The PS2 is full of games that have been heralded as some of the best of all time, but some games on the console earn a more renowned distinction of being “ahead of their time”. These are the games that championed ideas, mechanics and systems that would ultimately be a much bigger part of the gaming space in the future. Not all of the PS2 games we’re going to mention here are 10/10 bangers, but they each carry something that makes them incredibly forward-thinking.
1. Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy
Why: precursor to the success of Telltale-esque games
As much as we’re loath to give David Cage any sort of credit, we have to admit that his game design on Fahrenheit (also known as Indigo Prophecy in the US) was almost prophetic when it comes to the trends of the future. It sure as hell wasn’t because of the game’s narrative of course, which takes what could have been an interesting tale about being the cat and mouse in a murder investigation and then turns it into a weird Matrix-esque inspiration where you fight glowing green bugs in an office building. That’s without even getting into the Mayan death cults, the weird AI lads or the other weird bollocks that find its way into Fahrenheit during the game’s run-time, but it’s the way Fahrenheit’s gameplay is structured that makes it ahead of its time.
Basically, Fahrenheit was the first (mostly) successful take on the 3D point and click adventure game, with players interacting with their environments to find clues and lore, while making certain choices that would affect the path of the story. Granted, a lot of games that came after Fahrenheit, including the majority of Telltale’s output or David Cage’s follow-up games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, furthered the concepts and ideas first showcased here, particularly with regards to player choice actually having an effect on the outcome. Fahrenheit’s second biggest criticism is the fact that it’s basically a rollercoaster where you can choose left or right, but it all finishes in the same place.
The biggest criticism is the stupid story, though. Jeez.
2. God Hand
Why: adaptive difficulty
It takes a lot for a beat ‘em up game to actually be ahead of the curve on something, and in the case of God Hand, it definitely wasn’t for the stereotypical depictions of certain character types. The humor and tone of God Hand is certainly an acquired taste, and while you could definitely say the same about God Hand’s gameplay, particularly in regards to the game’s extreme difficulty, the ideas and mechanics on show here are undoubtedly forward-thinking. For starters, God Hand’s approach to avoiding attacks, using the right analog stick to dodge, bob and weave to evade damage, is miles ahead of games that still rely on just a simple button press. Not only do you feel more in control of main character Gene, it makes defensive play just as fun as the offensive play.
Offensive in terms of attacking, anyway. Not in regards to whatever this is.
Anyway, the real innovation that God Hand has become known for is its approach to adaptive difficulty. Capcom had already implemented a version of it with Resident Evil 4, with the game giving players more resources when they kept dying, but God Hand took things one step further by turning it into an active gameplay mechanic. Essentially, the better you performed during a level, the more the difficulty gauge would fill, with enemies hitting harder and more often once you’ve moved up a level or two. Of course, dealing with stronger enemies isn’t just for masochism’s sake, as the higher difficulty levels also means better drops from enemies and crates, rewarding players for learning and adapting to the game’s mechanics.
3. Metal Gear Solid 2
Why: story about rise of AI, political misinformation
You want a video game director who lives about 16 steps ahead of the curve at all times, you want Hideo Kojima. The visionary director has been at the forefront of innovative gameplay and storytelling for decades now, so it’s no surprise at all to see that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty is on a list of PS2 games ahead of their time. Some might say that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has a more “ahead of its time” quality, at least in terms of the gameplay, especially with how detailed the camouflaging and injuries aspects of the game were, and both look to be returning in the upcoming remake, but for our money, MGS 2 deserves the nod here. And no, it’s not for the fact that Raiden can do pull-ups for better grip strength either.
What made Metal Gear Solid 2 such an ahead of its time game is how much it’s predicted about the way our world has developed and evolved, particularly with regards to AI and political misinformation, or “fake news” if you’d prefer a catchier name. The themes and ideas that Kojima grapples with during MGS 2’s final act were just thought to be some sci-fi fear mongering when the game first launched in 2001, but looking back over 20 years later, it feels like Kojima is a time-traveler. Unfortunately for us, we don’t live in a world where problems can be solved by having a sword fight with a sitting president above the ruins of Manhattan’s Federal Hall, but there’s still time for Kojima to be correct in predicting that one too.
4. Dark Cloud
Why: procedural generated dungeons, village creation
In an age of RPGs like Final Fantasy, where players gathered a party and headed out to defeat the big bad (usually God of some kind), Dark Cloud dared to do things a little bit differently. Sure, you were still traveling the world and gathering a party, but the core gameplay of Dark Cloud saw players exploring a series of procedurally generated dungeons, killing monsters and leveling up your weapons throughout. The dungeons being generated randomly already gave Dark Cloud a feature miles ahead of its time, as it’s become a core part of many RPGs and roguelikes in the years since, but where Dark Cloud really earns its credit is with the village building mechanics that form the majority of the game’s story.
As you delve into the dungeons, you’ll gain “Atla” which can be used outside of dungeons in the Georama mode, which allows you to rebuild villages from the ground-up. Players can also listen to the wishes of the villagers when placing items in order to earn extra rewards. From a storytelling perspective, Dark Cloud’s village building approach lets players feel more like a proper hero; someone who helps people return to normal instead of just killing the monsters and walking off. Combining city-building with RPGs back in the early 2000s is definitely ahead of its time, and while another Level-5 game in Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom allowed players to upgrade their kingdom, it wasn’t quite as detailed or robust as Dark Cloud’s.
5. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Why: Spies Vs Mercs predicted asymmetrical multiplayer
Metal Gear Solid might be considered the grandfather of 3D stealth games, but the PS2 era saw the introduction of the Splinter Cell series from Ubisoft, which took a different yet equally innovative approach to the world of stealth. The way that Splinter Cell’s level and game design, along with its graphics, properly utilized light versus shadow when hiding from guards, while also giving players a previously unseen amount of verticality in terms of Sam Fisher’s abilities, allowed for a whole new approach to stealth gameplay. Ubisoft knocked it out of the park with the first Splinter Cell, but the second game in the series, Pandora Tomorrow, truly was even further ahead of its time with the inclusion of Spies Vs Mercs.
Aside from being a multiplayer mode in an age where online gaming was still in its infancy, Spies Vs Mercs was an asymmetrical multiplayer mode that gave both teams widely differing abilities. The Spies played in third person, and had much more in the terms of movement and agility, while the Mercs played in first person and wielded vastly superior firepower. Spies Vs Mercs basically predicted how popular asymmetrical multiplayer games would become, as games like Dead By Daylight have become some of the most engaging and popular games on the market, and with Ubisoft’s upcoming remake of Splinter Cell, we’re crossing our fingers that we’ll see Spies Vs Mercs make a return.
6. The Thing
Why: almost a precursor to social deduction games
It’s a pretty good sign that a game was either ahead of its time or underrated at the very least when Nightdive Studios lifts the game up from obscurity and decides “yeah, this one deserves another go”. Most notable for their work on the System Shock remake, Nightdive Studios have also been prolific in their attempts to improve and re-release the underappreciated classics. Turok, Rise Of The Triad, Powerslave and more have been given the Nightdive treatment, but many were completely shocked when they announced a remastered version of The Thing, an official tie-in game to John Carpenter’s incredible sci-fi horror movie. On the surface, The Thing might look like a standard horror shooter, but the ideas and mechanics here are genuinely revolutionary.
Like the film this game is based on, the main gimmick of The Thing is that any of the NPCs that you encounter could actually be The Thing in disguise, with that paranoia coming back your way too as NPCs can even turn hostile against you if they believe you’re The Thing. For a single-player horror game, these mechanics are basically unheard of, making The Thing an experience like no other, but it’s actually a lot more reminiscent of a genre that exploded over the past few years: social deduction multiplayer games. Replace “The Thing” with traitor or imposter and you’ve basically got the recipe for games like Among Us ready to go. While it’s more probable that Among Us and others were inspired more by the actual film than the tie-in video game, Computer Artworks’ 2002 game gave us a glimpse into what being sus of our crewmates could feel like.
7. Final Fantasy XII
Why: Gambit system basically lets you code party members
Final Fantasy XII is often overlooked when it comes to FF games on the PS2. Final Fantasy X is seen as the best one, while Final Fantasy XI often is celebrated as an ahead of its time classic for bringing MMO gameplay to the PS2 and consoles in general, despite SEGA nailing that brief with Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast. You could say FFX-2 is also overlooked, but even then that’s beloved as a girly pop road trip with interesting gameplay mechanics (and rightly so, it whips), but Final Fantasy XII tends to get the short end of the stick. It’s a shame, because its ideas and changes to the gameplay formula helped signal the change in Final Fantasy’s direction over the years.
The open field approach to combat encounters was new to Final Fantasy, allowing players to actually see and fight enemies in the field instead of being stopped by random encounters every 30 seconds, which was a nice change. You only need to look at FFXV, FFXVI and FF7R to see how ahead of its time that would be, but the real forward thinking feature in Final Fantasy XII was the Gambit system. As play wasn’t turn-based in the traditional sense and you could only control one character, the Gambit system allowed players to essentially code their ally’s behavior through a series of “if this, then that” statements. It’s a level of freedom you don’t get often in RPGs, with a more recent example being the combat in Unicorn Overlord. Even then, that’s a lot more simplistic compared to the Gambit system, which is still incredible nearly two decades later.
8. Kill Switch
Why: cover system
Kill Switch is far from the first game to feature some kind of proper cover system, considering Operation Winback for the N64 beat Kill Switch by a couple of years. Namco did improve and iterate on the formula though, adapting similar cover mechanics from the heavily popular Time Crisis series to create a proper cover system and one of the first of its kind on the PS2. MGS 2 might have allowed players to lean on walls and fire from around corners, but Kill Switch made cover its central focus, and it was all the better for it. Sure, reviews at the time might have put Kill Switch at around the “decent mark”, but it’s what Killswitch would go on to inspire that makes it so ahead of its time.
After the release of Kill Switch, lead designer Chris Esaki was hired by Epic Games to work on a little indie game known as Gears of War. You might have heard of it. Former lead Gears dev Cliff Bleszinski even noted that the cover system in Kill Switch was a heavy influence for Gears, as it was the best one in gaming at that time. When Gears of War became a breakout hit for the Xbox 360, all of sudden every single third person shooter needed some kind of cover mechanic in order to keep up with modern trends, so you can thank Kill Switch for the epidemic of waist-high walls that now plague every single gunfight in a AAA shooter. Even if some games ruined the mechanic, there’s no denying how inspirational and influential Kill Switch would prove to be, even if it was somewhat unintentional.
9. Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction
Why: destructive open world with RPG elements
It would be all too easy of us to stick Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City and San Andreas together on this list and be 100% correct in doing so. However, that’s boring. Rockstar changed the open world genre entirely with the release of the third GTA onwards, but in the pursuit of not talking about the same games constantly (unless they’re Urban Reign or F-Zero GX), let’s celebrate the majesty that is Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction instead. In part, Mercenaries is such an interesting open world game because it plays with the formula and overall progression in a way that other games haven’t really attempted since. Hell, even the sequel felt like a more traditional open world game with standard missions compared to the first game.
Dropped into a war between North and South Korea, you play a merc who’s looking to bag the Deck of 52, a list of dangerous figures in the NK military, while making a tidy profit at the same time. How you go about it, and how you can interact with this open world environment, differs greatly from almost all open world games, as you build relationships with the various factions to earn intel on the locations of the Deck. Sour the trust between yourself and everyone in North Korea and you’ll have a much tougher time apprehending the 52. On top of that, Mercenaries also lets you blow up pretty much every building you see, which is something that more open world games could do with, honestly.
10. Mortal Kombat: Deception (Konquest shares DNA with SF6’s World Tour)
Why: Konquest shares DNA with SF6’s World Tour
NetherRealm Studios, even back during their Midway days, were always the best at making sure their fighting games stood as single-player experiences. It’s all very well and good that you’ve made a fighting game that’s great for multiple players, but without catering to that casual audience, games just fall off, even if they’re better. The PS2 Mortal Kombat games rank among some of the worst to play in the entire franchise, with their weirdly chunky character models, janky hitboxes and awful animations, but one area where those MK games absolutely excelled is with modes and content. Or, Kontent, I guess. Armageddon’s story mode and additions like Kart Kombat were great, but the Konquest Mode in MK: Deception feels like a prototype for Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode.
Konquest followed Shujinko, an admittedly charisma-less vacuum of a person who is sent on a quest to stop an ancient evil from awakening. While that couldn’t be further from SF6’s World Tour, the two converge with the idea that Shujinko learns the styles from the various characters or Masters he encounters along the way, in turn teaching you how to actually play the game. From a broad strokes, almost “Tale Of The Tape” perspective, the two modes are almost identical, and with how well received the World Tour mode has been, we can only hope that more fighting game developers take bigger swings on their single player modes too.
New Bloody Roar with a World Tour mode when, lads?
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