Summary
It’s not uncommon for gamers to have, at some point, played a shooter that absolutely blew their minds and the way they look and play other games — then find out that very few other people know of said game. With how saturated the market is, it’s inevitable that some great titles linger in obscurity.
The PlayStation 2 remains the highest-selling console of all time, and it features one of thelargest gaming librariesto ever exist. With that in mind, it’s understandable that a lot of great games would either fall through the cracks, or simply not hit the hearts and minds of critics when they first came out. Sometimes, they were ahead of their time. Let’s look at some of the most underrated shooters in PS2 history.
For anyone wondering whyRed Dead Redemptionhas that name, it’s because the people of Rockstar wanted to make a game that would “redeem” them fromRed Dead Revolver. No redemption is needed, however, as the originalRed Deadis quite a great game.
It might not have theawesome open world, but it doesn’t need to rely on that to make its shooting incredibly fun. And, even though it falls short of reaching the heights ofRed Dead Redemption,Revolverfeatures a great multiplayer mode that its “sequel” sadly doesn’t have.
Killzonewas unlucky to get touted as the"HaloKiller",but that was by the media, not by its devs. The good people at Guerrilla just wanted to make a good shooter, and that they did. Though both share a sci-fi setting,Killzonedoesn’t even look or play similarly toHalo,and that’s a plus. Sadly, the originalKillzoneasked too much from the PS2’s hardware, and ended up slouching a bit due to a few performance hiccups. Still, it remains a fun shooter that set the stage for a bunch of much-improved sequels.
5Forbidden Siren
Forbidden Fun
Forbidden Siren, a game by some of the people behindSilent Hill, is a cult hit, but one that never managed to hit the mainstream quite as it deserved. While not a full-on shooter, it’s known for its incredibly peculiar and hard-to-master shooting mechanics.
Horror gameswere still popular by the time of its release, and the names attached should have gotten the ball rolling for it to become a success, but it was just too challenging a game.Forbidden Sirenwas deliberately obtuse, and made even simple things like getting information out of a map a challenge. To give players an idea of just how punishingForbidden Sirenwas, its own creator once tried to play the game and got killed just a few minutes into his campaign. Still, it’s a great game that deserves anyone’s time and patience.
Blackenjoyed immense levels of hype before release, as its previews showed a never-before-seen level of map destruction and particle effects.Blackhad incredible graphics and spectacular firefights. That made perfect sense, consideringBlackwas made by the people behind the Burnout series at Criterion Games. Unfortunately,Blackwent, well, dark, shortly after release, and now remains a memory for the few people who enjoyed that action that seemed so far beyond everything the PlayStation 2 was supposed to pull off.
This game is based on a movie that’s older than most of the people reading this article. The originalThe Thingis an undeniable classic nowadays, but it failed to resonate with audiences and critics when it came out.
Back in the early 2000s, someone decided to use the rep that the movie had acquired over the decades to make a video game adaptation. However, this also failed to leave the mark it should have. That’s unfortunate, because, much like the movie, the game features a bunch of awesome elements that will surely succeed in getting players' levels of dread and paranoia all the way up to eleven.The Thingrecently got a good remaster, so this is as good a time as any to experience this forgotten classic.
Halo: Combat Evolvedusually gets all the credit for making console shooters a genre to be reckoned with, andXIIIwas one of the first few games to follow in its footsteps. On top of playing beautifully on the PS2’s controller, it features some really cool cel-shaded graphics that ensure the game will never feel dated.
Sadly, people only realizedXIII’sgreatness much too late. Players only got not a sequel, but a remake nearly 20 years later in 2020. Sadly, it fails to measure up to the original. Here’s hoping a better follow-up will arrive before 2040.
Red Factionputs players in the shoes of a miner in the midst of a proletariat revolution on Mars. Instead of having the character forget all about his day job to justgrab whatever gunhe can find and become every game’s regular FPS protagonist,Red Factionhas the main character honing in on his mining skills to save the day — as well as shooting a lot of incredibly fun guns.
Red Factionwent on to get good reviews for its fun combat and original mechanics — which its sequel went on to completely drop. It’s an absolute shame that such a great shooter, especially one in a time when console shooters weren’t all that great, didn’t get to grow in its sequels. The more recent sequels are great, but they’re very different from the original title, which anyone should still give a shot today.
