how kill switch kind of innovative with their Person cover system and then that came out and then that was it. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes you have one cool game with a great mechanic the Pioneers things and then that's it. Well, thanks for your sacrifice psi-ops. 

2. Rez (2000)

Rez

This is a prime example of game that released in pretty much immediately created.

 Aah passionate called following that's managed to still be around you this day 20 years later. If you've never played res is basically a rhythm based musical rail shooter put out by Sega for the Dreamcast and then PlayStation 2. It was produced by tetsuya mizuguchi whose name you might recognize from other games like Space Channel 5 shenmue Tetris effect data many many others, but the game was like I said a musical rail shooter. So the gameplay was similar to Panzer Dragoon, but in like a weird trippy digital place, you're like a hacker who's infiltrating a malfunction in AI to fight all viruses and stuff your fending off enemies destroying data nodes and everything. You do would change the enemies as the music most importantly in the level layout. So you kind of be incentivised to go the extra mile so you can really see everything with the game has to offer. We're still really really cool game with a unique Vibe awesome soundtrack and it's a bummer that like, we just don't see

Versions of resin today, we've got a couple of things and Rez has certainly influenced a lot of other games but like the res brand is not really a big thing anymore. Those few res games and experiences were just like one big hell of a ride. 

1. Socom 

Socom: US Navy Seals

This US Navy Seals game from Zipper Interactive. Y'all remember this one. This is the first game like right up there with full spectrum Warriors to some of the best and most unique tactical war shooters. So calm change it up a bit because it wasn't to video gaming and by that. I mean like you weren't just running around shooting dudes like you were but it was different. It was an extremely slow. Down two other Shooters you wanted to sneak your way around a be smart about how you approach certain objectives. And you were also in command of a whole team of seals three to be exact and the teams were split up into Alpha and Bravo with you making up the half of Alpha and you could issue commands to everyone or the subgroups and split the month. So you can man Bravo to sit while you went ahead and Scout it out the area or something like that. You can issue commands via this on-screen menu, or you can use the socom headset that was packaged in. Issue commands with your voice which was like the coolest shit back in 2002 and really help to immerse you into the game a bit more even if it was a little bit of a gimmick. It was still awesome. Then there was the multiplayer, of course if you were capable of doing it. It was just really different just seeing that this is a slow pace third person shooter. We spent a lot of time with it. Unfortunately. Both series did start with a bang it ended with a whimper on the PS3 generation. It's so calm for it's pretty much an overall bummer like it had some of the troll field and some of the pace of the original game, but it was buggy and messy and lack a lot of the overall polish that a lot of other similar. James had at the time and it was all unfortunate still it was a great Series in the days of PlayStation 2 and it feels like