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The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling game of all time, which means it is absolutely chock-full of games. With the rise of shooters during the era, it’s not a stretch to say the genre was one of the most prolific on the system. And while the PS2 didn’t have the likes of Halo, it did bring quite a few great shooters to the table. Most of these were also available on other systems, but with the PS2 being the console of choice for most players, it’s fair to say that the majority of the audience played them on Sony’s console.
Here are six great PS2 shooters.
6) Black
Image courtesy of Electronic Arts
Black is one of the best-looking and sounding games on the PlayStation 2. The developers at Criterion Games tried to make a game featuring cinema-quality sound, and it largely delivered. Sure, Black caught flak at the time for being relatively short and lacking multiplayer, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of the best shooters of the era.
While the sound was one of the standout features, the real star of the show was environmental destruction. Players could blow apart enemy cover in novel ways, adding some replayability to the story mode. Black did have a spiritual sequel called Bodycount in 2011, but no game has ever captured the feeling of this PS2-era shooter.
5) Call of Duty 3
This was the final Call of Duty game before the series turned to modern warfare. It takes place on the Western Front of World War II, letting players play as either American, British, Canadian, or Polish soldiers. In addition to the single-player campaign, players could jump into online play against up to 15 other players.
In many ways, Call of Duty 3 is an outlier for the series. After all, it was quickly surpassed by the juggernaut that was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It has been dinged for a lack of innovation, but it’s worth noting that a few of its changes, most notably larger multiplayer maps and quick-time melee events, were instrumental in future games. Regardless, it’s a solid WW2 shooter that serves as the best version of CoD before Modern Warfare took over.
4) Medal of Honor: Frontline
It might be hard to remember, but there was a time when Medal of Honor was the World War 2 shooter of choice. Frontline was the first game in the series on the PS2 and also the first time Steven Spielberg wasn’t involved in production. You might think that would add a few stumbling blocks, but that’s far from the case.
Frontline starts with the storming of Omaha Beach, instantly setting the tone for an epic campaign across Nazi Germany. It might not quite hold up visually to modern sensibilities, but when it dropped in 2002, Frontline was one of the best-looking early PS2 games. Unfortunately, EA quickly ran Medal of Honor into the ground after Frontline, but I’ll always remember playing through that first mission.
3) Red Faction 2
I mentioned that Black does a great job of incorporating environmental destruction into its gameplay, but that game has nothing on the Red Faction series. The Geo-Mod concept was a real game-changer for Red Faction, and the sequel takes things up a notch with better visuals and great split-screen multiplayer.
Granted, Red Faction 2‘s lack of online multiplayer was frustrating, even if many console players weren’t hopping online in 2002. However, the rest of the package is more than enough to overcome its lack of an online presence. Just don’t play the PC version.
2) TimeSplitters 2
TimeSplitters 2 takes everything players loved about the original and expands on it. If you were looking to jump into a split-screen multiplayer game on the PlayStation 2, this was the one to play. Like Red Faction 2, there was no online multiplayer, but when everything else is so good, that doesn’t really matter.
You could argue for TimeSplitters: Future Perfect to take this slot. After all, that game’s time-traveling story mode is a blast to play through, and it includes a ton of content to dive into across its single- and multiplayer modes. It also finally brought online play to the series, but either way, TimeSplitters was a must-play shooter on PS2.
1) Star Wars Battlefront 2
Don’t let the 2017 game of the same name fool you; Pandemic Studios’ 2005 game was one of the best games of its era. The single-player story mode is robust, taking you through a lengthy campaign that put in the shoes of a veteran Stormtrooper, recounting his time serving both the Republic and Empire.
Battlefront II also added a new Hero class, letting players briefly control Jedi and Sith characters, which could completely turn a battle. Add in the fan-favorite Galactic Conquest mode that plays a shooter version of Risk, and you have one of the best Star Wars games of all time. It’s a shame EA had to come along and ruin its good name with all those microtransaction shenanigans a decade later.
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