By the time of the PlayStation 2, games were settling into the 3D era gracefully, and most of the system’s most memorable games have aged fantastically well. There are always some exceptions, though, and a few iconic PS2 games are starting to show their age today.
That doesn’t mean these games aren’t still great, but they just happen to require a little more tolerance to revisit than, say, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. A mention on this list isn’t meant to discourage you from playing any of these classics, as there’s still so much fun to be had playing them. Sometimes, it’s just helpful to know what you’re getting into.
5
Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun
The Medal of Honor series set the blueprint for so much to follow. Not only is the legacy of the series itself something to admire, but it’s hard to imagine franchises like Call of Duty spawning in the same way without Medal of Honor to set the blueprint. The classic games can feel somewhat limited compared to later historical FPS games, but most of them are still properly compelling today.
One that hasn’t aged well, however, is Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. Even at the time of its release, Rising Sun was an obvious step backward from its direct predecessor, Medal of Honor: Frontline. By comparison, the game feels clearly rushed and limited in the scope of its development. With poor graphics, performance, and plenty of creative shortcomings, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun fails to make a strong impression, and its limited production values undercut the supposed gravity of its historical story.
Without over 20 more years of FPS games to compare it to, it was still easy enough to forgive its shortcomings at the time of launch. Today, though, it’s hard to think of a good reason to choose Medal of Honor: Rising Sun over other options, but nostalgia for the days of classic Medal of Honor makes it possible to love in spite of its flaws.
Alright, hear me out here — Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is amazing. It’s one of my favorite games of all time, and I would always point people toward playing it on the PlayStation 2 rather than opting for the recent Unreal Engine 5 remake. In many ways, it feels ahead of games released today, with a constant spirit of innovation that pushes the gameplay and story in an incredible variety of interesting directions.
With all of that said, the original release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater isn’t the way to play. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence is, and this entry is not in any way about Subsistence. At launch, the game stuck to the top-down camera perspective of Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2, and the angle struggles to work as well with the third game’s more open environments. Revisiting it today, you’ll likely be begging for the third-person option that Subsistence introduced.
That’s not the only issue, as Metal Gear Solid 3 also features some brutal frame drops, a problem that unfortunately extends to the Subsistence version. While it’s not a deal-breaker, it compares poorly to the buttery-smooth 60 FPS gameplay of its predecessor. These criticisms absolutely shouldn’t stop you from experiencing the sheer brilliance of Metal Gear Solid 3, but you should definitely opt for Subsistence if you can.
3
Grand Theft Auto 3
It’s no exaggeration to say that Grand Theft Auto 3 was a revolution. While it’s far from the first open-world game in history, it’s the ground zero for many of the genre conventions that we know today, offering a sandbox for creativity and chaos that was unparalleled at the time of release. Decades later, taking on missions in Liberty City is still plenty of fun, and its relative simplicity compared to later titles can actually feel refreshing.
On the other side of that coin, it’s also hard to deny that Grand Theft Auto 3 is primitive compared to its successors. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City injected the formula with a memorable dash of Miami flavor, and there’s a reason people still quote San Andreas‘s CJ and Big Smoke much more frequently than GTA 3 characters. Those games have their rough points too, with San Andreas featuring a few truly frustrating missions, but they tend to be easier to overlook.
On a gameplay level, Grand Theft Auto 3 was always riding on its sandbox potential, as the actual mechanics of shooting, driving, and most other tasks were rough even at the time of release. Now that open-world games are basically an industry standard, it’s a good bit harder to overlook how rough everything is around the edges. GTA 3 remains an undeniable classic, but not one that will blow anyone away in the same way that it did when it first launched.
2
Just Cause
Of the many sandbox franchises that followed in Grand Theft Auto 3‘s wake, Just Cause might very well be the best. It’s an extremely dumb franchise, but its potential for chaos is hard to match. Each game offers plenty of opportunities to cause absolute mayhem, and few things are more satisfying than setting off an explosion in a truly unexpected way.
If you’re getting into Just Cause today, however, the PlayStation 2 version of the original game is absolutely not the way to go. Not only does Just Cause 2 up the fun factor, but the original game was never very well suited to a PS2 version, with wide tropical vistas and action gameplay that begged for stronger hardware. When it launched in 2006, the PS2 was relatively outdated, and the game fared significantly better on PC, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
While poor graphics and performance can be overlooked, Just Cause is dragged down much further by a surplus of game-breaking bugs. It can still be a blast to play today, but if you’re choosing to do so on PS2, you’ll quickly start wondering why you didn’t just pick up a Steam copy on sale for a few dollars instead.
1
Sonic Heroes
The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is full of peaks and valleys, but Sonic Heroes sits smack-dab in the middle. It’s a much more charming game than low points like Sonic Forces, but it’s a much rougher game than any of Sonic’s best adventures. Fun gameplay and visually engaging levels can’t quite overcome its more repetitive elements, and the story feels like a step back from the Sonic Adventure games.
What’s really aged poorly is the PlayStation 2 version of Sonic Heroes, which suffers from problems and compromises that weren’t present on the GameCube version. The PlayStation 2’s hardware was never as strong as the GameCube’s (although the larger disc size had some discrete benefits), and while plenty of ports managed to optimize properly for its limitations, Sonic Heroes fell short.
With worse graphics, a struggling frame rate, and a whole host of unique bugs, there’s no good reason to play Sonic Heroes on the PlayStation 2 if you have another option. The GameCube release of Sonic Heroes remains the best original version, but playing it on PC can also open up a world of modding for various improvements and variety in replayability.
- Brand
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Sony
- Original Release Date
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February 4, 2000
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$299
- Weight
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4.85 lb
