(2019) PlayStation 2 (2000): Review and Retrospective

  NOTE: This review was originally posted to Tumblr on May 5, 2019, and has been reposted here for archival purposes. It may not reflect recent events or my current opinions.

Recently, one of my mom’s coworkers was considering donating her PS2 to a Goodwill, and decided to ask my mom if I would be interested in it. I was definitely interested, and after taking the time to walk to her work, there it was at her desk, specifically the original beasty model 1. And like some of the other systems I’ve picked up over the past few years, I think now’s a good time to review it and reflect on the PlayStation 2.

I think it’s safe to say that the PlayStation 2 is probably the most infamous and well-loved console out there. As I think everyone knows, it’s the best selling console of all time, selling over 155 million units throughout it’s lifespan, with the only other console coming close to that being the Nintendo DS (which sold 154.2 million units before being discontinued). The PlayStation 1 as it is was an incredibly successful console, making the PlayStation a household brand name, but the PlayStation 2 only managed to keep that acceleration going, not only serving as the best selling console of the sixth generation but also being pretty much the primary budget console throughout the seventh generation. Even if you add up the sales of it’s competitors (the Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast), it still blows them all out of the water in terms of sales. And it was out for a pretty damn long time too, the system was first released a year before I was even born, and by the time Sony discontinued it, I was almost 12 years old and in sixth grade. And on top of all of that, the last game that was officially released for the system, Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, was released right before the PlayStation 4 was about to come out. So, it’s safe to say that the PlayStation 2 is the most successful console, not only for Sony, but of all time.

And like I said, even after being discontinued, it still manages to be a pretty popular and well-loved system. I still commonly see people calling the PlayStation 2 one of if not the best console of all time, mostly citing it’s huge and diverse library.

Since I haven’t really touched upon my experiences with the PlayStation brand as a whole (well, aside for an MLPForums review I did in 2015, but who cares about that lol), I will say my experiences with the line of consoles has always been sort of fuzzy. The first console I remember my brother having was the first PlayStation system (the PSOne version of it anyway), and he did have a pretty sizable collection for it, but it was eventually sold for… whatever reason. But going back before that, unlike most people I know, my brother despite owning a PS1 didn’t jump onto the PlayStation 2 when it came to the sixth generation. In a pretty long story involving a hiking accident or some shit, my dad basically promised to buy him a new system and he ended up getting an Xbox, and a bit later on he got the GameCube. So, I never really got to experience the PlayStation 2 myself. I did know a few people who had one, but being an introvert I never really went to other people’s houses, and when I did go to a friend’s house who owned a PS2, typically all they had were sports games which is obviously not very interesting. When it came to the 7th gen, my brother moved onto the Xbox 360, and me being a Nintendo fan, I was drawn to the Wii. Once again, I didn’t really find myself having much experience with the PlayStation 3, but did know some people who had it, and did have some interest in some of it’s games. When it came to the eighth gen… well, we both just ended up switching to PC gaming (even though i love my wii u <3). I will say that I eventually did buy a PlayStation 1 again when I was 12 because it was cheap and had a good amount of exclusives I was into like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, but outside of that I really never found myself having much experience with the PlayStation brand. I did at least always find it more interesting than the Xbox line of consoles, but it still wasn’t my first pick when it came to gaming experiences. And by not owning a PlayStation 2, I will admit that I was a bit… jealous of the system. I was kind of a fanboy, and therefore I actually did sometimes get annoyed when hearing all the people hailing the PlayStation 2 as the best console ever created. There was a point in my life where I sort of just wrote it off as an extremely overrated console that gets too much love, and I did get into the occasional argument over it every so often. Although, part of me was still was interested in the system, and eventually wanted to pick it up. I mean, after all, it was the best selling console out there, and to this day one of if not the most loved console of all time, so there definitely had to be some good stuff. And like I said, recently I got the PlayStation 2… for free. I was sitting at college a little while ago and all of a sudden my mom asked me if I wanted a PlayStation 2, and it turned out that one of her coworkers had one that was laying around that she was about to donate to Goodwill. So, when discussing it, I was like “yeah definitely” and after walking to her work one day, there it was, sitting right there, with tons of games and everything. Finally, I would get my first chance to truly experience the system. And after having it for a little while and collecting some games, I figured it would be a good time to review the system and discuss my thoughts.

In terms of specifications, the PlayStation 2… honestly isn’t really that interesting. It was a less powerful system compared to the GameCube and original Xbox, and it is powered by the Emotion Engine CPU. That’s really all that’s really special about it in terms of specs, and one issues I’ve always had with the PlayStation 2 is that the video quality and graphics themselves don’t often look that great when compared to the GameCube and Xbox counterparts. The Xbox in general still looks the best out of the sixth gen when hooking it up with component cables to a modern TV, the Dreamcast can use a VGA mod to look good on a modern TV, GameCube has component cables which… require selling an arm and a leg to buy (or you can play the games on the Wii because backwards compatibility) but looks good if you’re able to get the best image quality of it. PlayStation 2… just doesn’t really look that great when hooked up to modern TVs and while I’m not quite sure if it was more powerful than the Dreamcast or not, but even then some of the few multiplats that were both on PS2 and Dreamcast, particularly Dead or Alive 2 actually look better on the Dreamcast.

It’s safe to say that the PlayStation 2 wasn’t necessarily a powerhouse when compared to it’s main competition, the GameCube and Xbox, but it did have one particular feature that really helped it sell extremely well. That being, of course, DVDs. At the time the PlayStation 2 was the cheapest DVD player available and even with that aside you got a good deal with it. You not only had a DVD player, but an entire system that could play it’s own games as well as the PlayStation 1 library on that system. It’s nothing too special now, but in the early 2000’s this was basically an all-in-one entertainment device. When Timmy wasn’t using the PS2 to play the latest games, mom and dad could use it to watch DVDs, it was basically perfect. The original Xbox technically did have DVD support, but for some reason Microsoft decided to put it behind some TV remote module, whereas the PS2 simply had native compatibility out of the box. These days, most people have a DVD player if not a Blu-Ray player, or even a newer console that can play Blu-Rays and DVDs, and I kind of doubt that there’s many people these days are still using their PS2 as a DVD player, but for the time, this was definitely a major feature that sold the system. That said, this feature can also be a point of criticism against the system, as it kind of started the whole trend nowadays of consoles basically trying to be feature boxes rather than just being good game consoles with interesting exclusives and whatnot, and did kind of start the trend of attracting more casuals into gaming in the same way that the Wii did.

Another thing I also never understood about the PlayStation 2 is that the system only has 2 controller ports. For the PS1, this was understandable since having 4 controller ports wasn’t really a thing yet, but by the time the PS2 came out, the N64 and Dreamcast had support for 4 controllers out of the box, and so did the Gamecube and Xbox on the horizon. Hell, Sony even acknowledged the need for 4 player support in the PS1 era since they made the multitap (which they also made for the PS2), so I really don’t understand why they didn’t have four controller ports on the system.

Okay, starting off, I may be sounding kind of negative towards the system. I still do have some criticisms of the system itself, but before you click away, there’s also still a lot I like about the system. The original PlayStation was one of the first consoles I ever played, and to this day one of my favorites. And as far as having a great lineup of games and just being a good successor in general, the PlayStation 2 is a worthy successor.

There are two models of the PlayStation 2 that released during the system’s lifetime. The original, “fat” model being the one from when the system first released and the slimline model released in 2004. Between the two, while I’m still amazed they made the PS2 that thin for the slimline model, I kind of find myself preferring the fat model. I’ve heard it generally has more issues in the long run, but the one I have works pretty fine, and the system itself is just… really nice looking. The black look of the system with the ridges in the front and blue lettering just work surprisingly well, making a pretty “aesthetic” system overall.

The PlayStation 2 controller, well, there’s really not much to say about it, it’s basically the same as the original DualShock with the only differences being that it’s in black and having pressure sensitive face buttons. Not that that’s a problem, because in my eyes the DualShock design holds up pretty well and has always been one of my favorite designs, and considering I can’t really imagine much they could’ve done with that design at least in the sixth generation, it’s a perfect case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It’s a nice design, and goes well with the system, although I don’t really get why they kept the “analog” button on there from the original design since pretty much every game from the sixth generation used analog control anyway. The only thing I can think of is they needed it for PS1 backwards compatibility, especially in the case of a lot of the older games, but otherwise, it’s a perfectly good controller for this system that I don’t have any real complaints about.

And with all that aside - the most important part of any console for me is the games. And, well, the PlayStation 2 has probably the biggest library of games I have seen for any console. Being the best selling console plus being sold for over a decade really helped, as the system accumulated a large number of games on it’s own, and when you consider the fact that you can also play PS1 games on the PS2… you basically have an endless library of titles to choose from. The PS1 backwards compatibility on it’s own is a huge plus for me, since as I previously mentioned in my PS Classic review, the PS1 is one of my favorite consoles of all time with some of my favorite games, so being able to play Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid and so on on the PS2 is a good thing. But this doesn’t even consider the PS2’s core library, and, well, that alone is full of variety. In some ways it can be considered the original Steam in terms of its library, having both its share of well known great titles and even just hidden gems. Of course, Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games by now lost the rights to the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series, meaning they both became a third party and… well, in general dropped in quality (though crash twinsanity is one of the best games in the series), but on the bright side they ended up creating new IPs starting in the PS2 era, those being Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank. Admittedly, I still haven’t really gotten around to trying either of these series even though I’ve been planning to for a while now (though now that I have a PS3 maybe I’ll just buy their remastered collections), but in general they are well-regarded as great action platformers and ones I’m definitely interested in trying. The first “new” PS2 IP that I tried was Sly Cooper after finding the first game, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus for cheap, and I definitely find it to be a fun title. The game is a stealth platformer with some collectathon-ish elements as you’re trying to find keys to progress through the game as well as clues to safes which hold pages of the Thievius Racoonus, which you collect in order to learn gain new moves that help you during your adventure. I actually played this game a lot when I first picked it up, and it’s definitely a really good PS2 games. The levels are fun to explore, the stealth elements are interesting, the puzzles are great, it’s definitely just a really good game in general and from what I played is probably my favorite out of the PS2 games, and makes me want to try out the rest of the series whenever I get the chance.

Another popular, well-known series that started out on the PlayStation 2 was the Kingdom Hearts games, with Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 being first released as PS2 exclusives. I haven’t really gotten the chance to play much of either of the games since I’m still trying to make my way through Final Fantasy VII, but if you like Square Enix’s other games like the Final Fantasy series… or maybe just like Disney, then this is definitely something to check out if you haven’t already done so.

God of War is, again, another series that started out on the PS2 and to this day is a key PlayStation franchise, obviously with the most recent entry… God of War… being considered Game of the Year of 2018. God of War is a hack-and-slash action-adventure, and is one game I have but haven’t gotten around to playing (man i’m really slacking honestly), but considering it’s popularity, it’s definitely one I want to get around to trying out.

So, there’s a few IPs that got their start on the PlayStation 2, and while I can’t say for sure, they probably aren’t the only ones. I mean, at the very least I haven’t even touched on Katamari games so that may also be something to look out for. But I also want to talk about some other PS2 games I played and got enjoyment out of.

Gran Turismo 3 was a game I actually found at a thrift store not long after picking up the system, and I found it for a cheap price, and it’s definitely a solid followup to the PS1 Gran Turismo games. I’m not the biggest car guy, so it’s not my personal type of game, but if you like driving simulators, Gran Turismo 3 is definitely a good game you can probably find for cheap. And there’s also Gran Turismo 4 on the system if you’re looking for something a bit more new.

Metal Gear Solid 2 is, again, a game I still have to get around to playing (although I should probably play through the first game first), but is generally considered a great followup to the first Metal Gear Solid on PS1, and the same goes for Metal Gear Solid 3.

Now, as you can probably tell I still need to get around to trying out more PS2 games and have been kind of slacking on that, and so I can’t really give the PS2’s library enough justice myself, but other games that I’ve seen generally well praised on the system consist of Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy X, Okami, Dark Cloud, and so on. Honestly, I would just recommend looking at what people consider to be the PlayStation 2’s best games, because with such a vast library, there’s bound to be a few games that you may enjoy on the PlayStation 2. I may have to warn you, though, that there’s also a ton of shovelware on the system as a result of having such a vast library, and you’re probably bound to run into a lot of it. But if you get past that, the PlayStation 2 definitely has an amazing library with tons of variety and just tons of great titles in general.

That’s really all I have to say about the PlayStation 2. While I didn’t grow up with it and don’t necessarily have enough attachment to it to give it a longer and more in-depth review while mentioning more of it’s great titles, I still can’t deny that the PlayStation 2 is an excellent system and definitely among the best of all time. And, to an extent, I’m actually kind of sad I never really got to experience the system before I did because of it’s great library alone, but now that I finally have it I can definitely say that it’s an overall great system and one I definitely plan on collecting for in the future. And if you yourself haven’t gotten around to playing it, well, I’d definitely recommend doing so. The system is pretty damn common these days and can be found for a good price, and it’s backed by a great library of games that are mostly fairly cheap to pick up. I guess the one caution I would give is saying that the system is pretty prone to failure, especially the earlier fat models, so you may want to look out for that, but otherwise, it’s definitely a great system to have.