The PlayStation 2 Still Has One Of The Most Exciting And Expansive Libraries Ever

It also was host to the unusual and unique. Rule of Rose is still one of the strangest and most profound survival horror games ever, and stands up strong against the competition of the time, which includes unassailable classics like Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4. It was home to Drakengard, a still disturbing and grueling journey through dark fantasy hell. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are still stealthily influential, shaping The Last of Us and God of War (2018) alike. Yet, they have a grandeur and a magic those games cannot capture, a poetic spareness that feels tied to the PS2’s architecture. If you play Shadow of the Colossus on an original PS2, you can feel the console straining against the ambition on display. That fact enhances its majesty, it does not strangle it.

On the PS2, Katamari Damancy–a gonzo, existential toy–could find a massive audience, while Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame III: The Tormented pushed the medium towards a maturity it still struggles to find. Games like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty questioned the foundations of the medium well before BioShock and Spec Ops: The Line tried their hands at metafiction. Of course, the PS2 was a product of all that had come before. Still, the breadth of what it sets up and anticipates is astounding.

All this, though, takes for granted the distance I have now from this time period. I am not reading about interesting games from Japan that will never be ported over. I am not strolling down to my local store, only to find the shelves populated with cheap tie-in games and money-grubbing sports titles. I am not an aspiring game developer, attempting to make my way into the industry and discovering how hard it is to make something that is truly yours. I am someone who has played most PS2 games by borrowing them from friends, picking them up on the cheap from a mom-and-pop game store, or through extralegal means. I can now play English translations of those games that never made it to America. My wistful utopian gaze at the PS2 is a side-effect of revisiting it now. Plenty of my grips with the video game industry have their roots on the PS2. As I am typing this, unique and startling visions are just a click away. Why feel nostalgic at all?

The PS2 was far from the last time video games were good. But it was the last time mainstream games felt like they were actively and collectively pushing new ground beyond pixel counts.

One reason is that the PS2 represents a time when few console games were aspiring to take over your life. The lack of ubiquitous internet connections on consoles meant that only a scant few could offer continual online updates. Massive online sagas like Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Online were exceptions that proved the rule. Even they did not have the innumerable hooks into your wallet and your life that are commonplace across free-to-play online games now. The roots of that are, of course, in PC gaming. But now it is everywhere.

The PS2 also got way cheaper over its lifecycle. For a time, the PS2 was cheap enough it became ubiquitous. It is still the best-selling console of all time, still selling over a million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, just a few months before it was discontinued, at the very end of its life. For years after, games like FIFA and Final Fantasy XI were still regularly launching new entries on the PS2. It is still one of the most popular consoles in Brazil, when modded models running pirated games reign supreme. That fact makes Sony’s pivot into expensive, premium hardware with the PlayStation 3 all the more baffling and heartbreaking.

In short, the PS2 was a device that was relatively cheap, had a gigantic and diverse library, and existed on the cusp of a new online era it both predicted and eluded. The PS2 was far from the last time video games were good. But it was the last time mainstream games felt like they were actively and collectively pushing new ground beyond pixel counts. For much of the PS2’s lifecycle, even mainstream games felt expansive, strange, and daring. That’s worth celebrating, and worth mourning.