Highlights
- Spider-Man 2 for the PS2 was not only acclaimed for revolutionizing open-world games, but it was also a challenging game with difficult boss fights to conquer.
- Destroy All Humans! for the PS2 was a comedic open-world game that offered solid challenges in boss battles and a ridiculous world to explore.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, though close in difficulty to its predecessors, presented difficulty through limited checkpoints, challenging combat, and a massive map to navigate, making it a truly challenging and fantastic open-world game.
The PlayStation 2 remains one of the most famous gaming consoles of all time, having produced many of what are considered true classics in the world of video gaming today. While the nature of open-world games has turned them into a massive deal today, they were only just beginning to find their feet in the PlayStation 2 era.
10 Best Characters That Debuted On The PS2
A lot of legendary characters debuted on the PS2. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
But during the time of the PS2, there was generally also a lot more difficulty attached to games, particularly platformers. Instead of focusing on accessibility, many developers were still focusing more on trying to add challenges wherever they could in their games, and this included some of the early open-world games released for the PS2.
6 Spider-Man 2 (2004)
GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.04/5
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
- Platform(s)
- PS2 , Xbox (Original) , GameCube , PC , PSP , Nintendo Game Boy Advance , Nintendo DS
- Released
- June 28, 2004
- Developer(s)
- Treyarch
Somewhat following the narrative of the film it adapted, but very much having a life and plot of its own as well, Spider-Man 2 managed to gain a name for itself as one of the greatest superhero games of all time. Spider-Man 2 received a lot of acclaim for revolutionizing the idea of an open-world game, but it was also difficult.
There were a lot of challenges intentionally added to various boss fights within this game, as characters like Shocker and Mysterio, along with the challenge of Doc Ock, gave Peter Parker a run for his money. Despite graphically being surpassed by more recent Spider-Man games, many fans of the franchise still claim this entry to be the very best of the lot, and a surprisingly difficult game to revisit.
5 Destroy All Humans!
GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.06/5
Recently finding fresh life in a remake, Destroy All Humans! was originally released for the PS2 as a parody of old American sci-fi movies from the 1950s and 60s. In it, players take control of an alien who is attempting to take over the world, starting in a small Mid-Western town and ending up in Washington DC.
While attacking humans and completing missions, players are also free to run around the different towns and cities they are in and return to previous ones whenever they like, mostly to keep leveling up their equipment by collecting DNA. A classic comedy game, Destroy All Humans! managed to make a slightly smaller-scale game open-world before it was as popular, but it was surprisingly difficult to get through, boasting solid challenges in many of the boss battles players faced, as well as letting players roam a completely ridiculous world.
4 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.19/5
Not one of the very hardest, and not even as difficult as some of the games that tried to clone the success it managed, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the highest-selling game on the PlayStation 2 by quite some distance. Additionally, it was a wonderfully fun game that helped the franchise reach a peak on the console. Rockstar had already had great success with GTA 3 and GTA Vice City.
7 Hardest PS2 Puzzle Games, Ranked
The PlayStation 2 had its share of games with puzzles that felt nearly impossible for players to solve.
San Andreas is still considered one of the greatest video games of all time, but in replaying it, many players are shocked at how few checkpoints there are in many of the missions, as well as the challenge of the combat. This adds greatly to the difficulty, as does the massive map, which is quite hard to get around sometimes. A few infamously challenging missions, such as "Supply Lines," may test the patience of even the most hardened GTA veterans.
3 Scarface: The World Is Yours
GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.25/5
Scarface: The World Is Yours
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS2 , Wii , Xbox (Original)
- Released
- July 25, 2006
- Developer(s)
- Radical Entertainment
There was a time when a lot of other companies attempted to benefit from the huge growth in popularity experienced by the Grand Theft Auto franchise on the PlayStation 2. One of the attempts to make a licensed game that could be as beloved was Scarface: The World Is Yours.
Focusing on the story of Tony Montana but in an alternate reality where he survives the finale of Scarface, this game was very similar in style to the GTA entries of the time, including Vice City and San Andreas, and came with a fair amount of challenge as players attempted to regrow Montana’s criminal empire in Miami. More than a few devilishly difficult missions are present to give players pause, but nobody said Tony Montana's life was easy!
2 Shadow Of The Colossus
GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.27/5
Shadow of the Colossus
- Released
- October 18, 2005
- Developer(s)
- Bluepoint Games , JapanStudio , Team Ico
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
It makes sense that one of the most difficult PS2 games ever to exist is one of the earliest incarnations of games that can be considered similar to Dark Souls. In terms of challenge, the creation of boss fights against truly massive creatures, and open-world gameplay, Shadow of the Colossus remains a very important game, despite still being a standalone title.
Best Open-World Games On The PlayStation 2, Ranked
Some of the best PS2 games on the platform were open-world titles. These games are still worth exploring despite their advanced age.
The difficulty is easy to explain in such a game, as the goal is to roam across a vast and empty world, killing the Colossus creatures that reside there. The battles ended up being more like a platforming game as players attempted to climb their enemies, and there was a huge degree of challenge throughout this incredible title.
1 The Getaway
GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.58/5
One of the games that suffered slightly on the PS2 from controls that didn’t work perfectly at times, The Getaway is considered by many to be another Grand Theft Auto clone, this one set in London and featuring a variety of criminal characters, most of the missions focusing on the driving aspects rather than other criminal activity.
The Getaway is remembered better now for spawning the Gangs of London spin-off which has become a successful TV show, but the original was a lot of fun. It was also hugely difficult, between strange controls that required a lot of precision for driving, hard-to-learn shooting mechanics, and some missions, such as a sneaky police officer killing mission, which challenged and infuriated players to no end.
