So I have spent the last few years slowly making my way through the Playstation 2’s library. Obviously I haven’t played every single game ever released for the console, but I have played a lot of them. One recurring problem however was that in a lot of cases, I just didn’t have a lot to say about the game. When I first started doing reviews I unfortunately had a bad habit of sometimes reviewing games that I hadn’t actually played all that much of before deciding I was done and knew enough to judge the game. Of course it’s not fair to give a full review of a game if you’ve only played a small portion, and so nowadays I try to avoid reviewing games unless I’ve finished them, or at least played through most of it.
But with the Playstation 2 there were a lot of games that just didn’t qualify for a review, as I could tell very quickly that they weren’t my cup of tea, and so stopped playing them fairly early on. However, I didn’t want all of the time I spent trying these games out to be a complete waste, and so here is my rapid fire two cents on a whole bunch of Playstation 2 games.
7 Wonders of the Ancient World
Despite the lofty title, this game is basically just a variation of Bejeweled. It is a fun game, but there’s not much to it, and it’s not something I would say you need to go out of your way to play.
25 to Life
As the name suggests, this game is about criminals, and opens up with a guy forced to flee from the police after a deal he was supposed to be a part of goes south. The cruel irony of it is that it was supposed to be his last job before he went straight for the sake of his wife and kid.
I have mixed feelings on the story and characters. On the one hand, a lot of the dialogue sounds less like how actual human beings talk and more like how an out of touch writer thinks human beings talk. On the other hand, I have to admit that a black man being framed for a crime he didn’t commit and being shot at by the police is pretty realistic.
As for the gameplay, it’s mainly a third person shooter. It’s just sort of okay, but nothing amazing.
Aggressive Inline
While I knew there were video games about skateboarding, apparently there are also ones about rollerblading. If you like that sort of thing you’ll probably like this game. Personally I’m not really into this sort of thing, and I didn’t really care for it.
Alien Hominid
So apparently this was one of the first major indie titles, before the indie sphere really took off, and for a project done by a smaller team it’s pretty impressive. The core gameplay is fairly smooth, and the artwork is somewhat crude but still well done. But I didn’t play it for very long, because it was clearly made out of a love of retro games, and as a result incorporates two of the things I despise the most about retro games. Namely dying in one hit, and the existence of a lives system.
Black
I’ll be honest, I’d completely forgotten about this game, and even as I’m writing this I struggle to remember much of anything about it. From what I do remember it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me. I’m not really a fan of console FPS’s, and I also don’t really care for military FPS’s, as they have a tendency to prioritize spectacle over actually being fun to play, and that was definitely the case here.
Blood Will Tell
Now this game is interesting. The premise is quite unique, and did a good job of drawing me in initially. The main character’s father made a deal with some demons, and as a result shortly after he was born, the protagonist had almost all of his body parts stolen from him, left with almost nothing but a torso, a head, and a mouth. He was taken in by a doctor who cared for him, and eventually gave him mechanical body parts to replace all the ones he lost. After learning about where he came from, the protagonist sets out to slay all of the demons in the land, and reclaim his stolen body parts one by one.
Like I said, a very interesting idea, and there are some nice touches, such as after he regains an eye, the game suddenly changes from being in black and white to being in color. And the core combat mechanics are pretty good. Unfortunately after the opening the story and level design are unfocused and all over the place, and the characters actions don’t always make any sense. It’s a good example of a great idea held back by lackluster execution. It’s not bad, but aside from the unique premise there’s nothing that really stands out about it either.
City Crisis
In some ways I like what this game is trying to do. There’s not very many games that are focused exclusively on saving people, and operating a rescue chopper sounds like it could be fun in theory. In practice though the controls are rather clunky, and the gameplay is honestly kind of dull.
Cold Winter
This is actually a really good game, and the only reason I stopped playing it was because, again, I’m not really a fan of console FPSs. I much prefer mouse and keyboard when I’m playing an FPS, but that wasn’t really an option here. Still, if you enjoy FPSs and don’t mind console controls this one is worth checking out.
Contra Shattered Soldier
If you liked the old Contra games you’ll like this, since it’s basically just another Contra game except with 3d models and environments instead of sprites. Personally I’m not really a fan of Contra, as again I hate games that kill you in one hit, and lives systems are one of my personal bugbears.
Crash of the Titans - Crash Mind Over Mutant
I’m covering these two games together because they’re very similar, and they were developed by the same studio. After having a decent run on the Playstation 1, Crash Bandicoot kind of languished for a while, with a few decent attempts at games that nonetheless just weren’t as fun or satisfying to play as the original trilogy. By the time we get to these two games things had devolved even further, as the characters don’t really look or sound like themselves anymore, and the gameplay only bears a superficial resemblance to that of the older games. I understand that you can’t just do the same thing over and over, and some changes will be necessary to keep things fresh. But the changes they made here only serve to take away the quirkiness that made Crash distinct, leaving us with incredibly generic platformers that don’t really have anything interesting or new to offer apart from a few new gimmicks. Neither is awful by any means, but they aren’t really good either. The only people who would really get anything out of these games are fans of Crash Bandicoot, but paradoxically those are the exact same people most likely to hate these games due to all the changes. So, whether you’re a fan of Crash Bandicoot or not, it's probably best to just skip these.
Crash Twinsanity
Now here’s a game that fans of Crash probably would like. It’s not as good as the classic trilogy, but it’s definitely closer in spirit and in quality to the older games than the previous two games I was discussing.
Dark Angel - Vampire Apocalypse
So before I go through a new library of games, I usually compile a list of games I should try, typically by searching through numerous lists of games considered to be the best, most notably top 10 lists. The list I ended up compiling for the Playstation 2 ended up being extremely long, and it was long enough ago that for a lot of them I don’t have a clue how or why they got onto the list. That was definitely the case with this game, as it’s bad. Really bad. It tosses you into the middle of things without any context or explanation, and everything is just so clunky and awkward. If this were a student project or a first build of a work in progress I would actually be pretty impressed. But as an allegedly finished game it’s just awful. And I’m not alone in thinking that, as it got very mixed reviews when it first came out, and has been all but forgotten since. I guess there must be a handful of people out there who have a soft spot for this game, and one of them made one of the lists of the best PS2 games that I happened to stumble across. Still, it’s less annoying than some of the games I had to scratch off the list after finding out that they didn’t actually exist.
Dead to Rights
This is a third person action game featuring both shooting and hand to hand combat. In it you play as Jack Slate, a rogue cop looking to avenge his father. I have mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand the core gameplay is quite fun and satisfying, but on the other hand I found it impossible to sympathize with the protagonist.
The game opens with Jack discovering that his father has been murdered. After his superior tells him not to do anything stupid, Jack immediately goes after a local crime boss he’s convinced must have been the one to kill his father, and proceeds to gun down every thug and body guard that gets in his way. But before he can kill the crime boss, a mysterious man kills him first, then shoots Jack, and makes it look like Jack killed him. Before Jack blacks out, the man reveals that the crime boss wasn’t the one who killed Jack’s father. The game then jumps to seven months later, when Jack is in prison on death row.
It’s hard to sympathize with Jack for a number of reasons. I get that he was angry and the death of his father made him act impulsively, but it’s hard to overlook just how stupid his actions were. First of all, killing the crime boss wouldn’t bring back his father, and second of all, he wasn’t the one who did it, something Jack would have found out if he’d stayed calm and done a proper investigation. Instead he just went in guns blazing, knowing full well that by the end he would either be dead or in prison.
And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if during those seven months he’d learned from his mistakes, but as he makes his escape it becomes painfully clear that he hasn’t learned a damn thing, and is still the same impulsive trigger happy dickhead he was at the start.
So while the gameplay itself is good, my dislike of the protagonist made it impossible to keep going. I also think it kind of bothered me the way the game tried to imply that despite gunning down dozens of people Jack still maintains the moral high ground. If you’re going to have a game where the main character is shooting tons of people, you either need to create a situation where all of the shooting could plausibly be considered self defense, or you need to address the fact that the protagonist isn’t actually all that good of a person. Dead to Rights does neither, so it ends up feeling very unsatisfying, at least for me. I don’t know, maybe I’m over-analyzing it. I guess I’m just disappointed, since I did like how the game played, but the protagonist was insufferable enough I couldn’t keep going.
Dynasty Warriors 3
I’ve heard of Dynasty Warriors a fair amount over the years, but never actually played any of the games before. From the description it sounded like they wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but I figured I should try at least one just to be sure. Well, I tried it, and while I can see why some people like it, it just wasn’t for me.
Eternal Poison
So this is an SRPG, and while the story and characters were somewhat intriguing, I could instantly tell that the core gameplay wasn’t for me. It seems that most SRPGs tend to follow the style of the Final Fantasy Tactics games, which have an isometric viewpoint, and I find that this generally doesn’t work for me, with the only exception being the first Vandal Hearts. As far as SRPGs go I prefer the top down style found in the Fire Emblem games, and while Fire Emblem is quite popular there aren’t as many good imitators, and so I find it harder to find SRPGs that I like. Eternal Poison seems like a fine enough game, so if you like SRPGs in general you’ll probably like this one, it just wasn’t for me.
Eternal Ring
This game basically plays like a low budget Elder Scrolls game. In fairness I don’t know how accurate that assessment is, as at the time of writing the only Elder Scrolls game I’ve played is Morrowind, and while I can see why people like Morrowind, and I did have some fun with it, I’m not exactly filled with an urge to go back to it any time soon. Still, I would recommend Morrowind over Eternal Ring, though the latter might be worth checking out if you enjoy this type of game.
Evergrace
This is another game that I’d completely forgotten existed until I went back and checked for this article, and I’ll probably forget all about it as soon as I’m done writing this. It’s an incredibly generic action fantasy game, and while it’s not exactly bad, it is so bland and unremarkable that you really don’t need to bother going out of your way to play it.
Fahrenheit
Or Indigo Prophecy as my copy said. Not sure what the deal was with the name change. Anyways, I’ve heard a lot about David Cage over the years, most of it negative. Heavy Rain seems to have been fairly well received, but all the games he’s made afterwards got much more mixed receptions. So I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this game. However, it did leave a really good first impression. First of all, it has one of the most effective openings of any game I’ve ever played. It starts with the main protagonist in a bathroom in a diner in New York City. He’s in some kind of trance, and without any warning kills an older man who happened to be in the bathroom at the same time. As soon as he snaps out of the trance he’s horrified by what he’s done, and now you have to do your best to cover up his tracks. You have to move the body to a stall, clean up the blood, wash yourself, and then quickly get out of there before the body is found. It’s incredibly tense and effective.
The game also goes for a cinematic style in terms of the gameplay and how it presents itself, and I think it actually works pretty well. At first the story and characters are very intriguing, and you want to know what’s going to happen next. But then two major problems arise. The first is that it doesn’t take too long before the story starts to descend into nonsense. But the bigger problem is that the quick time events during the action scenes are just plain obnoxious. Despite being somewhat interested to know what was going to happen, the action scenes ended up being too obnoxious for me to deal with, and I decided to stop.
Freedom Fighters
Now this is a game I remember quite distinctly, as I barely lasted five minutes before quitting in disgust due to all of the huge red flags.
The first red flag was the fact that it was from Electronic Arts. While not nearly as bad as a lot of other corporations out there, in the gaming industry they are one of the worst. And I know that this game is pretty old now, but as far as I can tell EA has always been evil, and any good games they’ve published have been good despite their involvement, not because of it.
The second red flag was the opening, which details the backstory of the game by recounting an alternate version of history, where during World War 2 the Soviets were the first to get their hands on nukes, and after using them to defeat Nazi Germany went on to use them to forcefully take over the rest of Europe, including Britain. So right off the bat the game is relying on fear mongering about communism, something that was embarrassingly outdated even back when this game first came out, and I for one have just had enough of it. Soviet style communism was both bad and unsustainable, I think everyone can agree on that, but I’m sick and tired of conservatives in the US shrieking “Communism” about everything that they hate, as it’s a cop out just to try to scare people instead of using reasoned arguments or actually addressing what their opponent really thinks. Typically because if they engaged with their opponents in good faith, many (though not all) conservatives would have no case, but that’s a discussion for another time. For now I’ll just say that if you use the terms “Communism” or “Marxism” unironically when discussing US politics then you are either hopelessly ignorant or a blatant liar.
The third red flag was when the main story begins, it focuses on two American plumbers driving to work, and one of them is a typical conspiracy nut, while the other is the main protagonist. The problem is that the conspiracy nut is framed as the sensible one, while the other guy is framed as being irrational for dismissing the conspiracies. So the game once again rubbed me the wrong way by implying that conspiracy theories should be taken seriously, even though the vast majority of them are outlandish and utterly ridiculous claims that fold under the tiniest amount of scrutiny.
And the final red flag was when a bunch of Russian soldiers showed up out of nowhere and started attacking the city, at which point I just gave up. I know that there are bad Russians out there, and at the time of writing the regime in Russia is evil, but it’s extremely distasteful to imply that an entire people are inherently evil.
Maybe it’s a good game, but the inane politics made it impossible for me to stomach, and frankly I would recommend people avoid it.
Gauntlet - Dark Legacy
Now this game is interesting, as after playing it I realized that I have vague memories of playing it at an arcade when I was a kid. As a kid I thought it was pretty cool. As an adult, it’s just kind of okay. It was fun, and I enjoyed my time with it, but I don’t see myself coming back to it very often.
Genji - Dawn of the Samurai
Honestly I can’t really think of much to say about this game. If you like games about Samurai, or if you have an interest in Japanese history, this is a title worth checking out. Otherwise, it’s safe to skip.
Giants - Citizen Kabuto
This game apparently has a somewhat large cult following, and while I didn’t care for it personally I can see why. I liked the characters, and it does have a good sense of humor, with some pretty funny moments. And you get a jetpack, which is always cool. But unfortunately the core gameplay is just kind of clunky, and it’s not a good sign when you’re not sure if the reason you’re dying over and over is because you suck at the game, or because the game was badly designed. It wasn’t for me, but I can see why others like it.
God Hand
This was a game I’d heard about a fair amount over the years, but never played until recently. It’s a beat em up game with a few interesting mechanics. It seems like a fine enough game, but this is a genre that I don’t find to be all that engaging, so I didn’t play it for very long.
GrimGrimoire
I quite enjoyed Odin Sphere, so I was curious about this game which was developed by the same studio. And overall it is a good game, but it didn’t click for me in the same way that Odin Sphere did. GrimGrimoire’s presentation is absolutely gorgeous, with wonderful visuals and music, and I really liked the story and characters. However, the core gameplay feels a bit detached from the narrative. The story takes place in a school of magic kind of like Hogwarts from Harry Potter, with students and teachers making up the cast of characters. The gameplay on the other hand is a fantasy RTS where you summon familiars and send them off to fight other fantasy creatures. The gameplay is okay, but I didn’t find it to be all that engaging, and it feels only tangentially related to the main storyline. This is a game where you could probably just watch all of the cutscenes on Youtube and get more or less the same narrative experience you would have gotten if you’d actually played the game yourself. But if you really like RTS games it's definitely worth checking out.
Gungrave
This is a third person action game where you primarily use guns to mow down enemies. The gameplay isn’t anything too remarkable, but the visuals are aesthetically quite interesting. Stylistically it kind of reminded me of certain old school anime like Trigun, and after doing a little more research I found out the creator of Trigun was the one who did the character designs for this game. The game is just sort of fine, but I personally didn’t find it fun or interesting enough to keep going for very long.
Gungriffon Blaze
This is a game in which you pilot a mech suit to complete various missions. I normally don’t like games about mechs, since they tend to have really clunky and awkward controls. But while the controls take a little getting used to, this game is actually pretty fun, and worth checking out if you like mechs. Pragmatically speaking mechs don’t make a lot of sense, hence why they’ve never been used in warfare in real life, but I’d be lying if I said the concept wasn’t pretty cool.
Herdy Gerdy
This is a fairly standard 3D platformer. If you like that sort of game you’ll probably like this, but otherwise it’s nothing remarkable.
Hitman
I’ve heard of the Hitman series quite a lot over the years, and they’re supposed to be quite good stealth games. The premise certainly sounds intriguing. But after trying out all of the Hitman games that were released on the PS2, I’m afraid I must conclude that this series just isn’t for me. In some of the earlier games the controls felt a bit stiff, and even as that aspect improved the games still had a bad habit of relying on trial and error. If you didn’t do the right set of actions with the right timing in the right order, you’d almost inevitably fail the mission. And since you need to play through each map a few times to get a general feel of the layout, possible routes, and the locations and behavior of enemies, it feels less like a test of skill, and more like just repeatedly banging your head against a wall until eventually you get it right. Maybe I just suck at the games, I’m open to that possibility, but it felt like every time I messed up it was due to some factor I had no control over, or that I had no way of seeing coming. I can see why this is a popular series, but I guess it’s just not for me.
ICO
While Shadow of the Colossus is widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time, ICO, a game by the same studio, has largely faded into obscurity, and it’s not hard to see why. Both games are quite similar, in that they have a similar artstyle, atmosphere, environment, and both have a somewhat vague but still interesting narrative. But where SOTC really succeeds is that its core concept is inherently awesome, namely fighting and defeating sixteen giant monsters, and despite a few niggles with the gameplay it’s still fun to play even to this day. In ICO, on the other hand, the core concept is an escort quest. Escort quests are often maligned, but I don’t think this is because escort quests are inherently bad. Resident Evil 4 for example showed how to do an escort quest right without it being annoying. But when they’re done wrong, escort quests can be one of the most infuriating things to deal with in a game. And that is unfortunately the case with ICO. All the lovely environments, misty atmosphere, and story intrigue can’t make up for the fact that the main bulk of the gameplay is tedious and annoying.
Just Cause
While this game seems okay, from what I’ve heard Just Cause 2 is better in every way, so I figured I’d just try that game out at some point instead.
Kessen
This is a real time strategy game with a focus on Japanese history. I’m not really a fan of RTS, so I didn’t play this one for very long.
Killer 7
Now this is one of the most unique games I’ve ever played. It takes standard conventions we’ve come to expect in how shooter games work, and tosses them in the wood chipper, replacing them with its own quirky and bizarre ideas. While ultimately I didn’t keep going, I can definitely see why this game has quite the cult following, and the sheer uniqueness on display means you really should try this game at least once, even if it’s just to say that you did and didn’t like it.
Killswitch
This seems like a perfectly decent third person shooter, but it just didn’t grab me.
Killzone
I know that Killzone is a fairly prominent series exclusive to Sony’s consoles, and I was kind of expecting more. But while it’s not bad by any means, it’s still a pretty generic military FPS. And as I said before, I don’t really like military FPSs, because they tend to favor spectacle over actually being fun to play, and while Killzone was more memorable than the earlier military FPS I discussed whose name is now escaping me, ultimately Killzone was just kind of meh. Not bad, but not for me.
Maximo - Ghosts to Glory
So apparently this game was a spiritual successor to the Ghosts and Goblins games, something that I was less than thrilled to hear. Ghosts and Goblins for the NES remains the single worst video game I have ever played, as it’s basically what concentrated misery would look like if it was a video game. It looks awful, it sounds awful, it’s downright unpleasant to play, the difficulty is relentless, and it’s just…I don’t like it, okay. The followup on the SNES was marginally better, but still pretty wretched in my opinion.
Maximo, by contrast, is at least tolerable. I can definitely see the similarities to the old Ghosts and Goblins games, but it does a pretty good job of translating the old gameplay into a 3D environment with its own touches. Best of all, I was able to play it for more than five minutes without feeling physically ill, which is definitely a positive sign. It didn’t grab me, but I didn’t hate it, and if you do like the old Ghosts and Goblins games for some ungodly reason you might like this.
I would recommend googling how the checkpoints work, though, as the game doesn’t really explain that very well.
Metal Gear Solid 3
So back when I was going through the PS1 library I tried the first MGS game, only to not get very far because I failed at sneaking around and kept getting caught. I guess I just sucked. So I figured I’d give this series another shot with this entry. Unfortunately, this game didn’t really grab me either, so I guess MGS just isn’t for me. I’m not really sure why, as lots of people seem to like this series, and I can’t pinpoint anything really wrong with this one, but it just didn’t click for me.
Monster Hunter
This is another series I’ve heard of a lot over the years, and after playing this title the premise does seem rather intriguing. However, the gameplay and presentation in this particular title felt rather archaic, so I figured I’d hold off and try one of the later games that is hopefully more polished.
Okami
This was actually one of the very first games for the PS2 I tried out, and knowing how acclaimed it is my expectations were pretty high. But while it’s not bad, I have to admit I was kind of disappointed. It has gorgeous visuals and an excellent soundtrack, but the actual gameplay is just kind of okay, and the overall pacing is rather slow, or “languid” as one well known reviewer remarked. Okami is often compared to the Zelda games, but I don’t think that comparison does Okami any favors, as most of the mainline Zelda games are simply better.
I think one good example of why this game doesn’t work for me is to compare the opening to Wind Waker’s opening. Wind Waker opens up with a myth recounting the backstory of the game’s world. It does a good job of world building and giving the player a sense of awe and wonder, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it isn’t too long at all before the game proper begins.
In Okami, on the other hand, there’s a myth at the beginning recounting the backstory of the game’s world, but it just keeps going, and going, and going, and even when it ends there’s still quite a lot more exposition and character introductions to go before the game will finally let you start playing it. Twilight Princess also had a bit of a slow beginning, but on the whole it still paced itself better than Okami, and there was no point while playing Twilight Princess where I felt like shouting “Oh my god, would you just shut up already?” at any of the characters.
On that note, I found the wolf controls in Twilight Princess to be much smoother than the ones in Okami, which is odd since Okami is the game where you spend the entire game as a wolf. Okami also draws a lot on Japanese mythology, and if you aren’t familiar with Japanese mythology I feel there are some aspects of the story that will just go over your head.
I must stress, Okami is not bad by any means. But there were enough things about it that bugged me that I found myself unable to keep going, and I have to admit after all of the hype surrounding this game I was rather disappointed.
Onimusha 2 - Samurai’s Destiny
As you might have gathered from the title, this is a game in which you play as a Samurai. It’s okay, but if you’re not really into games about Samurai it’s safe to skip.
Project Snowblind
Didn’t care for the PS2 version of this game, as I don’t really like console FPSs, but I just found out that it was ported to Windows, so I might give it another shot someday.
Psi Ops - The Mindgate Conspiracy
This game seems okay, but it didn’t grab me.
Rygar - The Legendary Adventure
I actually quite liked this game. It plays kind of like a lower budget God of War, but the main character is less of a prick, so that’s nice. Unfortunately the story is kind of a mess, as it feels like a blend between Greek mythology, Roman history, and some other stuff the game developers just made up out of nowhere. Still, overall it was fun to play, and I enjoyed my time with it. But it wasn’t anything special or particularly memorable, and I doubt I’ll ever play it again.
Second Sight
This is honestly a really good game. It has an intriguing premise and a very interesting storyline, and the gameplay is pretty good too. I ended up quitting because after a while I found the combat rather annoying, but I would highly recommend that people give it a shot. If I had to pick one title to be the most underrated PS2 game, this one would probably be it.
Tenchu - Wrath of Heaven
I vaguely remember playing one of the earlier Tenchu games for the Playstation 1. And if I recall correctly this game has the same problem that game had. Namely it’s really bad at explaining how the various mechanics work, and it’s incredibly unforgiving if you mess up. I like the core concept, the idea of sneaking around as a ninja is pretty cool, but the game’s sink or swim attitude when it comes to teaching the player how things work makes it hard to get into.
The Getaway
This game has an intriguing opening and fairly good storyline, and the gameplay is okay, so if you like GTA type sandboxes you might like this. Or you might not. I don’t know, not really a fan personally.
The Legend of Spyro - A New Beginning
Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot have a lot of weird parallels. They both had a strong debut on the Playstation 1 with their respective trilogies, they both declined in quality and popularity during the sixth and seventh console generations, and eventually both had their original trilogies remade from the ground up, which renewed interest in both properties.
But there are a number of differences between the two series. While Crash Bandicoot kind of petered out by the end of the 2000s, Spyro got an attempt at a reboot with the Legend of Spyro games. I’d never played them before, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
While the core gameplay is kind of similar to the older games, there’s a much greater emphasis on combat rather than on platforming, and the end result is that the game isn’t all that interesting to play.
But beyond that, the story takes itself waaaaaay too seriously. It has a whole serious backstory involving a prophecy, with Spyro as the chosen one, and all this melodramatic stuff that’s played pretty straight. What makes it doubly weird is that the characters’ designs and personalities are pretty faithful to the older games, making it unbelievably strange for them to try to tell a more serious story. If they’d redesigned the characters, the world, and the gameplay from the ground up to fit with the new story it might have worked, but instead they clash pretty badly. Spyro’s a cute little purple dragon who beats up cartoony bad guys, it’s not exactly the sort of thing that lends itself easily to deep or mature storytelling. All the new serious stuff does is suck all the fun out.
So, yeah, the only real reason to play this game is if you’re a major fan of Spyro, but if you are you’re probably better off playing one of his other better games.
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Back when I was going through the Playstation 1’s library the original Tomb Raider was one of the games I tried. And honestly, I thought it was awful. Hideous visuals, clunky and awkward gameplay, and substantially worse than most of its contemporaries in style, substance, and just general fun. I genuinely have a hard time understanding how it was so successful, Lara Croft’s sex appeal notwithstanding.
Tomb Raider Anniversary is a remake of the first game, and as far as I can tell is pretty faithful to it. The main difference, of course, is that where the first game had horrible visuals and horrible gameplay, the remake is…fine. Just fine. The visuals are okay and the gameplay is updated to be functional. The climbing is somewhat satisfying, and the environments are nice. But compared to other action games of this era that involve a lot of climbing, such as the Prince of Persia games or Shadow of the Colossus, Tomb Raider Anniversary just felt kind of underwhelming.
Urban Chaos - Riot Response
This is another game that I have rather mixed feelings on. First of all, it’s another console FPS, which was already a sign that I might not like this game. But it’s actually pretty good for a console FPS, and the gameplay has some nice touches that help it stand out and make it unique.
The downside is that you play as the police, and the game portrays the police as the unambiguously good guys, something that sadly isn’t true in real life. But it’s slightly easier to stomach here because the main antagonistic force in the game is a violent gang that’s actively causing trouble. A police officer gunning down a crazy man running at them screaming with a sharp object I generally don’t mind, it’s when they gun down an unarmed person who’s running away that I have a problem.
Overall this is a good game, and if you enjoy console FPSs I would recommend it. For me the underlying political implications of the game made me uncomfortable, though I recognize that I may be overthinking things in this case.
Closing thoughts
To be perfectly honest, there were quite a few other games I also played, but when I tried to write down what I thought of them I just ended up staring blankly at the screen for a while. And if I can’t think of anything to say, that’s probably all that really needs to be said.
So, that’s it. I hope my rambling thoughts on these games was at least somewhat interesting, and maybe I helped you find some new titles to try out. Next up will be my list of my Top 10 PS2 games. Thanks for reading and hopefully I will see you later.
Comments